Pro Racers Deepen the Mid-Atlantic Talent Pool

If you thought there was enough Fast around here on race day already, think again. A pair of accomplished pros have joined local amateur squads.

Competing elite teams will be as deflated as local Cross fans are thrilled to learn that Jonathan Page is joining Battley Harley Davidson Elite Cycling for the 2008 summer campaign. Page indicates in his journal that he'll be starting with the team for CSC and racing with them through August. Page is a 3-time US National Cyclocross Champion (plus twice more as a U-23, and once again as a Junior), netted a 2nd at CX Natz last season, and was the 2006 World CX Championships silver medalist. Breathe your collective sighs of relief that he's not starting with Harley until after Poolesville. But lest you think Page's successes were confined to the mud, know also that he won Fitchburg-Longsjo in 2005. He raced on the road for Nature Valley in 2007 and for Colavita / Sutter Home in 2006.

Haymarket Bicycles has also been steadily growing their talent roster. Now racing with them is former pro Matt DeCanio, whose current fame stems less from his palmares than from his role as a doping whistle-blower. DeCanio's story is long and, well, storied. Perhaps the best narrative I've found on him is  this article from The Miami New Times, published in 2006. Whether you think you know his story or you've never heard it, the article is a worthwhile read. Matt declined to be interviewed for GamJams, though his website makes his point of view pretty clear, as does this article published originally in RaceListings.com, where he outlines how he believes the cycling establishment perpetuates doping in the sport.

Matt last raced in 2006 at the Tour of Shenandoah, and has joined Haymarket en route to what he hopes is a return to the pro ranks. His most successful season to date was when he raced for Prime Alliance in 2003, alongside teammate (wait for it) Jonathan Page. Also on the team was Jonathan Vaughters, an anti-doping crusader on a different road.

What will the presence of these cycling celebrities mean to local racing? Well for one, it's likely to get faster and even more competitive. And some of our local squads, racers and even races are also likely to gain some national visibility (which feeds the cycle - vicious or virtuous - of racers and races getting faster, and then better known as fast races, and then making racers faster, and on and on). It's going to be a wild ride for racers in the region, where every weekend (and even Tuesday Night Worlds, or Sunday morning group rides) becomes a training camp taught by pros with international accomplishments, and the teams that benefit directly from that experience.   If there were a way to say "a rising tide lifts all boats" without resorting to a cliche, I'd use it here. Speed, strategy, skill and an increasing level of expectation are all infectious. We're in for a Fast epidemic in the Mid-Atlantic region.