The Union showed downhill racing how development should be done

For four years, The Union punched well above its weight class in MTB downhill racing. The team ran as a nonprofit, and sought young, overlooked privateers who had shown the potential to thrive with the right resources. The squad was focused on racing, pure and simple; there was no product to sell, just an environment that encouraged patience and growth. It was wildly successful, finishing among the Top 10 teams in a cutthroat sport where the deepest pockets won most often.

The Union was one of the best stories in MTB downhill racing in 2024. Lachie Stevens-McNab was a breakout star, taking two World Cup podiums and a near win in Poland if not for a small mistake that sent him tumbling in the midst of an otherwise blistering finals run. Ellie Hulsebosch was one of the fastest riders amongst a scorching generation of junior Kiwi women, winning in Val di Sole where she posted the fastest time of any women’s rider, junior or elite. 

Unfortunately, The Union will not be back for 2025. The squad is closing its doors due to a changing landscape in the sport. The team partnered with Trek in 2024 and experienced its best season yet, and set up its riders for strong futures — not just Stevens-McNab and Hulsebosch, but Chris Hauser in the men’s junior ranks and Frida Rønning among the elite women.

The team was founded and managed by Joe Bowman of Steel City Media, which has been a prominent presence on World Cup hillsides, portraying downhill racing through video, photos and social media. Bowman spoke with the Race Shop about his wild ride with The Union, the state of downhill racing, what it meant to partner with Trek, and what he’s looking forward to in the future for his riders.

“If you were an accountant looking at it you’d be like, ‘What the hell have you been doing?’ But it’s definitely been the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done,” Bowman said. “You get to see all these riders, mechanics and other staff that have come through the program go on to all these big things. And now, I’ve got like eight different pits I can go in to say hello to ex Union riders or mechanics, which is really cool.”

The following conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

Why is The Union going away for now? 

Joe Bowman: I think for ’25 the sport is obviously going through a lot of changes, and even though I agree with the idea behind some of it in principle,  I think the way it’s been executed has been way too much, way too soon, and there’s not been enough time to adapt for smaller budget team’s like ours. We did our best to try and make it happen, but I think we’d have had to change the whole ethos of The Union to survive, because unfortunately it’s become a game of points hunting this off season.

I wasn’t really willing to do that, because the reason The Union has worked so well is because we ran it differently, and if we start operating as a generic team, then that just defeats the object of the development ethos. And I think you run that risk of diluting what made it so unique.

It feels like it’s become harder to run a team that just wants to develop riders.

Bowman: Exactly, it’s a shame because I think the most frustrating thing for us is, with our budget, and the way we did run it, we were still a Top 10 world ranked team, and we fully deserved to be there on merit. 

But on a positive, we’ve had our best season ever. And we’re going out on the top and on a big high, especially with Lachie at MSA. And obviously Ellie killed it this season too. So yeah it feels good to go out on top, and not milk it. 

I’m, honestly, I’m at peace with it now and it’ll be nice to only have one full time job [laughs].

This was a team that always punched above its weight class. What was it about the environment that helped so many young riders succeed?

Bowman: We didn’t do anything super special in terms of talent spotting, but I think because we were purely focused on developing riders, and not trying to just come in straight at the top and get big names, we were willing to take a bit more of a punt on someone just based on a good feeling and their character.

And we also could give them time. Whereas I think other teams would have cut some of our riders prematurely at certain points, we didn’t have as many external pressures as typical factory setups, so we could give them the time to grow, and I think that’s what the biggest difference was. We always tried to make sure the environment was really good and we had a good crew of people. We always went for the person first over the talent. 

Being a non profit too, meant that there was no funny business. It was all transparent from a budget perspective, and we all worked towards the same thing. And I think everyone put even more effort in than a normal team, because they saw the results and knew it was for a good cause.

All you had to focus on was getting faster and winning races, and that seemed like a major advantage.

Bowman: I think with Steel City, we’re not trying to sell a physical product, right? We started the team because I love racing, and we were fortunate to do it through building on all our relationships and stuff over the years,and putting our own money in, and time and people, to help make it function. 

It was just a cool thing. If you were an accountant looking at it you’d be like, ‘What the hell have you been doing?’ But it’s definitely been the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done, because you get to see all these riders, mechanics and other staff that have come through the program go on to all these big things. And now, I’ve got like eight different pits I can go in to say hello to ex Union riders or mechanics, which is really cool.

What were your biggest ambitions for this team when you started it? And did you think it would ever grow to the extent that it did?

Bowman: Way beyond. I think when we started, it was like, just do something cool, support some up and comers, and then it escalated really quickly. 

I think Lachie is the perfect summary for what the Union was all about, because he’s been here pretty much since Day 1. He killed it in juniors, then nailed himself for two years straight, and it could have been the end for him elsewhere. But after all the adversity, he’s worked hard, and coming into this year, he just came out swinging and did what he did, and he’s now a podium guy. And I don’t think realistically we could ever replicate that again, because it’s such a nuts story, going from scrawny little Kiwi junior sleeping on our floor, to basically near, career-ending injuries for two years, to Top 5 guy this season. It’s a perfect ending, really.

Speaking of Lachie, what was different about him this year that he was able to make that leap?

Bowman: I think Lachie’s always had the pace. People were definitely sleeping on him, because he got overshadowed in juniors by two generational talents, Jackson [Goldstone] and Jordan Williams. He was always the third fastest, and sometimes occasionally beat them. But those two were such dominant juniors, people forgot he was killing it too. 

And then when he came into elite, he just had a couple of massive injuries that kept him pretty much off the bike for almost two seasons. But when he was on the bike, like at the start of ’23, he’d only had a month on the bike that offseason, and qualified 16th in semi’s at the first World Cup in Lenzerheide. Then a few weeks later, he broke his ankle, and that was the rest of the year done. 

And this off season, I think he just trained super hard, got strong, got healthy, changed his mindset, matured a lot. And I think it’s just like with any other rider, there’s that moment where it just clicks, and it’s so weird, because you can literally see it on track. He’s always had the raw pace like a lot of riders have, but then it clicks, and they get a bit stronger, bit smoother, and all of a sudden the results start coming. 

And he’s super confident as well. The biggest one he’s got over a lot of riders is he’s been racing BMX since he was five at a world level, and he’s had that pressure in the gate for so long that now when he’s doing well, he doesn’t feel any extra stress, and he doesn’t get in his own head as much. I think that’s a massive win, which will do him well in the future.

I think he’s just a big combo of all that. And it’s like anything, when you get on a roll, you have one good result, you know you can do it. It just gives you that confidence. I think he got that when he nearly won Poland in the second round. He knew he could be there. And I honestly think he’s gonna win a World Cup next year. 

Ellie Hulsebosch is another rider to watch for the future. What’s her future in your eyes?

Bowman: We kind of knew she was going to be good straight away. She trains at an elite level. She takes the training side really seriously, and is always looking to make herself better. She does lots of skills coaching. She’s always working on her technique. She’s not just riding and smashing laps, she’s got a bit of a process. So she’s really mature in that sense, and I think that’s helped her a lot. 

I think raw pace wise, she’s easily the fastest junior, and I think once she dials in the mental side of racing and the nerves, that’s the only thing that stopped her winning every race this year. Because when she does feel good, like in Val Di Sole, she won by a huge margin and got the fastest time of the day amongst all the women — junior and elite. I think that kind of said it all, to be honest.

This was a rough year for Chris Hauser, especially coming off a fantastic 2023. How did he handle those ups and downs, and how is he taking on 2025?

Bowman: Yeah, he’s had a rough year. I think he’s definitely frustrated. But to be fair to him, he came off ’23 knowing he could win and put a lot of pressure on himself. He came into the season with a back injury, and he was riding really well at the first round in Fort William, but then he had that massive crash into the tree that re-aggravated his back again.

But then towards the end of the season, if you look at his splits and his qualifying times, he really was coming back. Like European champs, he came second. Loudenvielle: Fourth. His splits at Mont-Sainte-Anne were really good before he crashed — like top three. So even though it had been a rough season, I think he gained a lot of confidence again by the end.

And he knows what he’s got to do. He needs to hit the gym more, because he loves riding his bike, but I think he knows he’s got to step up now and mature a bit and treat it more like a job. Which I know sounds lame, but it’s what it is. You gotta get in the gym and find those hundredths of seconds that make the difference.

I think Chris is a bit of a Lachie. He’s got that raw pace, and like Lachie in juniors he is quite untamed — lots of crashing, lots of wild moments. But I think he just needs time. First year elite is always super hard, but if he trains hard this winter, I think he can do what Bodhi did on TFR this year. I think he’s fired up.

For Frida Rønning, it wasn’t really her year either, but she is such a unique individual. What was it like getting to work with someone like that, who is so unique and so smart?

Bowman: I’m a big Frida fan. She’s a good friend now. The saddest thing for Frida was when we brought her on in ’22, she’d been progressing really well through the ranks. The year before, when she was full privateer, she was around 15th on average. And then she came on, and straight away it was like 14th, 12th, and she qualified eighth in Leogang. And then she hit her head, and since then, it’s been this whirlwind for her trying to recover from that serious concussion.

But at the same time, she did come back. And this year, it was rad to see her make finals in Les Gets, because it is gnarly to make Top 10 in Elite Women’s right now. 

And obviously, balancing racing and a PhD is — I don’t think people realize how gnarly that is. Especially the PhD she does in the lab. Every night when riders go back to the house, most of them are just chilling on their phones or whatever, but she’s coding and speaking to dudes who are working in a different time zone. So it’s cool to witness her do that. 

And she’s such a nerd, in a nice way [laughs], when it comes to bike tinkering and engineering. It’s cool watching her analyze how stuff works. And I imagine in the future she’d be a really good engineer at some bike related company, if she’s into that.

There’s lots of riders in tune with the bikes and parts, but you don’t have the engineering background to back up what you’re saying, whereas she can kind of do both — she can ride well, and she knows how things function, which is pretty cool.

What was it like getting to partner with Trek this year, and how did that big brand support help you accomplish what you wanted?

Bowman: So that was one of the cool things this last year, especially getting to know [Andrew] Shandro really well. We worked closely with him all year. And he was brilliant, supporting us wherever he could. 

And it was cool how the biggest thing I noticed when we came onto Trek was just how organized and reactive it all was. Like if we needed something, we had it straight away, whether it was a frame, or [TFR physio] Silja [Stadler] helping Chris with his back, or [TFR team support manager] RG [Ryan Gaul] talking to Lachie about getting him new, custom size rear ends, or whatever it was. It was like we had factory level support without being in the tent. It was really cool. 

And then through Trek, that relationship with SRAM as well was a massive one, because we probably couldn’t have done the season without the support from them. It’s always been a dream to work with those guys.

And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we did so well this year being on that whole new bike. It obviously worked. Like people were really comfy on it straight away. And Lachie especially, he looked like a different rider going on to his Session.

I think it’s just cool, even though it’s going away now, I think it’s nice to know that we were part of the Trek roster. We ended on a high together.

I just want to say thanks to everyone at Trek, because it’s been a really cool year, and it’s gonna be nice, whatever it looks like in the future, working together more.