I made my way down to the Maryland Cycling Classic for a bunch of reasons. One of the things that’s different about going to a bike race is you’re able to see the production as well as the race. If your only experience of pro bike racing is the media streams of the Tour de France, experiencing the race in person is totally different. Access to the race and racers is much easier. And what they’re doing seems to be a mash-up of local bike racing and the Tour. The third division squads generally had family and friends helping them set up at the start, while the first-division teams came with an army of professional support.
My only camera at the event was my phone. Traveling lightly. But I snapped a bunch, and, as always, wished I had taken more pictures as well as more time to compose my shots. Still, I think there are some vignettes worth sharing.
If you haven’t seen them already, do check out Marco Quezada’s shots of the race.
Team Medellin’s service course at the race hotel’s lobby. They were installing tires on the morning of the race. And like the rest of us, they were struggling with the tight fit of tires on carbon rim-brake rims–weird because they were almost certainly Vittoria tires on Vittoria rims.
An otherwise anonymous minivan with a sticker denoting this is the ride of the Bike Exchange-Jayco WorldTour team. Team cars are literally rolling advertisements for most pro teams, but being a continent away for a few one-day races means relying on the race sponsors to provide vehicles.
The domestic pro teams, on the other hand, did have their rolling advertisements ready.
The start at the Kelly Benefit Strategies headquarters in Sparks, MD was turned into an event. There was a hospitality tent, as well as food trucks, and constant patter from the announcer. Every team got an introduction. Above is the Toronto Hustle squad.
In in terms of jersey design, the WorldTour teams stand out from the second- and third-division teams.
Having retired Baltimore Ravens star Ray Lewis on the podium talking, seen at the left, was a way to connect the race to the locals. If his chatter is to be believed, he’s a fairly committed bike rider who trains every day. All the same, he seemed to get a bit of a thrill talking to Tour de France stage winner Michael Matthews, second Bike Exchange rider from left.
The field rolls out to start the Maryland Cycling Classic. Seemed like a pretty decent-sized crowd. It was pretty much the last time the field was together.
200 meters to go. It looked like an awfully long 200 meters on a pretty wide road. On the right were several hospitality tents.
A few non-racers got onto the course and rode the finishing straight to the cheers of the crowd. They were nabbed 100m after the finish line. There were “activities at Finish Line: 2:00 – 3:30 pm” before the race arrived, but it seemed to be more of a motorcycle wheelie demo, and had very little to do with bicycles.
Wear what you got. The Jumbo-Visma team chose not to race in Maryland, but their fans got dressed for the occasion anyways.
This is where the riders got pulled from the course. All but one of Team USA was pulled pretty early. EF’s Tom Scully, seen in pink, is a reliable WorldTour domestique. Here, he did his job and was done for the day. His team finished third, fifth, sixth, 18th, 19th, and 32nd. Along with the third-division riders pulled were riders from the first-division teams as well.
The Toronto Hustle. A development team, most of the squad was done before they even reached the finishing circuits.
Race Winner Sep Vanmarcke’s bike. Non sponsor-correct drink in the water bottle cage.
EF’s Andrea Piccolo after the finish. He was in the break all day, fell off the pace late, made it back to the lead group on the last lap, and just fell off the pace at the end, crossing the line in fifth place. He’s ready to head back to the race hotel, which was at the other end of the finishing straight, but he had work yet to do. As the best young rider, he had to hang around for interviews and a jersey presentation. At some point, he got separated from his bike and was worried he’d have to walk back on his own.
Second placed Nickolas Zukowsky, in orange jersey, with teammate Kyle Murphy, and what seemed to be family, team officials, and sponsors. This race was a big deal for Human Powered Health. The race started at one team sponsor’s headquarters, and was sponsored by several of the teams backers. It’s also one of the two races the American-registered team has done in the United States all year.