Located 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.
2022 AACX was Ongelooflijk!
Don’t worry if you don’t understand Flemish because “ongleooflijk” means exactly what you think it should mean and the only words we have in return are thank you. This year heralded the 10th edition of the AACX cyclocross race and the 8th edition held at South River Farm off Lock Raven Rd in Mayo on October 29th. The weather was perfect, albeit slightly warm for CX, with a fairly dry course except for the traditional boggy sections. We spent a lot of time up front this year mowing, trimming, and raking to make the course as nice as possible given that much of it is in a “wild” field most of the year. Not only did we reverse the course direction from prior years, but we changed the layout in the field a bit to reduce the “slog”, but we also added some new features including a double set of ridable stairs going up the hill, a “bullpen” at one end of the field, a new flowy single track section on top of the hill, flowy turns in the other end of the field, a set of chicanes on the backside of the maintenance yard and a faster approach to the “goat hill” which put is solidly on the ride/run line.
The customary way to measure the success of an event like AACX is through a profit & loss statement, but that’s boring so we’ve come up with our own list of key performance indicators that we believe will accurately represent the true experience of AACX!
320 | # of Total Riders |
15 | # of True Flandrians who doubled up at AACX |
1114 | Total Lap Count |
63 | Total Junior Racers |
35% | Percentage of Riders who Rode the Goat Hill every lap |
40% | Percentage of Riders who Ran the Goat Hill |
25% | Percentage of Riders who Tried to Ride the Goat Hill but ended up Running |
360 | Tacos consumed |
94 | Burritos Consumed |
242 | Combined hours spent building the course |
12 | Combined hours spent tearing down the course |
9 | Number of course laps driven on the Jacobson Mower |
-42 | Number of parking spaces available during peak AACX |
0 | Neighbor complaints |
4’6″ | Size in diameter of the CX-tape ball from tear-down |
1 | Tree(s) worn smooth from people swinging around a turn |
Lost count during the Juniors | Number of bad words said while trying to ride the Goat Hill |
1700 | # of Pictures available online by Ted Morgan |
0 | Reported Bee Stings |
Someday! | # of Beers Consumed |
Pictures
Speaking of 1700 pictures, we paid Ted Morgan a flat fee to make all the shots he took free high resolution downloads for personal use for all competitors. Please head over to his site to grab your glam shots and post them on social media. Of course he’d love it if you tagged and followed him (@tedmorganphoto on Instagram or @tedmorgan on Facebook) to see more of his great work.
https://tedmorganphotography.zenfolio.com/p503176000
Final Thanks
ABRT would like to thank the Anne Arundel Parks & Rec South County maintenance team for their amazing support! Every year we have a hard time imagining the prospect of a field with 7’+ high brush transforming into the soft grass you experienced on Saturday, and every year that crew makes it come true. Additional thanks to AACO Parks & Rec Superintendent, Karen Jarboe, for her partnership. Bikes take a heavy toll on walking trails, so our use of the wooded section was a special treat. Thank you to Bob’s Red Mill for sponsoring the CX Sportif Series and MABRA for making sure that we had a fully loaded CX trailer (the tire was already like that when we got it). Thank you also to the amazing crew of USAC officials who all quietly shared the sentiment that they enjoyed the 10th edition of AACX more than the Maryland Cycling Classic. Finally, a very special thanks to Iain & Sarah over at Parvilla Cycles in Edgewater for providing the prize packages and generally herding the cats that go into putting on a race for 320+ riders. Miss you mate and wish you were able to be here to see it all come together.
2022 Church Creek Time Trial #2 Results
On behalf of ABRT and Phase Cycling, thanks for coming out to another successful Church Creek Time Trial. We had a gorgeous day with light winds and moderate temperatures, a rare treat for August in Maryland! You can see all the results and links to the podium pictures and the photo album from our on course Photographer Ted Morgan (all full resolution images should be available on Sunday) on our web site:
https://www.abrtcycling.com/events/church-creek-time-trial-2/
Also be sure to give him some love on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tedmorganphoto/
Look for next years Time Trials as soon as the MABRA Calendar is finalized in the spring.
For those interested in Cyclocross, we are again hosting our annual AACX cyclocross race at South River Farm in Edgewater MD. See the web site for more details! http://www.abrtcycling.com/events/aacx/
Alex Pline/ABRT and Michael Levesque/Phase, Race Directors
2022 Church Creek Time Trial #1 Results
Thanks to all who came out on a sunny and brisk April morning. Thankfully it warmed up nicely by the time most of the 120+ riders went off. We did have some timing issues that were sorted out after the fact. Technology is a real time and labor savior but isn’t always perfect. Fortunately the judges still do hand recorded results as a backup which helped verify the results:
M/W 65+ results breakdown by 5 year increments are on the event page.
We look forward to seeing everyone again on August 20 for the second race! No doubt will be a little warmer. 😉
MABRA Road Calendar Finalized
The Mid Atlantic Bicycle Racing Association 2022 annual road calendar has been finalized. The Church Creek Time Trials dates on the calendar are:
These will also be part of the 2022 MATTS series. We are back to the traditional larger gap between races – spring and summer – which lets you see your progression over the season if you do both. And it is likely to only be hot for the second event. As we get closer to the events we will open the registration on BikeReg and additional information will be posted on the individual race pages. It is envisioned that the races and fields will run in a similar manner as 2021. Mark your calendars!
2021 AACX Cyclocross Record Turnout
With the fall comes cyclocross and the 2021 edition of AACX. Clearly there is pent up demand for racing on the backside of the pandemic and AACX had a record turnout of over 300 registrations and 290 unique riders. The weather was sunny, dry and a bit unseasonably warm in the low 80s which made for fast, dusty laps until the last race of the day where it sprinkled a bit with the passing of cold front.
Church Creek Time Trial #2 Wrap Up
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!
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:
2021 Church Creek Time Trials Are A GO!
We just received approval from Dorchester County to host the two Church Creek Time Trials. Save the dates:
- CCTT #1 – July 18 (Sunday). We scheduled it a little later to insure the pandemic situation is OK. Make a race weekend of it and do the Salisbury Road Race on Saturday. – REGISTER NOW: https://www.bikereg.com/church-creek-time-trial-no-1
- CCTT #2 – August 28 (Saturday). This is about the usual date. – REGISTER NOW: https://www.bikereg.com/church-creek-time-trial-no-2
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
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!
- 1993
- 1993
- 1994
- 1994
- 1995
- 1995
- 1996 10th Anniversary Edition
- 1996 10th Anniversary Edition
- 1997
- 1997
- 1998
- 1998
- 1999
- 1999
- 2000
- 2000
- 2001
- 2001
- 2002
- 2002
- 2003
- 2003
- Michael Voigt’s 2003 Elite National Championship Jersey
- Michael Voigt’s 2003 Elite National Championship Jersey
- 2004
- 2004
- 2005
- 2005
- 2006
- 2006
- 2007
- 2007
- 2008
- 2008
- 2009
- 2009
- 2010
- 2010
- 2011
- 2011
- 2012
- 2012
- 2013
- 2013
- 2014
- 2014
- 2015
- 2015
- 2016
- 2016
- 2016 (Multiple MABRA Champions)
- 2016 (Multiple MABRA Champions)
- 2017
- 2017
- 2017 Women’s Masters 35+ (Dori Buckethal) and 45+ (Ainhoa Perez Diez) Criterium National Championship Jersey
- 2017 Women’s Masters 35+ (Dori Buckethal) and 45+ (Ainhoa Perez Diez) Criterium National Championship Jersey
- 2018/2019
- 2018/2019
- 2020
- 2020
2020 CCTT 1 Is Canceled
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.