Wolfpack Women's Racing, 2021 & beyond

[dashDustin]

Sunday at SLC (USA Crits stop #4) we saw something kinda neat:

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It was hot. We were tired. But damn if that didn’t make everyone’s day.

[jmgorman]

You're damned right you do! The wolf pack is killing it, and julie kuliecza is a gosh darned national treasure.

[dashDustin]

You're damned right you do! The wolf pack is killing it, and julie kuliecza is a gosh darned national treasure.

Julie. Is. Awesome.

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So is SnowyMountain Photography.

[dashDustin]

If anyone wants to watch:

https://usacrits.tv/

We go on at 7:50 mountain time.

[dashDustin]

That was a rough one.

6 starters
4 went down
3 DNF'ed (one of these was a dead etap shifter battery...guest rider, battery died on the first lap.)

But, we maintain Young Rider, Lap Leader, 3rd team, and 4th rider overall.

[dashDustin]

Upcoming race weekend is in Birmingham...where everything went to hell last year in March. I had just landed, and on my ride to the host house, Jefferson County pulled the plug on all public gatherings.

At that time, there were fewer than 20 cases. Yesterday, Jefferson Co reported 678 new cases, with 417 7-day average. While we are all vaccinated, I am still a good bit concerned. Doesn't help that wifey is spending the week between Birmingham and Athens there in the southeast.

[dashDustin]

Birmingham was...hard. Rained before the race, but dried enough to be fast, then downpour hit just before podiums...as we were packing up. Not much excitement in a 4-corner, flat crit that's maybe 1km long. Need to watch the replay. We showed up 1 rider short, and with 2 guest riders. Managed a 4th place individual and 3rd place team. The way this particular race worked out, only the top 3 riders got prize money, but the teams got prize money down to 10th or something. So we were still in the money.

I've been having my issues with pit officials this year. This race had potential to be annoying, but luckily there was only a single occurrence of a rider coming in.

Got home around midnight after about 14hrs of travel, back in the office today, and now getting prep'ed for Spartanburg (Friday), Athens (Sat), and Grant Park (Sun...something like a $20k purse for the women).

[j44ke]

Glamour life Dustin. Good luck next weekend!

[dashDustin]

So glad we survived this past weekend. Athens and Grant Park were brutal. Spartanburg...we lost a(nother) shoe, and rotor.

I'm so glad Cannondale, Manual for Speed, and Cyclingtips have teamed up to follow the US crit scene a little bit. And it's not the same MfS that it was in years past. Less knife fights, more...better...content/ photos. And this video, which makes my heart flutter a little bit.

[dashDustin]

Anyone watch El Paso?

Without Legion, both races felt quite different from the sidelines. Or maybe I was just excited that we didn't get 'punched in the mouth' and were able to execute our plan.

[dashDustin]

Last 2 races of the season at Winston Salem. 2 podiums. It was a good weekend. Especially Saturday...that was the best race the team had all year. Every single person contributed to getting Julie the 8 laps she needed to secure the Lap Leader jersey, and Kaitlyn still had enough in the tank to get 3rd on the day. If you have 75mins, I think it's worth a watch.

Now we get back to finding sponsors for 2022.

Team Overall - 3rd
Young Rider - 2nd
Lap Leader - 1st

[dashDustin]

Oh, and this was Kristen's last race. No mas. She'll be joining us next year in sort of a race director role, though. It's hard for wifey and I to do all the things, so adding her to the staff, with her experience, will be a tremendous help.

[dashDustin]

one our partners has a new, co-branded roast available: https://www.toptubecoffee.com/products/the-wolfpack

Last years version was pretty solid. Fruity undertones that paired pretty well with milk (ie macchiato). Did well for a cold brew, too. Was bummed that I only got a couple bags. I expect this new roast to be the same. Even better is that they were true to their word and cut us a check from the proceeds.

[Too Tall]

Inspiring stuff D. Love the coverage.

[dashDustin]

Also had our first Girl Scout event since the pandemic hit. 27 little ladies got their Wolfpack Women's Racing Bicycle Safety Badge on Sunday. Including this girl with the wolf backpack.

We’ve got some big news coming up.

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[Too Tall]

Backpacks too??!!! OK, that's Pro

[dashDustin]

I've got plenty to say about Redlands, and stage races in general, but for the moment, let's enjoy our girl Haley being in the Amateur jersey following Stage 1 at Redlands today:

https://twitter.com/redlandsClassic/...rjMyFZlpxcrKAA

[dashDustin]

Done and dusted. Kept the “Amateur” jersey, though I suspect Haley will be a 1 very shortly. She’s been with us since she was racing the 3/4s. Her commitment to the team is just awesome.

Kaitlyn was having a very nice crit yesterday, till someone took a poor line and put their RD in her front wheel. That rider was a DNS today, so she must’ve not been well.

Romina was sort of a late add this year. Monster TT on Friday, then topped it off with 4th day.

All in all, it was a solid weekend with only 4 riders starting.

Next stop, Joe Martin. Then the real fun begins.

[dashDustin]

So one of the benefits of our partnership with ProBikeKit is that they love us and have helped us out with various marketing material. They created the new logo, came up with the color schemes, have helped me out with graphics for flags and banners, product...and they've helped us out with our newsletter - The Howl.

Offseason for us was hard. We had spent months securing a few larger sponsors, only to have them all pull out at the end of 2021. End of the year, not season. As in, the time when we'd typically be taking delivery of equipment, having get-togethers, ordering kits and whatnot - we had the rug pulled out from underneath us. This was also when we were dealing without our oldest boy being admitted to psych hospital. So, again...off season was...hard. A lot of the sponsor fall-out was due to USA Crits collapsing, and previous sponsors basically saying "well, without USA Crits, you don't really have a story." And we didn't. Despite our belief that crit racing in the US is the best bet for ROI of any form of racing...without that series, what did we have? A few races here and there...no jerseys, no season-long tales. Like, we went from Julie securing the USA Crits lap leader jersey in the final minutes of the final race to...nothing. The fall of USA Crits led to a ton of work behind the scenes that ultimately led to USAC's American Criterium Cup series. More on this later when I feel like typing a novel.

ProBikeKit felt differently. They stepped in and threw us a lifeline. And I really don't think we would have survived without their help. And they're also willing to help out with little stuff, like formatting this newsletter for us. It's a great partnership. We're lucky to have them onboard.

Most of the ladies are at Joe Martin this week, while wifey and a few others are in Rochester.

Rochester represents the first official Wolfpack + USAC event - "Level Up Your Ride". - linky link. Again, will type more on this late when I feel like writing a novel. Wifey put a ton of work into this, and to see it finally come to fruition is just awesome.

[dashDustin]

Been a busy/ stressful/ hectic few weeks. Everyone's favorite weekend is coming up, however - Tulsa Tough. But first -

Wifey hooked up with Dirt Divas, a group of women riders in Tulsa, and hosted a clinic last night. Seems to have turned out really well. Large crowd (100+, I think), lots of support (hey Prestacycle and Pinarello), and good company. It was a win win win.