Hey everybody,
We have been busy with track updates, bmx, and cyclocross races the past two weekends. There is a lot going on right now with the BMX season entering the final stretch, cyclocross kicking in to gear, and the Tanglewood BMX’s track prep for the Gold Cup Final on September 27th.
We’ll start with the Tanglewood BMX track updates! Vet Pro racer and new Tanglewood BMX Track Operator Braden Romer has his hands full with painting the fences and buildings, getting the track surface SoilTac’ed, and getting ready for hundreds of racers to visit the track on race weekend. Soiltac is soil solidifier and stabilizer that helps the track to hold its shape, even after heavy rains, and keeps the dust down when it’s dry. This will be tremendous in the durability of the tack and organizing races, it also frees up some serious work hours each week.
Kit Bjerk has been tearing up the USABMX National circuit yet again, this time at the Derby City National in Louisville, KY. With a crash on Friday Kit was fired up to get results the rest of the weekend. And, that he did. Taking the win on Saturday and a 2nd on Sunday!
The junior team went to Roanoke, VA, for the first UCI cyclocross races of the season at Virginia’s Blue Ridge Go Cross presented by Deschutes Brewery. David Davenport, Jacob Bernas, and Niko Salazar Garcia raced two days with the UCI Elite Juniors category where Niko brought home a top ten! The other results were as follows:
Day 1
3rd Lucius Hamblen Jr 9-10
3rd Fox Hamblen Jr 11-12
8th Will ZylstraJr 13-14
13th Jacob Bernas UCI Elite Jr
15th David Davenport UCI Elite Jr
11th Niko Salazar Garcia UCI Elite Jr
Day 2
2nd Lucius Hamblen Jr 9-10
2nd Fox Hamblen Jr 11-12
6th Will Zylstra Jr 13-14
3rd Wesley Haggstrom Men 1/2/3
6th Trevor Childs Jr 15-16
12th Jacob Bernas UCI Elite Jr
13th David Davenport UCI Elite Jr
10th Niko Salazar Garcia UCI Elite Jr
This past weekend we attended the Berger Hardware Bikes Cross Central Series races in Raleigh, NC. This time we brought some u23 women racers, Kristen Haynes and Aurora Resop are back at Wake Forest for another semester of school! It was Kristen’s first cyclocross race, the former track running standout from New Jersey only having taken up off road riding last week! Jacob, David, Niko, and Wes all raced up in their Senior Men’s category to get in a longer race. The rest of the results, some are missing because they still haven’t been posted yet:
Day 1
1st Wesley Haggstrom Men ½/3
3rd Trevor Childs 15-18
🤷🏻♂️ Jacob Bernas Men 4/5
🤷🏻♂️ David Davenport Men ¾
2nd Niko Salazar Garcia Men 4/5
🤷🏻♂️ Kristen Haynes Women 4/5
Flat Tire ☹️ Aurora Resop Women 4/5
Day 2
🤷🏻♂️ Lucius Hamblen 9-14
🤷🏻♂️ Fox Hamblen 9-14
3rd Wesley Haggstrom Men 1/2/3
3rd Trevor Childs 15-18
8th Jacob Bernas Men 4/5
🤷🏻♂️ David Davenport Men 3/4
1st Niko Salazar Garcia Men 4/5
Meanwhile, up in Massachusetts our first out of state rider, mountain bike racer Eli Svatek, tried his first cyclocross race in Maynard, MA!
We will be at the RIDE4ROBBIE charity ride in East Bend, NC this Saturday, If you can make it out to do the ride, you’ll have a good time, no doubt. The 28 and 60 mile loops include the best roads in the area, beautiful farmland and hilly not too difficult roads. ride4robbie.org/
Crumley Roberts, Attorneys At Law National Cycling Center Ken's Bike Shop Rouler Sportswear MemoryPilot BOX Components @pioneercyclesportusa #wattstyle #powerisking
Braden Romer had a successful weekend in Pennsylvania at the USABMX Stars and Stripes National. Taking home a 4th on Friday night and 6th (after contesting for 2nd but getting tangled with another rider☹️). This puts Braden 6th or 7th in points for the season, we should know for sure this week after the points are updated. We are looking good for two NAG plates this year with Braden and Kit Bjerk! Speaking of Kit, he showed up in PA to work for Camp Woodward and also to support Braden. Kit is spending the summer in PA coaching BMX for the well known action sports camp.
The u23 team +David left for the Tour of America’s Dairyland directly from the National
Championships. Here is their 2019 TOAD Recap, in their own words:
Mikki Whittington
Racing ToAD for a second year was another wonderful experience both on and off the bike. I got to race in a field of 75 women, the first time that ToAD has sold out a women's field, and it was so awesome to race with so many women. The races were fast paced, but I managed to find a group of eight or so women to race with. It is quite relaxing and motivating to take a week long break from all of my responsibilities and be able to just ride and race my bike. I look forward to racing in Wisconsin again and hope to be more competitive in the following year.
Will Hardin
06-25 Janesville- 1st
First day, I attacked twice followed by Marcel, who went for a 200 dollar prime and won, I bridged to his group and three of us maintained a 15 second gap on the technical course. It began to rain and then someone dropped a broom in one of the corners. The organizers offered a 1000 dollar prime to the field on the second to last lap and the field closed the gap quickly, I told Marcel to give it all he had at the beginning of the last lap and got about a third of a lap before I came around him, our other break member was gapped when I came around Marcel and wasn’t able to catch up in the rain, I came across the finish line about ten seconds in front of the field. Close race! And a good start to our series.
06-26 Muskeego Park- 13th
Course with a good hill, break got away and stayed away. I tried to bridge and was about 50 meters away when the pack dragged me back, then sat up. I went about 600m before the finish and a few from the pack came by me, I finished right behind Marcel who was in the pack sprint.
06-27 Shorewood- 4th
I played the same tactic as the fist day, spending most the race attacking, one prime saw the sprint jersey, overall leader, third overall, me and another rider in the break with over thirty minutes left, we worked well together until the last few laps which saw everyone cracked, I attacked at the beginning of the last lap when I saw the others loose my wheel looking at each other, the 3rd place rider (a membe. Of Joe carpassasi's team) attacked the other three, inadvertently bringing up the two sprinters and resulting in a third for him and fourth for me.
6-28 Bay View-6th
Technical day with sharp corner and a slick back section before the finish. Marcel and I both worked hard to establish a break but all attempts were unsuccessful, pack finish was sketchy but I managed to move up through the last two corners and finish in a decent position, the end saw a crash into the barriers right beside me.
6-29 Downer-17th
Four corner crit with one sharp corner, course triangular. The field would not let a break go, Marcel was in the longest attempt, lasting about two laps before being reeled in by a team with no reason to bring it back. The finish was tight and saw us bouncing off one another, weird moves saw us both go from the front to the back in the washing machine effect, riders were being unsafe but I moved up as fast as I could in the last lap to finish in the group.
6-30 East Tosa- 4th
Rain and lightning saw the delay of this race and many riders were cold and wet at the start, over 30 didn’t show up. We found out I was in 7th overall and 5th in the points classification after only racing half the race and my goal was to defend both titles for the series, there were a few crashes in this very wet race and the pack was timid all day, it was single file the whole day and there was a limited top speed on each lap a crash happened a few wheels in front of me and saw two riders go down mid race, Marcel and I tried to break away a few times but we were dragged back. I got second in the sprint competition, securing my spot. In the finish I heard a crash in the last three laps, it was Marcel. I was on my own and was caught in no mans land between a strong attack and two large sprinters. I burnt a match getting up to the attacker and the sprinters came around. I kept my overall place by one point.
David Davenport
Tour of America’s Dairylands (TOAD) was an amazing experience. I got to see parts of the country I had never seen before and get some really fast racing in. Finished top 20 in pretty much every race. These races were really competitive. The national road race champion was racing alongside me and multiple other nationals podium fillers. All in all, a great trip!
Marcel Gutierrez
ToAD was hard! There were so many hours simply paying attention to the wheel in front of you (or car, since we spent a ton of time traveling too) that the mental fatigue was more difficult to cope with than the physical fatigue. For the majority of the trip, I didn’t feel amazing, but I knew I had fresh enough legs to build into feeling good toward the end of the week. On day one at Janesville, Will and I sent it off the front close to the beginning of the race just after I won a $200 field prime. Our break consisted of us and one other guy with a field chasing us down for 30 min. With two laps to go, the announcers called a $1000 field prime (meaning that we weren’t in the money since we were off the front) and with one lap to go they were on our tail. I knew Will would be better for the finish for me, so I pedaled as hard as I could for the rest of that lap where Will was able to come around and smoke the rest of the peloton, snagging the win. The rest of the week resulted in many attempts of replicating that race which became much more difficult since we were now marked riders. We knew we couldn’t compete very seriously in the field sprints, so breakaways were our only options for results. My best chance for a win was on the last day at a rainy, four corner East Tosa crit with a little hill after turn one. I was flying that day, and after 30 min of attacks and counter attacks by me and Will, the group had diminished to about 15 riders from the 35 who started. At 3 laps to go, my back wheel slid out and I hit the pavement hard, breaking both my shifters. It was a sucky way to end the week, especially on a day where I truly thought I could win, but that’s bike racing and I’m only hungrier to make up for what I missed out on this year.
Also, check out new rider Uriah Valentine with his recent multiple wins in the Racing in the Woods MTB series! Way to go UU!
Crumley Roberts, Attorneys At Law National Cycling Center Ken's Bike Shop Rouler Sportswear MemoryPilot Pioneer Cycle Sports USA BOX Components FTB BMX
-Big thank you to Jenna Farris and Joe Carpisassi for housing the team during ToAD!
Wes winning the National Championship 2019!
Pic by Bruce Buckley www.brucebuckleyphotography.com/Sports/Cycling?fbclid=IwAR0hk6DD2iWyxxLoWO61DWTICRl6mumJHVME5_xG_...
In case anyone missed my fb posts, tweets, or texts from the last five days...
We had a very good showing at the USACycling National Championships in Hagerstown MD this past week.
Time Trial
The 17-18’s were the first of our riders to hit the course. We had David Davenport, Niko Salazar Garcia, and Jacob Bernas all racing on road bikes in this 20km event. But, with only clip on bars (Niko didn’t even have the luxury of those) and fast wheels. Not ideal but still they hit it hard and got more experience at the national level. In the 13-14 race, which requires road bikes and no aero bars or solid disc wheels, Will Zylstra and Wesley Haggstrom blazed through the 11km solo race and Wes brought home a bronze medal with his 3rd place finish!
Road Race
Our u23 racers Marcel Gutierrez and Will Hardin were up against a stellar field of young Pro riders, including the Aevolo team and riders from Elevate, Project 303, Wildlife Generation, and Hagens Berman - Axeon. Marcel was caught up in a lap two pile up but tried to claw his way back to the field with Aevolo’s Gage Hecht. He made it but, unfortunately, it was right at the verydifficult crosswind section and he was soon popped off the group. Will made it through the 111 mile race and managed a 53rd place finish! Quite a result in a stacked field. David Davenport also had rotten luck in the 17-18’s with an early flat that spit him out the back during the hardest moments of the race. In the 13-14’s Wes picked up the win, he is your new National Champion!!!
Criterium
Wes had the early race Sunday in the 13-14’s and spent the early part of the race trying to get a break established with his weekday sparring partner CJ Burford. The two spent a few laps off the front before being caught by the field. Later CJ made a big move with 5 to go but was caught with 2 laps remaining. It came down to a field sprint and our man Wes was 2nd, his third medal of the week! David Davenport made it into 72nd place in the brutal 17-18’s to notch up another national caliber race experience this year. While Will and Marcel managed 52nd and 50th, respectively, in yet another ripping race full of Pro’s.
Here is a look at Wesley’s new (Captain America) National Champion race suit!
Also, in BMX news, Vet Pro Braden Romer snagged a 4th place finish at the USABMX Midwest National in Rockford, IL. WAY TO GO BRADEN!
Crumley Roberts, Attorneys At Law National Cycling Center Kensbikeshop Rouler Sportswear MemoryPilot Pioneer Cycle Sports USA BOX Components
2019 USACycling National Champion Road Race 13-14 year olds, Wesley Haggstrom. We are so proud of you Wesley!
Also, so happy for local racer and team friend CJ in 4th!
Great race guys!!!
Big thanks to our team partners for getting us here!
Crumley Roberts, Attorneys At Law National Cycling Center Kensbikeshop Rouler Sportswear MemoryPilot BOX Components Pioneer Cycle Sports USA
And, Jamie Bennett, my friend for almost 25 years, you are the solid foundation of everything we do.
