Mettle Cyclocross p/b Leave It On The Road - Season Recap
A NEW PURPOSE. A NEW SQUAD. A NEW SPONSOR.
Larissa Fransen navigates the Corn Maze at Corn Cross in her 2nd CX race ever.
The “State of the Union” of the cycling industry has hardly been a solid trajectory of progress over the last… well, few decades. As a new-comer to the “industry,” I’ve adapted my understandings of businesses and brands to this niche industry. It’s an industry that has no problem maintaining a high rate of evolution in their product releases but lags significantly (overall) in their ability to evolve their efforts on improving equity in this sport. I’ve sat in too many conference rooms where the participants are 100% male and the topic at hand is marketing something to women. Despite my best efforts in being an advocate and ally in my previous ad career, problems persist in conference rooms all over the world. The top-down change all athletes and consumers expect is still far behind where it should be and in all honesty, cycling is a perfect example of this problem.
I’m the owner of Mettle Cycling and I’m a white-cis male. And to be clear, this is not about me at all other than a promise kept to myself and the team (and currently emblazoned on our kit):
Don’t talk about it, be about it.
This is about putting forth the right effort to effect change where you can, creating solutions to the issues that impact our community, and elevating those that benefit from those solutions. Mettle Cycling is tight knit squad powered by a passionate brand, both of which have a commitment to the local scene. Over the last 4 years, we've built a reputation for being strong, tactical, and worst of all... "a group of really nice riders." As the team leader and "owner," my goal has been to build it the same way as the brand. Purposeful and slow. No assholes.
Until this year, Mettle Racing has been a small circle of males; males that are already well embedded into racing and enjoy the benefits the sport more easily provides to male athletes. Recruiting WTF riders began to feel difficult when considering a few factors: There are fewer WTF racers in our local community, most of which are already on teams. Bringing new riders to the scene requires lowering the barrier of entry to a costly sport. The last thing I want to do is offer a way to bring someone to the sport then in my next breath say, “GREAT! Team kit is $250, race fees are around $40 per race and there’s lots of other equipment you’ll need to compete…soooo let me know when you get that sorted and we’ll be over here training.”
Annalisa Fish is full gas down the Start/Finish at Bridge City CX, the last of local races in PDX this year…
This is where Leave It On The Road comes in for 2019. I’m also a board member of this non-profit organization - we build epic rides with purpose, having raised over $200k in funds to benefit cancer research over the last 6 years. When founder Michael Tabtabai thought we could combine forces to try some new fundraising formats, we thought focusing on a CX team that could both contribute to fundraising efforts while bringing more equity to the sport was an obvious path. We formulated a sponsorship plan to provide a budget and additional access to existing partners of LIOTR.
Mettle Cycling p/b Leave It On The Road was built for the 2019 CX season and immediately, we were off to a great front row start. 4 women would receive a larger sponsorship package while they would be helping to build awareness and commit to an individual fundraising goal. Best of all, we recruited another 4 beginner riders that would grow the sport in a sustainable way through huge guidance from the 4 experienced and sponsored riders.
SPONSORSHIPS
Top row, left to right: Larissa Fransen, Annalisa Fish, Jenna Byrd, Christy Hawkins
Bottom Row, left to right: Kayt Mathers, Sierra Domaille, Brooke Salisbury
Specialized and Easton were hugely instrumental in their sponsorships. S-Works Crux frame sets provided by Specialized were fully kitted out by Easton. The consensus among the riders was that “these bikes fucking rip.” Our squad is riding the same bikes you see in Belgium and that’s cool as hell. It’s about as “pro” as amateurs get.
SUCCESS
Our family vibe at Mettle Cycling is very protected. It’s incredibly hard to build a team of riders that are so willing to work for their teammates at an amateur level. The balance of encouragement vs. pressure to perform is well-balanced and even more importantly, falling short of goals is supported and even celebrated. Giving reinforcement to your teammate to try again and examine the positive seems easy, but it’s not - especially when you have your own race to worry about.One of the biggest things I ask of the team is to examine your race and, no matter what, pick one lesson you learned. Win or DFL.
Increasing the team size so significantly was daunting but the key is always having good people. As long as you have that, the rest will take care of itself; and it did. The entire squad quickly elevated itself and not only did the general positivity increase, results did too.
PALMARÈS
2019
Wins = 16
Podiums (2nd & 3rd) = 31
Top 10s = 78
#CXNATS
Not only did the regular season provide great results, but we had 5 racers targeting USA Nationals and bringing home 3 medals as well as 2 top 10’s (3 in the top 20) of the 154 field of elite riders in the Single Speed category. Media coverage showed 2 Mettle Cycling riders on the front row of the giant field.
Sierra Domaille nabbed 4th place in her age group (40-44). Ben Guernsey pulled out a 5th place in his 35-39 Category. Gabe Linn was 5th in the 40-44 (standing on the podium with Molly Cameron and Jake Wells).
ADDITIONAL PARTNERS
Grant Headley runs up a wall of roots and mud at Cascade Locks CX.
The support we received from our other sponsors has been integral to making sure the the wheels are turning. Contributing to the goal of keeping the sport a little more accessible was done by providing products and discounted access from these brands:
Silca - Brand new bar tape for the team and for the online raffle as well as their newest digital floor pump for the tent’s “service course”
LTRMN - LTRMN is a leading brand within the marijuana industry, creating and distributing the highest quality cannabis products including CBD products for our recovery regimine.
CyclePath - best wrenches in town and our go-to bike shop for in-store discounts and special orders.
Nuun Hydration - There’s no better hydration mix on the market and their a company run by amazing people and athletes.
FUNDRAISING
LIOTR Founder Mike Tabtabai rips through the mud at one of the only soup-y races of the season chasing a podium spot for the series overall at PDX Trophy Cup.
We hit fundraising on a lot of fronts. Maybe too many fronts. This was a “diversify your portfolio” kind of thing instead of an “all your eggs in one basket” kind of thing. As mentioned, the sponsored women had their own individual goals but there were others such as being a named partner for the PDX Trophy Cup series. This is an early season series held on Tuesday nights that’s very accessible and doing all the right things when it comes to inclusivity. The beginner women’s field nearly quadrupled over previous years, having on average 100 women start across all categories; on a school night!
We bought all the course tape and sold raffle tickets for the end of season party. All our previous partners and local brands donated items to the cause and it was a huge portion of the funds that were raised.
For the final race of the season, the squad encouraged all cash hand-ups be collected and donated to the cause as well. In one day, the women grabbed $481 while racing and still nabbed 2 podiums. The word spread through the community quickly and gave everyone a bigger vested interest in the cause.
If you were to hop over to www.mettlecyclingphoto.com, you’d see an entire season of race photos for sale. We got up for the 8am races (and raced those) and stayed for the last 3pm races (and raced those, too). We sold hi-res digital downloads with full rights (and simple pricing) and donated everything but the transaction fees to LIOTR. The above series was shot at one of the races where we focused on “portraits.” This is definitely something we’ll continue to push in upcoming seasons…
7 riders that were completely new to CX getting instruction from our elite women’s squad.
A huge contributor to the overall success of growing the sport was our partnership with The Wy’East Sisterhood and our Bikes 4 Runners series. 3 evenings in the fall that covered 1) Basic bike construction, parts, and maintenance 2) Navigating the city streets via bike and riding safely 3) A CX clinic led by Annalisa and Kayt that was a total introduction to the sport. That’s where we met team rider Jenna, and future team rider, Sarah, owner of the Sisterhood.
All in all, we raised a little over $5,000 and have plans for more events in the new year. The rest is best described in the images we captured this year. It’s been a tremendous season filled with positivity and if you were around for it, thanks for being part of the family.
