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INDEPENDENCE PASS — It has been more than 90 miles since riders in the USA Pro Challenge pushed off from Copper Mountain on this chilly Wednesday morning, bound for Aspen, and Axeon Cycling’s Logan Owen is grinding up one of the highest climbs in professional cycling, looking completely spent.

Jeff Louder, a sport director for Axeon who retired last year after 15 years as a professional rider, pulls beside him in a team car, clutching a water bottle in his hand as the 19-year-old American continues to pound up the pass.

“Logan!” he shouts, before handing off the bottle. “Good job, dude. Good job. Just fight into these cars. Fight in the cars!”

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The top of the 12,095-foot monster climb is nearly in sight. Owen is one of seven riders competing at the Pro Challenge for Axeon — pronounced “action” — an American development team of under-23-year-old riders racing for Axel Merckx, a stoic and even-tempered former Belgian professional rider who won an Olympic bronze medal in 2004 and is the son of five-time Tour de France champion and cycling legend Eddy Merckx.

Axel Merckx started the team in 2009, originally under the Trek-Livestrong name, with the idea of getting a young but talented Taylor Phinney onto a World Tour team — the highest-level squad in professional cycling. The goal now is bigger: Nuture the talent of as many young riders as it can to get them to the elite levels of the sport.

“Toward the end, when (Taylor) was leaving, I realized there was something more going on, and we tried to get some more guys, develop them as much as we could, and promote them to the World Tour,” Merckx said. “Year in, year out, we’ve been consistently doing that.”

In seven years, the program has signed 54 riders — 18 riders of which have gone on to get pro-level contracts, including Phinney, and on Monday .

The group’s alumni also include Boulder-based team Cannondale-Garmin’s Joe Dombrowski — who rode to victory at the Tour of Utah two weeks ago — and Nate Brown, also a Cannondale-Garmin rider, who nearly won Stage 2 of the Pro Challenge. Many of its riders are hand-picked from the U.S. national team, developed, and then plucked away by higher-level teams.

“It’s a lot of fulfillment. This is my team. This is something I’ve built for seven years, and as long as sponsors will back me up and keep supporting this program, I don’t see why I have to make the move upwards,” Merckx said, explaining his focus on developing young talent. “The success of the program speaks for itself. You’re doing something that’s fine and working well, why do something different?”

Sponsors seem to like what they’re seeing. The team announced this week that it had secured Seattle-based law firm Hagens Berman as another key supporter, a move that will change its name once again in 2016, this time to Axeon Hagens Berman. It also gained equipment sponsorship from Specialized.

For each race, success isn’t just measured in stage wins. The riders — who are typically signed to one- and two-year contracts — inevitably learn from every race.

“So they’re not going to give you any more than three minutes, like you’re doing. Just keep riding,” Louder instructed 21-year-old Daniel Eaton, who had been riding in the 11-rider breakaway most of the day, before cracking here on Independence Pass.

“There’s no point in going hard,” Eaton replies, acknowledging that any sudden surge before Independence could awake the peloton behind him.

“Just save it for the finish,” Louder responds.

Some time later, parked on the side of the road, about six miles from the finish, Louder and mechanic Craig Virr waited for the the last of the team’s riders to whoosh by on the descent into Aspen. The race radio squawked to life, announcing unofficial results: Kiel Reijenen for the win, Rohan Dennis second, and third one of its own — Owen.

Screaming, hollering, high-fiving and hugging ensued. Victory at the development level also comes with top-three finishes and aggressive rides in the breakaway — even those that don’t pan out.

But the celebration is short-lived. A closer inspection of the finish revealed Logan finished fourth, a result that follows his stage win at the Tour of Utah this year. It’s the best finish for the team so far at the Pro Challenge.

“Axel’s developed so many people from this team, and I’ve always wanted to be a part of it,” Owen said after the race. “He teaches us how to be pro, the correct things to do, and to never give up. He sets us up to go to the Pro Tour.”

Daniel Petty: 303-954-1081, dpetty@denverpost.com or twitter.com/danielpetty

Top Results for Axeon Cycling in 2015

Daniel Eaton
• 1st — USA U23 ITT Championship