Cathy Fegan-Kim and Alex Kim, the founders and operators of the DNA Pro Cycling, confirmed that when a 12-year run with the Utah-based girls’s staff ends in December they’ll transfer into roles as advisors and sponsors for the Virginia’s Blue Ridge TWENTY24 girls’s staff.
Earlier this summer season the Kim household introduced that they’d shut the doorways to the profitable DNA Pro Cycling staff, however would search for alternatives to remain engaged with girls’s skilled biking. When the brand new calendar rolls over into 2025, the Kim’s transfer into assist roles for the ladies’s staff based and managed by Nicola Cranmer.
“It’s a very good match. Nicola’s programme is strong and we will keep concerned in girls’s biking,” Alex Kim informed Cyclingnews. “Yeah, we met in Paris [to confirm the deal], each there to look at observe competitions. We have thrilling plans.”
The Virginia’s Blue Ridge TWENTY24 programme plans to replace the staff’s identify within the new yr, to TWENTY28, a nod to the Olympiad interval constructing to the Los Angeles Olympic Games. The staff will proceed to function beneath the administration of Cranmer and the nonprofit organisation Tam Cycling. The Kim’s don’t plan to leap again into administration roles, however present monetary assist and seek the advice of behind the scenes.
“I’ve recognized Alex and Cathy for over a decade, and their unwavering assist for his or her staff has been really exceptional. Running a girls’s biking staff is extremely difficult, and I deeply admire their dedication and accomplishments,” mentioned Cranmer, common supervisor of Virginia’s Blue Ridge TWENTY24, in a press launch.
“Both our packages share a robust imaginative and prescient of supporting multi-disciplined athletes with high-performance objectives, and this dedication will proceed shifting ahead.”
Since 2005 Cranmer’s staff has targeted on elevating girls within the sport of biking and has supplied a pathway for athletes to the Olympic Games. The staff’s most notable athlete in Paris was Jennifer Valente, who gained two gold medals on the observe for Team USA.
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“Over the final 19 years, and particularly within the latest successes of VBR Twenty24’s multidisciplinary athletes on gravel, MTB, highway, and observe—most notably Jennifer Valente’s double gold medal haul in Paris 2024—now we have seen the unbelievable influence of Nicola’s program. We are assured that persevering with our funding within the sport with VBR Twenty24 will yield optimistic outcomes for girls’s biking, significantly as we strategy the 2028 LA Olympics.”
Unbound Gravel units lottery dates for November
Life Time, the proprietor and producer of massively common Unbound Gravel occasions in Emporia, Kansas, introduced the lottery for entries into subsequent yr’s occasion will transfer to November 1-15, 2024. This is 2 months sooner than earlier years, and can embrace all 5 race distances – 25, 50, 100, 200 and 350 miles.
Those who secured an entry will likely be introduced on November 21, 2024. Organisers mentioned they hoped this would offer extra time for coaching for any athlete. The 2025 Life Time Unbound Gravel occasion will happen May 29-June 1, with 4,000 registered spots anticipated to be crammed via the lottery course of.
Guaranteed entries are supplied via a first-come, first-serve foundation within the Unbound Gravel Training Camp, beginning October 15, 2024. In addition, some spots will be earned via fundraising for an official charity social gathering, accessible via the Life Time Foundation, or a qualifying race, together with The Life Time Rad Dirt Fest in Trinidad, Colorado on September 28.
Minnesota hosts US Gravel National Championships in 2025-2026
USA Cycling introduced that the 2025 and 2026 editions of the US Gravel National Championships will likely be held in La Crescent, Minnesota. The areas of southeast Minnesota and western Wisconsin are first-time hosts for a biking championship.
The 2024 US Gravel Nationals will happen in three weeks in Nebraska, novice and elite races going down on Sunday, September 8.
In 2025, the occasion will transfer to the third week of September, coinciding with the annual Apple Festival in La Crescent.
“We are excited to convey our Gravel National Championships to La Crescent/La Crosse for 2025-2026. The area’s numerous panorama gives a number of choices for growing distinctive programs with difficult climbs, creating a brand new and totally different expertise for riders out on the course. Combining our occasion with their famend annual Apple Festival gives one other distinctive expertise that our riders and their households can take pleasure in off the course,” mentioned Kyle Knott, USA Cycling’s Director of National Events.
Ride for Magnus attracts 4,000 contributors to honour Magnus White
The White Line Foundation, based a yr in the past to honor the legacy of former US bicycle owner Magnus White, hosted the Ride for Magnus on August 11 in his hometown of Boulder, Colorado. More than 4,000 contributors turned out to participate within the free occasion, anchored by a 13.5-mile bike trip that handed the placement the place 17-year-old White was struck and killed by a motorist on July 29, 2023.
“This occasion not solely honors Magnus, a promising 17-year-old bicycle owner, but additionally serves as a robust advocacy rally for the protection of all susceptible highway customers,” his father Michael White mentioned in a pre-ride message.
Beginning on the campus of University of Colorado Boulder, free occasions included strolling and biking occasions, with registrations from all 50 states and greater than 20 international locations. Organisers famous the turnout would make it one of many largest commemorative advocacy rides in U.S. historical past.
The basis hoped to make roads safer for susceptible customers with modifications on the native, state and nationwide ranges, together with elevated penalties for vehicular murder in Colorado, acceleration in planning and development of bicycle and pedestrian initiatives, and a brand new federal rule that requires U.S. cars to have Automatic Emergency Braking, which can detect and forestall collisions with cyclists, in addition to motorcyclists.
White was a member of the US National Cycling Team and was US Junior Cyclocross National Champion. He was killed on a coaching trip, simply days earlier than competing within the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Scotland.