Ride Recap - WBL Season Opener

Mar 11

Hey all! With the majority of races canceled for the 2020 season, the people of Greenville thought it’d be a great idea to put together some sort of organized ride to get us ready for the (fingers crossed) 2021 season, and reintroduce us to the new covid standard of wearing masks at all times when not riding. The GVL WBL {pronounced JIVEL WIBEL} and this longer post to keep you occupied from doing other important work on this Monday is inspired by our friends down in Athens who put on a safe and great Winter Bike League too. This group and ride structure is designed to spark our flame for competition and camaraderie going into the new season!

Moving on, we’d like to thank all of the men and women who came and joined us on Saturday for the inaugural - all 85 of you (plus a few of you who forgot to sign in… oops). We even had 11 awesome, super strong women show out! I’m sure we all want a sport full of equality/ inclusiveness and with equal prize money/ prizes we hope more and more lovely ladies will show up! This first ride along with them all in the month of December is designed to get more base miles safely, and remind ourselves what the great outdoors is like. (Looking at you zwifters) This first one had a little bit of spice to it because one of our sponsors (thank you Vision) decided to keep us on our toes with a short and daunting KOM/QOM prize up the looooooooooooonnnnnnnnngggggggg Mtn full climb!(not exaggerated at all trust me) These challenges were handily won by professional riders Parker Kyzer and Marni Sumbal who threw down some MAD WATTS to gap the rest of their competition. In terms of crazy action, that was about it but we do have a few honorable mentions that made this ride memorable. Listed below are some of the special moments that will be hard to forget anytime soon! (Well at least until next weeks’ GVL WBL {pronounced JIVEL WIBEL})

Hincapie Sports for giving our ride leaders a warm BUT ALSO VERY VISIBLE VEST so that we could safely patrol the mighty peloton
Parker Kyzer for winning the KOM even though his gears never stopped skipping
Marni Sumbal for laying down the watts and winning the ride QOM (and taking QOM on strava segment ) with a time of 2 minutes and 32 seconds
Mac Prince (of Kelly Benefits Strategies Elite pedaling team) for showing up to the ride 10min late and riding 30 MILES OF THE LOOP BACKWARD BY HIMSELF to meet us (side shoutout to Cate for passing him in the back-up sag and making him do the work rather than pace him back up)
Youngest juniors and future stars goes out to Keith Blunt and Johan Bolivar - way to show your strength out there guys!
Super shoutout to Rishi Deszie for braving the peloton and coming out after having picked up cycling only 3 months ago (thank you COVID) and for coming back after a mechanical to finish the last 30 miles of the ride.
Nate Watson for always providing the scenic Cat 5 (or cat 10?) chain grease stain on his leg (like seriously this dude needs a calf guard or something)
Osias Lozano was a natural ride leader and braved the intersections and the angry cars to make sure everyone crossed roads safely. Also major shoutout for sponsoring the ride with his business “Three Little Birds Boutique” and giving away a women’s raffle for a $20 gift card! BTW, gentlemen, if you’re looking to get some Christmas gifts or a special surprise for your lady (you know, since she let you go out and ride all day), this shop is the place to go. Plus it's right in Traveler’s Rest so you can pick something up on the way home!
Arthur Street for driving the sag vehicle for his first ever sag duty
Our newcomers Mollie Brewer (from Colorado) and Alexi Costa (from Trinidad) came out to make new friends and learn new roads. We’re so excited to have them in Greenville!

Thank you to ALL our sponsors for letting us offer some Cash and Prize incentives to get people out here!