The end of our second season racing caps a tremendously successful, and exciting 2014 for our team. The year has been fruitful, rewarding, tragic, and very special for all of our members. Here’s a look back at the season, including our 2014 team performance award winners, Jacob the Great, and what we accomplished:
Jacob the Great
On January 16, 2014 we tragically lost one of our own right as the new season was starting. Jacob Hollings joined our inagural 2013 squad as a mid-season addition at 20 years old, and quickly shined, winning multiple races and finishing the season on a very high note.
While his passing was very sad and difficult, we remember Jacob, not only through our own encounters with him, but also first hand through his father, Phil Hollings. Phil pledged to his son, posthumously, to race in Jacob’s place. He had never ridden a mountain bike before, and in his first race, he got 1st place, just like Jacob! We are so thankful to have Phil on the team, racing for himself and in Jacob’s memory. Read more about Jacob here.
Team Performance Award Winners
Our team supports two types of members, racing and riding. Our racing members have the opportunity to compete for annual team awards to act as an incentive and motivation to perform well during the season. We track races completed and placings, and assign a points system to them. Based on the data, we have a pretty good objective way to award performance without any kind of subjective opinion. Here are the 2014 winners:
Not in attendance:
- 2014 Overall Points Leader, Mike D’Aurelio
- 2014 Best Accumulated Adventure Race Placing, Corey Fawcett
Racing by the Numbers
The 2014 racing season saw 34 out of 49 members compete in 43 unique sprint and endurance bike races for a total of 247 individual race entries logged by both racing and riding members, up 65 % from 85 logged in 2013.
By far our most represented Category is CAT2 (SS included) and 2nd most popular is CAT 3. There were 105 XC Races logged, and 62 Endurance type races. BWR was represented at a race in every month of the season in 2014!
Total team membership reached 49 for the season and consisted of 1 life time member, 32 racing members, 12 riding members, and 4 junior boys. The team became more gender diverse with 7 women on the team, 3 who raced consistently the entire season. We had 37 men, respectively.
Racing Performance
Several of our racing and riding members placed in the top ten and reached the podium in multiple races during the season. Here is the breakdown of our best results:
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#WINNING |
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| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th – 10th |
| 33 | 34 | 17 | 18 | 63 |
That put’s a Bearded Women on the podium 84 times out of 247 individual race entries, a 34% podium achievement rate!
Race Summaries
Click on a race to read each summary (not all races attended were summarized):
- Sansom 66
- Rudolph’s Revenge
- Dirty Dozen
- Frozen Endurance Series
- Lone Star XC Series
- Red River Riot
- 24 Hours in the Canyon
- Smurf Boy Endurance Series
- Hotter ‘N Hell Hundred
- DORBA Fall Series, RCP, Northshore, Johnson Branch, Boulder Park
In addition to our racing performances, Bearded Women Racing is 100% focused on community outreach as well. Here is a summary of what our team accomplished this past season:
Community Service
Aside from racing, our members are expected to participate in various community service events throughout the season. This past year, 22 members volunteered their time at 26 local events. Here are some of the events Bearded Women Racing was at:
For the past 2 years, Bearded Women Racing marched in honor of fallen soldiers and their families at Carry the Load. Here’s recaps from 2013 and 2014.
Carry the Load is a non-profit organization helping people celebrate a meaningful Memorial Day by conducting a 20-hour event that honors veterans and active duty service members, law enforcement officers, firefighters and their families.
This was the first year the team participated in DORBA’s Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day. Three trails celebrated TKMBD on Saturday, October 4, 2014. Bearded Women Racing (BWR) volunteered at two of those events: Horseshoe (Grapevine, TX), and the NW Community Trail (Frisco, TX).
In Frisco, seven BWR members came out to help check fit on the kids’ bikes and helmets, change flats, lead/sweep rides and cheer the kids on. Frisco drew 15 smiling, happy kids to their event and many laps around the trail were taken by all.
Trail Maintenance
This season, each member was challenged to complete at least 8 hours of trail work for the year. The team requires members to give back in various ways, and putting in trail time is one of the main activities we do. We had 36 members work a total of 462 trail hours at 17 different trails! We hope to double that amount next year.
Bearded Women Racing 
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