About ABRT

abrtLocated in the Greater Annapolis area, ABRT is performance cycling club active in the Mid-Atlantic racing scene in all disciplines, road, time trial and cyclocross. ABRT promotes bicycle safety and is corporate sponsor of Bicycle Advocates for Annapolis and Anne Arundel County. We also hold some of the best racing events in the district, including the Church Creek Time Trials and the AACX Cyclocross Race. We welcome new members and sponsors who share our commitment to our mission statement: to promote the sport of cycling through excellence in competition, athlete development, and event promotion.

Church Creek Time Trial #2 Wrap Up

Posted on by Alex Pline

Thanks for all who came out to the second Church Creek TT of the season.

Final results are available at USA Cycling or you can download the full  PDF Results including the Mens and Womens Aero and non Aero fields and download full resolution podium pictures.

We split the Mens and Womens 65+ fields into 5 year increments for medals:

Men 65-69

1 – JOHN NEWTON

2 – PAUL GRUENBERGER

3 – PHIL HOWE

4 – RICK PAUKSTITUS

5 – KEITH SHUEY

6 – STEVE ESMACHER

7 – ANDREW HEPBURN

8 – CHRIS BARRITT

9 -GARY KUCHEL

10 – PETER CZAPIEWSKI

11- MIKE COPPERTHITE

12 – ERIKA GRIFFITH

13 – LOU VINER

14 – RICHARD HANDLEY

Men 70-74

1 – MARK HOLT

2 – KIM BUTLER

3 – WESLEY SCHOLZ

4 – DON FORGIONE

5 – JAMES HARTNETT

6 – JERRY YETTER

7 – MYRON LEHTMAN

8 – MYRON SEGAL

Men 75-79

1 – DOUGLAS MCCLELLAN

2 – JOHN COX

3 – PHILIP SAMAWICZ

Men 80-85

1 – RICHARD SHAFFER

Women 65-69

1 – TRACY LEA

2 – ANNETTE MASKER

Women 70-75

1 – MARY ARNOLD

Welcome Back To Racing!

Posted on by Alex Pline

Thanks to the nearly 200 riders that came out for the return to time trial racing for the 2021 Church Creek Time Trial #1. As with many things this year, the weather was a bit atypical with cooler temperatures. Our on-course photographer extraordinaire Ted Morgan captured great shots of the action and they are all available for full resolution download. We compensate him for his photography but offer this as a perk to the racers! The registration for the 2021 Church Creek Time Trial #2 on August 28 will be open soon. Come back and best your time!

Links to results and pictures:

Continue reading →

2021 Church Creek Time Trials Are A GO!

Posted on by Alex Pline

We just received approval from Dorchester County to host the two Church Creek Time Trials. Save the dates:

We are in the process of doing the USAC permitting and will have Bike Reg open for registration soon. We have a few surprises for our return to racing, so check back soon!

Your Time Trial Hosts ABRT and Phase Cycling

ABRT Jerseys Over The Years

Posted on by Alex Pline

We have always had a random collection of jerseys over the years due to excess stock, but recently I ran into a stash of older jerseys. Every few years we do a jersey collection to donate to Bikes for the World. This year, a huge collection of old Team Snow Valley jerseys were included from a few long time members. I guess people must be cleaning out closets during the COVID-19 pandemic!

I took the opportunity to get our stash of jerseys from the ABRT storage unit and fill in the missing years from the donated pile of jerseys. Turns out I was able to fill in almost every year I have seen a jersey, except for the first five years. I am not sure if there was a jersey for the first two unsponsored years (1986-1987). I found jerseys for all but the first five of the Team Snow Valley years (1988-2006), the Latitude (2007-2009), and finally all of the latest ABRT years (2010-2020).

It’s kind of a fun walk down memory lane and since there is no racing or group riding due to the pandemic, might as well record all of the jerseys visually. I was able to match the sponsors with research I’ve done in the past using the internet archive to view old web web sites as well as from team member recollections. It’s also interesting to note how much lighter the materials have gotten over the last 30 years. If I had to indicate a favorite design of all, I think it would be 2017.

If anyone has corrections to my dating, has pictures of other jerseys or even has some that I don’t have please let us know! I think pretty much anyone who was anyone in the 80s and 90s probably wore one of these. Enjoy!

2020 CCTT 1 Is Canceled

Posted on by ABRT

We were really bummed the Inaugural Harwood Classic had to be canceled due to the COVID-19 Pandemic but understand it was necessary at that time. For the June Church Creek Time Trial, we delayed opening of registration to June 1 and have held out hope the improving situation with the pandemic would allow us to hold the June Time Trial, but we have just heard from our permitting authorities (Dorchester County and the Maryalnd State Highway Administration) that they will not allow us to hold this event on June 29. As a result, we are forced to cancel the June event. We will keep an eye toward the August Event based on the situation on the ground.

The Harwood Classic

Posted on by ABRT

If you have ever looked at the ABRT History Timeline, you will notice ABRT has only run a few road races over the last 30 years.  Those included the Tour de Crofton (aka Crofton Classic Bike Race or Chris Strader Memorial), The Annapolis Classic (the only ABRT race actually run in the City in West Annapolis), the Snow Valley Grand Prix (a UCI level criterium in Bethesda) and the Tour of Walkersville out by Frederick. As is typical in urbanized areas, these kind of races raise the ire of locals as they are inconvenienced by traffic and lack of access in their neighborhoods and to make matters worse multiple field typically span almost a full day. So often these events only happen for a few years and then move on.

We have always wanted to have a namesake race close to where we ride. After the demise of the Tour of Walkersville, which became too logistically difficult so far away, in 2011 we attempted to move the race to our weekly “Tuesday Night World Championships” group ride course in Harwood, Maryland just west of Annapolis. Stu Waring and Iain Banks worked really hard to set the race up and get it permitted with Anne Arundel County.   The planning and promotion for the race was spot on and we had 357 people registered in a large set of fields. Unfortunately, the County denied the permit two weeks out as this race got all twisted up with polemics around complaints from a recent triathalon and we had to cancel it. Since then, we have talked about another road race, but have not been able to make it happen.

Fast forward to 2020 and Team Bike Doctor has taken up the challenge to host this race and ABRT is proud to be a major sponsor. Fortunately, the conditions in Anne Arundel County are much more favorable to cycling (thanks in large part to Bicycle Advocates for Annapolis and Anne Arundel County which we sponsor) so Pat Hogan was able to get the permitting approval. We are all very excited for this race, which takes place on April 4th (BikeReg opens on March 2nd) and we hope the MABRA community will come support this race.

The Tuesday group ride starts early this year on March 10th at 6pm for those who want to get some race pace experience on the course. If you do come to the ride, please familiarize yourself with the route so you don’t get lost or have any miscommunications that cause a safety problem. We gather around the park and ride before so just introduce yourself and then stick around afterward for a post ride chat or bragging rights 😉 Here is an annotated course preview video we made in 2011 and it is still accurate:

Cross Season is a Wrap

Posted on by ABRT

ABRT had an active cross season with Alex Pline, Antonia Abadia, Charles Valade, Mickey Thaxton and Mike Roth participating in most of the MABRA races. Our own AACX At South River Famrs race hosted with Parvilla Cycles was a success as the course continues to improve every year. Antonio made good progress as a new cross rider and Alex hit his stride, steadily moving up the rankings in his second active year. Mickey Thaxton was always a strong performer and was on the 40+ 3/4/5 podium for Rockburn CX and the Season finale at the Capital Cross Classic. Alex reflected on the Cross season with an essay about the Art of Riding A Bike posted on his blog.

Cross Season Is Underway

Posted on by ABRT

Cross season is well under way! For a nice change of pace, the 2019 season so far has been quite a bit drier. Our AACX co-hosted with Parvilla Cycle & Multisport was a huge success and ABRT riders have been hitting the dirt at Charm City Cross and DCCX races. We’ll be at most of the MABRA races throughout the rest of the season through Capital Cross in December. Cross is such a fun discipline to ride and the environment at races is family friendly party, not to mention watching the amazing ability of the UCI level pros at these two races.  It’s fun to watch and analyze the tactical choices.

The 40+ 2/3/4 crew at DCCX enjoying a post race beer on a beautiful day. 

Weekly Ride Updates

Posted on by ABRT

The Saturday ride start time moves to 9am on SEPTEMBER 7.

The Tuesday Ride starts at 6pm through September 24. As we progress through September, we will shorten by removing the Polling House loop, depending on how sunny it is for daylight towards sunset.

See the training rides and team calendar pages for more details.

Church Creek TT 2 Results

Posted on by Alex Pline

Thanks to all who came out for the quintessential hot and humid August time trail. We had a lot of new racers out today as this edition saw the largest number of one day licenses ever. Great to see so many new people.

The links to results, podium pictures and free downloadable high resolution on course pictures are available on the Church Creek Time Trial 2 page.