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Sticky Fingers: Cruelty-Free Bakery First, Women's Racing Always

by Gus Grissom, Combat Correspondent

If you ever wondered about the real relationship between small business owners and the amateur cycling teams they are often asked to sponsor, you need ask none other that Doron Petersan, owner of Sticky Fingers Bakery.  “I spent years working for a non-profit group before I became a small business owner.  That’s when I realized that the two jobs are practically the same: cash is always tight and you have to come up with creative ways to get people involved, purchase your product, believe in your mission, and believe in what you are doing.”  This is how Petersan describes her love affair with the food service industry and nutrition science, and the passion that brought these two topics together in the form of her own business, Sticky Fingers Bakery.  This love affair, fortunately for MABRA, is now yielding another source of inspiration for her other passion, cycling, as the bakery begins to sponsor its own women’s cycling team, Team Sticky Fingers. 

Petersan, herself an active racer, was approached by several women from various local teams with whom she rides and races.  When asked if she would be interested in putting together and sponsoring a new women’s team, her initial response was “start a team?  No way.  No how.  Not ever and definitely not now.  I’ve got a business to run.”  As time passed, however, she said that she started to realize that this would be one more way to support women’s cycling in a tangible, positive way while helping to grow her own business.  She said “the bakery has always supported as many races and teams as we could across the district by donating prizes, mostly gift certificates, for various races.”  But the opportunity to represent her own business by putting it right into the women’s peloton seemed to her a new and exciting way of looking at the dynamic between small business and local athletes.  “I realized that it would be interesting to put together a small group of dedicated racers who could represent the ideals of my business in a specific way, a group that would know what our philosophy is all about and put that philosophy into action by competing and winning across this very active region.”   

Team Fruit 66 / Artemis to target Women's Elite and NRC Events in 2010

River City Women's Racing announces the formation of Team Fruit 66 / Artemis for 2010. While there has been no shortage of standout elite women racers in the VACA, it has been some time since a dedicated elite women's squad was registered in the region.

But the partnership blurs the line between local associations, as co-title sponsor Artemis - a MABRA fixture, and reigning 2-time Team BAR champion - lends its name, support and two of its elite racers to the new VACA-registered team. The new kits are not yet available, but it's likely also that Artemis will also provide some trademark purple lycra for the design.

The squad will be well represented at regional events in both MABRA and VACA, and will also target NRC races.

Team Fruit 66 / Artemis for 2010:

Patty Burkle
Emily Helmboldt
Julie Kuleicza
Lenore Pipes
Erin Silliman
Amanda  Watson

Sponsors:

Fruit 66
Artemis Racing
Pibby's Bicycle Repair
Commonwealth Sports Medicine
Sattler Creative

The Purrfect New Local Women's Team?

A new squad of local women will be kittened up in blue and black this season, clawing and pawing their way towards podiums all across the Mid-Atlantic. Vanderkitten Virginia Beach debuts in 2009, boasting a roster of former BAR and State Champions and newcomers alike. Anchored by former Tripower hammers BJ Samuel and Laura Cook, the team is currently 12 strong and actively recruiting.

For the complete roster, have a look at the Vanderkitten Virginia Beach blog, or at the GamJams Local Racing Transfer Directory.

Sonja Evers joins C3-Sollay.com, Swaps one Black and Blue Kit for another

2008 may well be remembered as the Year of the Mid-Atlantic Women's Elite Teams. The latest squad to squad to add some serious horsepower to its ranks is the C3-Sollay.com Women's Elite Team, or The Chicks in Black. Today the team announces its newest roster addition Sonja Evers, who swaps her blue and black Vanderkitten kit for the C3-Sollay.com black and blue. It would be too easy to make the obvious joke about Sonja's old cycling shoes matching her new kit, so of course I won't.

A former professional MTB racer, Sonja has been road racing fewer than 3 years and has already accumulated an impressive palmares which is a testament to her versatility: top 5s in the Women's Elite races at Strasburg and Jefferson Cup this season, a win in 2007 in the Highway to Heaven Hill Climb, 2nd place at the Boonsboro TT, and total dominance of the Women's Cat 3 field at 'Toona last year as well, with wins in the crit, RR and the overall.

Sonja's signing comes hot on the heels of another C3-Sollay addition. Earlier this week Christina Briseno made the move from Route 1 Velo. Should she ever decide to race as a Cat 4 man, it is speculated that Briseno might well return to the red swarm. Both Christina and Sonja make their Chicks in Black debut at the Fort Ritchie Criterium this weekend.

The C3-Sollay.com 2008 Chicks in Black:
Janet Olney  (cat 2)
Beth  Mason (cat 1)
Heidi von Teitenberg (cat 2)
Diane Grim (cat 2)
Lorraine Lipfert (cat 2)
Sonja Evers (cat 2)
Lisa Vible (cat 2)
Elizabeth Harlow (cat 3)
Christina Briseno (cat 3)

HPC forms Elite Women's Team

Holy helmet head - we've got another elite women's team based locally. This one is fielded by HPC, with the support of a new title sponsor in Altarum, a nonprofit focused on research that improves health systems.

The team's roster is as follows:
Jenette Williams
Kristy Scheffenacker
Susan Hefler
Michele Bote
Lorena Candrian
Kate Flore
Jennifer Rasmusson

Here's the complete release:

HPC RACING ANNOUNCES 2008 WOMEN’S NATIONAL RACING TEAM AND TITLE SPONSOR ALTARUM

Look for Team HPC Powered by Altarum on the NRC circuit in 2008

Reston, VA (February 1, 2008) - Following three successful years racing at the regional level, Hefler Performance Coaching (HPC) has expanded its team to compete in a full National racing calendar (NRC) for 2008. HPC is proud to introduce Altarum Institute as a new title sponsor for the NRC team. Formerly known as the HPC/LIST Women’s Cycling Team, HPC has been successful at the regional level producing the Mid Atlantic Best All Around Rider for two of the past three seasons. “We are extremely grateful to Altarum for their belief in our team,” said Susan Hefler, Team Director. “Their support is making it possible for these very talented women to realize their full potential and race at the highest level of U.S. competition,” she added.

“We are really excited about the Altarum partnership with HPC and this group of extraordinary athletes,” said Linc Smith, Altarum’s President and Chief Executive Officer.  “We look forward to rooting them on thru the season, of course.  And we hope they will inspire others to become healthier and more physically active.  On top of that, we have found in this team a group of like-minded systems thinkers.  Bike racing is a great example of a system, with each player on the team interacting with others to achieve a defined result.  As a group of health systems researchers, all of us at Altarum thought the affiliation was just a natural fit.”

Altarum Institute (www.altarum.org) is a nonprofit health systems research institute. Altarum helps its clients research and apply health systems solutions to improve our nation’s health.

The 2008 National Racing Team includes: Jenette Williams, a fast finisher with numerous NRC podium placings; Kristy Scheffenacker, 3-time MABRA champion and former Colavita Bolla Professional Women’s Cycling Team member; Susan Hefler, Team Director and former Navigator’s and RONA Professional Women’s team member; Michele Bote, a savvy stage racer with over 15 years of racing experience; Lorena Candrian, a climbing dynamo and top finisher in NRC events; Kate Flore, a sprinter and promising all-around rider; and Jennifer Rasmusson, a power house and developing track talent. HPC encompasses both a national (NRC) team and a regional developmental team.  For a full roster of all the HPC Cycling Team riders and multisport athletes, visit www.hpcracing.com.

In addition to this new partnership for 2008, LIST Innovative Solutions continues to be the title sponsor for the HPC Women’s Regional Team, Men’s Mountain Bike Team, and multisport athletes.  LIST Innovative Solutions, a prime government contractor with 10+ years of Information Technology experience is based in Herndon, VA and owned by Katie Sleep. To learn more about LIST, visit their website at www.listinc.com.

HPC is grateful to the following product sponsors for their generous support:
Specialized Bicycles
Spokes Etc… Bicycle Shops
Tifosi Eyewear
Carb-BOOM!  Energy Gel
Accelerade Endurox R4 Partners
CeraSport Hydration
Sportlegs

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On Equal Pay, and the Creation of Media

There's a meme spreading across the internet on the topic of Equal Pay for Women, kicked off by an interview with Georgia Gould on VeloNews.com and bolstered by an online petition directed to the UCI which has collected some 2000 signatures so far. Several local folks have chimed in on it, including the thought-provoking (read as 'provocative') Unholy Rouleur, who challenges a blanket pay parity policy based on race registration ecomonics, and Karen Got Wheels, who proposes that prize money be eliminated from most fields because even when you win in the lower cats, you still lose money. So what's the point? (An excellent point, Karen.)
 

There's another economical aspect to consider as well. The entire bike racing economy is based on Events, and the Event Business is driven by Sponsorship. In my real life I'm in the Event Business. I know of what I speak.

When in need of guidance, seek out oracles. In many cases it's Google. It others it's that guy in the cube by the server room with 3 laptops on his desk. In the case of Event Sponsorship, the oracle is NASCAR. Nobody understands sponsorship like that organization, and no sponsors get more for their money than NASCAR sponsors. There are a dozen reasons for this - not the least of which is that getting a foot in the door of NASCAR stills sets sponsors back 7 digits or more. If you have to pony up that kind of coin for some media, you're going to get exceptionally smart on how to make the most of it. And that's the great irony of the Event business - the more you're able to charge for sponsorship, the more work sponsors must put into it themselves, and the more sponsors rely on themselves - not the event - to optimize their investment.

Registration for The Bunny Hop is now Open

Bounce over to BikeReg to sign up for the Bunny Hop. Or rather, to use its official full name this year, "The 2007 BUNNY HOP part of the MABRA SAAB/Salomon Series, the MABRA Women's Series, the MABRA Junior Series and LAJORS". Let's see you put all of that on your team's 'Race Results' page if you podium.

Registration is here:
http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=4516

The next 7 Cat 3s or 4s who read this should click right now, because that's exactly how many slots are left in your field at the time of this posting.

This is probably the best race of the season for women's fields (not surprising, given that it's put on by Artemis). There are separate fields for Cat 4 Women and 40+ Women, and the payout for the women's 1/2/3 is the same as the men's 1/2/3. Plus, Artemis is throwing special prizes for the top 3 first-time racers in the women's Cat 4 event. So any ladies on the fence about racing - this is your best chance this year to give it a shot.

10 Questions With... Evelyn Egizi, on MABRA Women's Racing

(ed: This is the first in a new series on GamJams.net called "10 Questions With". Its purpose is to give us some insight into a side of local racing we might not have seen before, and allow us to get to know some of the folks who toil mightily on our behalf. If you have suggestions for future "10 Questions With" interviews, nominate them by email.

This interview is with Evelyn Egizi, Team Director for Artemis and inveterate champion of women's racing in the area. Get Evelyn's perspective on the state of women in the sport today and yesteryear, the skinny on how the MABRA Women's Race Series works, and whether men or women cyclists shave their legs more frequently. Consume heartily.)

(GamJams) 1. What is the MABRA Women's Race Series and when did it begin?
(Evelyn Egizi) The ORIGINAL Women's Race Series was developed and implemented in MABRA (formerly known as "D-20") by Linda Mack (now current owner of Silver Cycles in Silver Spring).  I think that we can safely say that Linda had vision for women and clearly is a respected Elder of women's cycling. Linda set the stage and foundation for the women's series.  With her vast networking within the cycling community, she was able to inspire an energetic, enthusiastic woman (Gerri Moriarity) in New England to start a women's series there.  The outcome and success was phenomenal.  At some point, our other respected "Elder", Tracy Lea, came on board to join forces, and the Cycling Made Real Series (CMR) was born.  The purpose of the National Series is to spread our success.  Linda was lucky(??) enough to find me to pass the series torch onto.  I've been organizing it for the past 8-9 years.

(gj) 2. Other than D-20, do you know how many other districts are participating?
(ee) I think that it's safe to say that MABRA (the Mid-Atlantic region) has one of the most comprehensive women's series of all.  It certainly has longevity over the rest!  Like California, we have a very concentrated area of cyclists.  Now, if we'd only have their weather...