Annual Banquet

WCBC BANQUET
Saturday, February 25, 2012

(and ride with guest speaker the following morning (see below)

GUEST SPEAKER:
World Cup cyclocross racer Katie Compton

5:30 pm - hors d’oeuvres

6:00 pm - Potluck dinner
Please bring your favorite main/side dish, salad, or desert to share.

Please RSVP (with the number of people in your group) to Brenda Mehta by email (brendamehta@hotmail.com) or phone (410-920-6526) so we will know how many tables to set up to accommodate those who will attend.

Katie Compton, Delaware native and the most successful Cyclocross racer ever, (either male or female), from the USA will be our featured speaker.

Katie grew up in Newark, Delaware in an athletically inclined family. Her father, Tom, has served as the ride chairman of the WCBC and later as President of First State Velo Sports. Her mother, Deborah, started running after Katie was born to lose weight and has run 40 + miles/week since then. She has won many Delaware state running events, but says her greatest athletic achievement is that she is still running.

Katie started racing road bikes as a child. When she was a teenager she raced mountain bikes and for a while was a member of the Wooden Wheels team. She has also raced for the Trek Cycling team and has raced at the Trexlertown Velodrome. She graduated with a BA degree from the University of Delaware in Exercise Science. After graduating, Katie coached for Carmichael Training Systems and has more recently coached on her own. She is married to Mark Legg from New Zealand who has been involved in bicycle racing since he was 14.

Katie has won the USA Cycling Cyclocross National Championships Elite Women’s title every year from 2004 to 2010, and in 2012. She has also raced on a tandem with a blind partner, Karissa Whitsell in Paralympic events. Katie, the sighted team member, pilots and pedals the tandem in the captain position while Karissa rides in the rear, stoker, position. They were dominant in the 2004 Paralympic Games, winning medals in every event they entered and setting a world record in the 3 km pursuit event.

In 2007 Katie began racing professionally in UCI races. In her third cyclocross race as a professional, she won the World Cup in Pijnacker, Netherlands by a margin of 54 seconds. The same year Katie became the first American woman to podium in the Cyclocross World Championships (held that year in Belgium) where she won silver between a French duo composed of Maryline Salvetat (who took the gold) and Laurence Leboucher (who won the bronze).

Since then Katie has won twelve World Cups and three medals at the Cyclocross World Championships. Her accomplishments in the 2010-11 Cyclocross season are listed below.

Championnats du Monde / World Championships 2nd
UCI World Cup #7 - Hoogerheide 1st
UCI World Cup #5 - Heusden-Zolder 1st
UCI World Cup #4 - Kalmthout 1st
UCI World Cup #3 - Koksijde 1st
UCI World Cup #1 - Cyclo-cross International Aigle 1st
USA National Championships 1st
USGP of Cyclocross #6 - New Belgium Brewing 1st
USGP of Cyclocross #5 - New Belgium Brewing 2nd
Boulder Cup C2 Cyclo-cross 1st
Bio Wheels / United Dairy Farmers Harbin Park International 1st
Java Johnny’s - Lionhearts International Cyclo-cross 1st
Darkhorse Cyclo-Stampede International Cyclo-cross 1st
USGP of Cyclocross #2 - Planet Bike Cup 1st
USGP of Cyclocross #1 - Planet Bike Cup 1st

Katie has also placed highly in several mountain bike races during the 2010-2111 racing season. Katie joined and raced for the Rabobank-Giant Off-Road Team in 2011 and will race with the team in 2012. Before Katie’s presentation, we will watch a short video of a cyclocross race to familiarize the audience with this kind of cycling event, which is growing in popularity. Katie’s mother, Deborah, will introduce Katie before her presentation and has promised to share a few stories about Katie that are sure to interest all in attendance.

Katie’s presentation at the Banquet will be in the style of an interview rather than a lecture. Katrina Dowidchuk, an elete female cyclocross racer who won an age graded World Championship held in the US in the fall of 2012 will interview Katie. Please submit any questions you would like Katrina to ask of Katie to the following email address, flintdh@verizon.net. We look forward to seeing you at the Banquet!

NOTE:
Weather permitting, there will be a “Hot Chocolate” ride with Katie on Sunday, February 26th.

Ride with Katie Compton. 10:00am start from Paper Mill Park. We'll average a moderate and conversational 11-12 mph for 20 miles. The ride will take place primarily over lightly traveled roads, quiet neighborhood roads, roads with wide shoulders, and multi-use trails with a few connector segments that have more traffic. Terrain is a mix of rolls and flats with a few hills.

I’m also offering a shorter and flatter option. For this option, meet at the Hall Trail entrance next to the Delaware Technology Park sign at the intersection of Library Avenue and Wyoming Road in Newark by10:30am. Time is approximate as you will be meeting the group that departed from Paper Mill Park. After our UD Creamery hot chocolate stop, we will return you to the Hall Trail, where you will be able to ride back to your Delaware Technology Park start point. Distance will be approximately six miles over flat terrain.

For those doing the full ride, and if Katie is agreeable, you can let loose for a more spirited ride pace on the rolling climb to the finish once we cross the bridge over White Clay Creek on Paper Mill Road, just past Timothy’s.

Ride Leader: Jeff Butcher, (302) 737-3660, jrdbutcher@yahoo.com.