Consistency is the name of the game in the American Criterium Cup (ACC), and Project Echelon has established itself in the men's race for the inaugural American National Race Series. With two races remaining, Brandon Fihaly leads the men's overall and sprint, while Project Echelon Racing teammate Ethan Crain is the top rider under 23.

The series also includes a team competition, with Project Echelon Racing just nine points behind current leader Best Buddies Racing.

Fihaly has a top-15 finish in other events, starting with a fourth-place finish at the Sunny King Criterium in April, followed by a fourth-place finish at the Lake Bluff Criterium for the Intelligencia Cup at the end of July. The team has made the ACC one of its main goals for the season.

"The American Criterium Cup has been on our radar since the beginning of the season. After the first few races, we realized we had a chance to win the sprint. I have really enjoyed racing with teams like L39LION, Best Buddies, and Miami Blazers this season. The competition has really stepped up this season. You can tell that all the teams have done their homework to step up their game this season, even more than last season," Fihaly told Cycling News.

That means you can't lead the series without a win in an ACC event." Most of the wins on the men's side, four to be exact, were snatched by Ty Magner of L39ION in Los Angeles.

The $100,000 prize money will be split equally between the men and women after the finale at the Giro della Montagna, part of the four-day Bommarito Audi Gateway Cup in St. Louis on September 4. In addition, most competitions have live pro race broadcasts.

"For us, we set a goal at the beginning of the year to be considered the best all-around team in the country. Across the disciplines, we wanted to be recognized as the best," said Eric Hill, founder and director of Project Echelon Racing.

"Success at Redlands, a third place finish at Jo Martin, a podium finish at the Pro National, and a lead at the American Criterium Cup. I don't think any other program has this kind of cross-discipline depth and results."

Project Echelon Racing finds ways to win in a decimated North American racing scene. This elite national team, based in the U.S., has won the Redlands Cycling Classic overall, Tyler States third overall in the Joe Martin Stage Race, States silver in the USA Cycling Pro Road Race Championships, and in Knoxville, George Simpson took bronze in the Pro Time Trial and Hugo Scala Jr. took fifth in the Pro Criterium

The key to success in the ACC for the 30-year-old Fihley was the addition of 20-year-old Crane's "leg elasticity." The young New Zealander spent his first season with the Echelon Project and has made a big difference. [He] came to the U.S. last year as a guest rider and had the opportunity to develop him in three very different races: the ToAD (Tour of the Americas Dairyland), the Intelligencia Cup, and the Green Mountain State Race. Of Crane, who won two stages at Green Mountain last year, Hill told Cycling News.

"So we're very excited to have that young energy with him. He's a very knowledgeable rider for his age and very dexterous. He also has the legs to support it. He and Brandon, one of the best veterans in the group, can form a one-two, and combining them is a really great team effort. Ethan is there when it counts, in the last five to ten laps, and he is very important in positioning Brandon for success. In the American Criterium Cup, Crane worked under Feehery and finished sixth in the Boise Twilight, 10th in the Littleton Criterium, and 14th in the Salt Lake and Lake Bluff races."

"We didn't have a full team for most of the races, so it was a great opportunity for Ethan and I to sprint together for points and fight hard to the finish," Fihaly told Cycling News.

"We had to use our skills as experienced riders to beat the big teams that had full teams in every race.

"Ethan was a great addition to the team this year. He is a talented young rider who has the potential to do big things in his career. He crashed in a race earlier in the season and broke his hand, which kept him out of training and racing for a few weeks. It has been a pleasure to watch Ethan grow not only as a rider but also as a teammate over the past few months.

"He used to be a successful individual racer, but now he is a great asset to the team. Ethan can quickly become a top crit racer and has the potential to be a top sprinter in road racing."

Fihaly has been with the Project Echelon team for a few years now and says he is charged up by the younger riders on the team.

"This year's race has given me a new spark to continue training and growing as a rider. I want to use the skills and knowledge I have gained from racing over the years to help young riders like Ethan and Hugo reach the next level and see how far they can go in this sport. I want to help young riders become the best racers in the sport," he added.

Fihaly and his teammates have their sights set on two ACC races to close out the season, the IU Health Momentum Indy in Indianapolis on August 27 and the finals in St. Louis over Labor Day weekend.

With two rounds remaining in the men's field of nine, Fihaly has built a 498-point lead in the overall standings and is closing in on Clever Martinez's (Blazers) 373 points. Alfredo Rodriguez (Best Buddies Racing) has 296 points and is closing in on Thomas Gibbons' (Automatic-ABUS) 281 points. Rodriguez crashed at the Bailey & Glasser LLP Twilight Criterium in Boise in early July while leading the overall standings, but is expected to return for the remaining two races.

Feeley has an 85-point lead over teammate Crane and is nearly assured of a spot in the men's sprint season total. The next three are each five points behind, with Hernandez in third, Gibbons in fourth, and Frank Traviesco (Blazers) in fifth.

In the women's ACC standings, Maggie Coles-Leister (DNA Pro Cycling) leads Andrea Saar (ButcherBox Cycling p/b LOOK) in both the overall and sprint, They are very close in points, with a 64-point advantage in the overall and just 10 points in the sprint. In the Colavita Factor Pro Cycling, Anna Christian is third overall and Christina Gokie-Smith is fourth, with Gokie-Smith in third place in the sprint standings.

Like the men, the L39LION women also earned many podium finishes in ACC individual events, but the points earned do not count toward the ACC standings. Skylar Schneider and Kendall Ryan each have three wins, with Ryan winning her last three races in a row.

The women have completed eight races and the men seven, the difference being the MVP Healthcare Rochester Twilight Criterium held in May in Rochester, NY. While the professional women's contest was completed, the men's race was halted after three laps due to a severe thunderstorm.