Artemis leads MABRA Team BAR

Standings for the 2008 MABRA BAR are current through about the first third of the year. After finishing a close second behind NCVC / Inova Health System in the 2007 Team BAR, Artemis is enjoying a lead by a couple of lengths through the early part of 2008. Preliminary Team tallies have Artemis ahead of 2nd place NCVC, 803 to 611. But according to MABRA BAR administrator Bill Luecke, the team totals have not yet been updated to reflect 2008 team affiliations. That means that racers who have changed teams since 2007 are contributing points towards their previous team totals. MABRA is sorting out the 2008 affiliation now, and if you or a teammate are among the affected racers, you should notify Bill so that your hard-earned points in '08 contribute towards your current team totals.

After looking at the individual racer totals in various categories, the likely outcome of refreshing the team affiliation for 2008 will be an even wider Artemis lead. Artemis speedsters Jorge Marccenaro (leading the Cat 4 BAR), Jen Cheng (Women's Cat 3) and Bill Breslin (Men's 40+) are all throwing up points not yet included in the Artemis total. And NCVC will lose some of its 2008 points when off-season trades Andreas Gutzeit, Alexander Butterfield and (the same) Jen Cheng see their points re-allocated to their current squads.

What seems unlikely to change, however, is Battley Harley-Davidson's stomping of the Men's Senior BAR. The team has David Fuentes squarely in the cat bird seat, with 6 racers total among the top 10 (Ryan DeWald is now with Harley, not Rite-Aid). Can Battley Harley-Davidson sweep the top 3 spots, like CleanCurrents p/b Don Beyer Volvo did in 2007?

The Women's Elite BAR is still wide open. Once team affiliations are updated, the race between HPC / Altarum, CycleLife, C3-Sollay.com, Kenda and Artemis will be tighter than your skinsuit in the off-season. CycleLife's Leslie Jennings leads the pack currently, but NRC priorities may take some teams away from key BAR weekends, allowing significant point swings. Keep an eye on this race.