Four local teenage cyclists from El Grupo Youth Cycling will be spending the week at the USA Cycling Southwest Regional Development Camp in Flagstaff.

Lizzy Caputo, 15, Logan Boyd, 15, Donovan Caputo, 17 and Nathan Franklin, 18, were all invited to the camp because of their local racing results.

The invitation is something their coach, Ignacio Rivera de Rosales says is awesome.

“It is a huge deal,” he said. “They have earned this because of their racing accomplishments. One doesn’t achieve those racing accomplishments without putting in a ton of hard work.”

Last year El Grupo’s Max Cronyn, was invited to the camp, but because he spent much of the last year in Niger he wasn’t eligible this year.

Rivera de Rosales said he was proud so many of the riders were invited this year.

“For us as El Grupo, it is fantastically exciting to know where we started and where we are now,” he said. “Not only is it affirmation for the kids as far as their hard work, but it is affirmation to the team that our structure and our training style are successful.”

The camp will be formatted like last year. The riders will complete several time trials to assess their ability. They will also go on several longer road rides and develop various racing skills.

Rivera de Rosales said the development camp is a stepping stone to pursue bigger things in cycling.

“It is the next step in the hierarchy to move up nationally within the sport,” he said.

Check out more images from the first day of the camp here.