A group of elite and professional cycling teams based in the United States have united to form the National Association of Cycling Team (NACT) united to form the NACT.

A total of 22 teams were nominated for the NACT launch this week, including two UCI women's continental programs, DNA Pro Cycling Team and Instafund Racing. Both teams finished fourth and fifth in the team standings on USA Cycling's Pro Road Tour, respectively.

Best Buddies Racing and Butcher Box Cycling were the highest ranked men's teams in the new organization, and both of these domestic elite teams placed in the top seven on the Pro Road Tour.

"The group wants to get as many teams as possible involved. We have put this organization together in less than two months. We are in contact with several other teams," Richard Fries, head of the marketing and communications subcommittee, told Cycling News.

The organization said in a press release that its overall focus is to "work with stakeholders like USA Cycling and event organizers to help make the sport inclusive, appeal to a broad audience, and economically viable for all involved." Among the initiatives identified for member teams and riders were improvements in safety, community outreach, race conditions, [race] production values, sponsor relations, and promotional standards.

"The first group was focused on regaining a successful criterium season, but realized that cycling is one of the few American sports without a unified organization representing athletes' interests," CS helped launch the association. Meredith Dodds of Velo Racing noted.

Lauren Dodge of Automatic Racing was one of the association's spokespeople and registered the nonprofit in Georgia, where she lives. Automatic Racing, along with Butcher Box Cycling and Team Robson Forensic, had both men's and women's teams, and NACT was created to serve multiple race disciplines, but initially focused on American-style criteriums.

"We believe that having elite teams working together and maintaining the progress that has been made, while at the same time taking a new direction, is good for racing and good for racers. We would like to see a series co-produced by a number of stakeholders, including the teams, race directors, and USA Cycling," Dodge said in an official announcement.

The "new direction" refers to the controversy surrounding the long-running USA Crit Series, which in October was revealed to have been suspended by the US Center for SafeSports for alleged "cheating" by a contract employee of the company that runs the series, causing many teams and lost support from the event; it is unclear whether the USA Crit Series will return in 2022, and organizers have not responded to Cycling News.

Of the original 22 teams listed as founding members of NACT, all but ExtraSweet Racing competed as D1 teams in the USA Crit Series in 2021.

Among the D1 teams not listed as members of NACT are the L39ION continental and national elite teams from Los Angeles; L39LION's teams finished first overall in the Pro Road Tour for men and women and in the top 10 in the USA Critz; L 39LION was one of the first teams to announce that it would withdraw from future participation in races and events associated with the series.