'I think my season's over' – Lucas Bourgoyne misses momentum at American Criterium Cup with appendectomy

Typically exuberant, with a fast pace on and off the bike, Lucas Bourgoyne (Cadence Cyclery p/b Waldo Racing) was resting this week after an emergency appendectomy two weeks ago.

He had traveled to Florida to visit a sponsor for the elite men’s team he founded this season and intended to travel to Omaha, Nebraska to race the ONE Cycling Series on August 8-9. Instead, he ended up in hospital having surgery.

“It happened the day I got into Naples, Florida, and then it went nuclear. I stayed in Naples for three days to kind of give my body some rest before I flew home to Texas. Yeah, I think my season’s over,” Bourgoyne told Cycling News by telephone 12 days after surgery.

The former USPro criterium national champion was set to join his team for two days of a new ONE Cycling Series of races in Omaha, Nebraska. He made a quick flight to Florida, but it turned into a five-day ordeal instead.

“It was Thursday. I had dinner, and I was sick that night. That same night it all kind of blew up. I couldn’t fall asleep and I woke up groaning at four a.m., crawled my way over to the shower. I passed out for like an hour in the shower,” he recounted.

“I crawled my way back to the bed, and then slept till 1 p.m. And then I wake up, my buddy’s there, and I’m like ‘I can’t pick my leg up. I think we should go to the hospital just to check’. Sure enough, I have appendicitis and I had to go immediately into surgery that day.

“I’m at this two-week window now and by week four I should start being able to just put some miles in. So maybe Gateway Cup, maybe Bucks County [for racing], maybe it’s a season wrap for me.”

He'd like to make an appearance at both the Gateway Cup four-day series in St. Louis, Missouri and the Bucks County Classic in Doylestown, Pennsylvania as he won overall titles at both events last year. In fact, he won many of the top North American one-day races in 2025, including Gastown Grand Prix, Utah Crits, Tour of Somerville and the USPro elite men's Criterium National Championship.

He confirmed major investors and launched an innovative criterium crusade for the 2026 season, signing veteran riders to complement himself and Luke Fetzer, last year's USPro U23 criterium champion. Bourgoyne took a high-profile victory at this year's Athens Twilight Criterium, another Tour of Somerville and Capitol Cup in Washington, DC, but the wins have not been easy to come by as other teams have stepped up and his squad has been injury plagued.

"We've had a lot of injuries amongst our team this year, but it's turned out to be a pretty good year in spite of all those injuries and having to learn how to gel quickly. The boys really started to come on around Chicago, and it wasn't just me putting wins on the board. It makes it easier for the team to win when you have so many threats."

In July at the 10-day Chicago Grit, Cade Bickmore was healthy again and won the overall title. His teammate Fetzer was second overall. Team Cadence is currently second in the team standings and Danny Summerhill second in the sprint classification for the American Criterium Cup, which has one race to go at Gateway Cup on September 3.

Bourgoyne had been two points behind American Criterium Cup individual leader Justin Williams (L39ION of Los Angeles) headed into the Salt Lake Criterium this past weekend, but Williams locked up the title with the victory and Bourgoyne can still finish the year in second place, even though sidelined.

The 25-year-old remained characteristically optimistic for a return for another big year. After all his, teammates took both race wins at ONE Cycling Series without him, Fetzer winning the Aksarben TIRC Criterium and then Bickmore winning Papillion Twilight Criterium the next day.

"We are still working on getting everything dialed and really create the show that I think that this sport can be. This year was a big year, bringing something new to the American road circuit," he said about kicking aside the team van for an 85-foot "mega rig".

The 45-foot recreational vehicle served to house athletes and as a promotional vehicle, while a 36-foot trailer was towed to store bikes and components as well as to serve as a mobile service course.

"People are taking notice and I think 2027 is shaping up to be a pretty spectacular year," said Bourgoyne.