from Race Team directors Heidi Verbeeck and Ray Spore
In recent months, the Race Team successfully hosted two race events, our annual Helen Pool 4th of July Criterium on July 4 and the NCNCA District Championships Masters Criterium in Winters on August 23.
Helen Pool 4th of July Criterium
We had over 220 racers participating in races through the entire day, starting at 8 am and finishing around 5pm. We also hosted a kids race on the official course during lunch time which brought several local kids to enjoy their own race, one more competitive than the other. They even had their own podium. The prizes for the kids race and the junior races were proudly sponsored by local businesses The Newsbeat and Baskin Robbins.
Freewheeler Bicycle Center, Feet Fleet, Ken’s Bike and Ski were our other proud sponsors for prizes and preems for our racers!
Skratch Labs and Castelli with race team club member Alan Rowland also helped out with obtaining some of the podium prizes.
We also had several DBC race team members race that day with a few that raced themselves onto the podium with Heidi Verbeeck taking the highest spot on the podium. Darin got 2nd, Zhaoqian and Colleen 3rd in their categories.
Zhaoqian Wang 3rd in Cat 5
Akwetee Watkins 6th in Cat 5 and 4th in 50+ 5/5
Darin Salk 2nd in 60+ 4/5
Raymond Spore 5th in 60+ 4/5
Karl Wurzbach 6th in 50+ 1/2/3
Greg Chapla 4th in 60+ 1/2/3
Colleen Mills 3rd in Women Cat 4
Heidi Verbeeck 1st in Women Masters 1/2/3/4
NCNCA District Championships Masters Criterium in Winters
The Davis Bike Club Race Team organized this event, together with the Winters Climate Action Committee, on Saturday, August 23rd. NCNCA is part of the USA Cycling Federation, the district of Northern California and Nevada.
Masters are riders 35 years and older, and the races are divided up into age categories. In total we had 130 Masters racers competing for the title of State Champion spread over 5 races – 4 races for men, one for the women.
We had 3 DBC racers represent the race team and with Heidi Verbeeck who won the women’s race we also have a DBC State Champion in our club.
We also have Greg Chapla who got 4th in the Men 60-64 and Karl Wurzbach got 7th in the Men 55-59.
Also huge special thanks to our sponsor Bariani who donated podium prizes for everyone, and to Skratch Labs and Ken’s Bike and Ski for their help with podium prizes.
Also, a very BIG thank you to Carol Scianna and the Winters Climate Committee who were instrumental in making this event happen.
It was a very exciting morning in downtown Winters, where racers and supporters got to hang out, while watching some fierce state champion battles.
We already had many requests from racers to do it again next year!
We also want to give a special shout out and huge thank you to Chad DeMasi who graciously donated his time to both events and be our race commentator for both. And he’s a born natural at it on top of it! Thank you Chad!
We also want to give a big thank you to all of the volunteers who came out on 4th of July and the Winters criterium, and made our events a success. Thank you all for your time and tremendous help to our events! We couldn’t have done it without you all!
Since our last Race Team update, our DBC Race Team members competed in other races, apart from the Helen Pool 4th of July Criterium and the Winters Criterium.
- Owen Kinney and Andrin Kramer participated in Sea Otter’s Fuego XL gravel race and finished 70th in this hard and epic race!
- Raymond Spore won the Prairie City Mountainbike Series overall in his Sports 60+ category after winning 6 races and 2nd place in the 7th one, and Heidi Verbeeck got 2nd in the Women’s Open Age Sports category, after winning all of her 6 races but due to missing the 7th race during her trip to Belgium, she missed out on those points needed to secure her 1st overall.
Akwetee Watkins also competed in the Sports Men 50-59 and finished with an awesome 4th place overall. - The Winters Road Race with the infamous Cantelow climb, which took place on August 24th, the day after the Winters criterium, also got a nice representation from DBC:
Bryan Enderle finished 8th in 50+ 1/2/3, Colleen Mills got 15th place in the Women’s 3/4/5 and Heidi Verbeeck got 3rd in the Women Masters 1/2/3/4.
Raymond Spore got 7th place in the Masters 50+ 4/5.
Aaron Smith unfortunately did not finish due to a mechanical issue. - Cory Frost competed in several road criteriums in the Cat 4:
- Winchester in May, where he got 9th place, on Sep 1st the Giro di San Francisco where he unfortunately was not able to finish due to mechanical issues and on Sep 14th the Oakland Grand Prix Criterium at Livermore where he got 14th place.
- Greg Chapla, next to his amazing 4th places in both Helen Pool Davis Criterium and the NCNCA Championship in Winters, also competed at the Cycling Dash for Cash Criterium where he got 7th place in 60+ 1/2/3/4 category.
- Aaron Smith also raced the Regalado Road Race on May 31st and got 18th place in 50+ 1/2/3 category.
- Heidi Verbeeck also competed in some other criteriums next to Davis and Winters where she won both races:
Winchester in May with a 2nd place in Masters 40+ 1/2/3/4
Watsonville Criterium on July 5th with 6th overall, and 1st place in Masters 40+ 1/2/3/4
Sand City on July 27nd with 3rd place overall and 1st place in Masters 40+ 1/2/3
Giro di San Francisco on Sep 1st with 1st place in Masters 40+ 1/2/3/4
Oakland Grand Prix at Livermore on Sep 14 with 1st place overall, winning the sprint from the visiting pro national champion of India, and thus also 1st place in Masters 40+ 1/2/3.
Heidi also took 1st place in the Sports Women All Ages in the mountain bike Growler Cup race at Granite Bay on Sep 20th. - Raymond Spore took 2nd place in the Sports 60+ category in the mountain bike Growler Cup race at Granite Bay on Sep 20th.
Then our 2 race team directors, Ray and Heidi, also went to Hellyer velodrome in San Jose, in the beginning of September, on Sep 5 and Sep 12, to compete at the NCNCA Track Masters Championships.
- Ray Spore won the State Championship in team pursuit, and got 4th place in the 500 meters Standing Start.
- Heidi Verbeeck won two State Championships at the track: team pursuit and the 500m Standing Start.
- Heidi also got 3rd place in the 2k Time Trial, 3rd in the Scratch and 3rd in the points race and closed the track championships with a 2nd place in the Elimination race.
Big congratulations to all our Davis Bike Club racers, representing our club name and colors!
What’s next….
Cycle Cross season is coming.
We will have Heidi and Ray, and hopefully some other DBC racers, compete at the Folsom Rodeo Cross Series.
Sacramento Cycle Cross Series is also coming soon, and in November we will have the Nutty Cross at Ruhstaller farm in Dixon which is great to go see and cheer all the racers on if you don’t want to get all muddy yourself.
The summer racing came to an end, but there is still more fun bike racing to come!
And if you would like to join our DBC Race team and become part of our family, reach out to our race team directors Heidi and Ray, who will be happy to share all the necessary information.