Hellloooo Philly Bike Expo Friends! If you have been around for a while, you likely watched this story unfold over the last handful of years. If you are new to the Philly Bike Expo family, I would love to share with you the story of how the Bilenky’s took me under their wing and helped me reach into a cycling multiverse that grew into a career in bike racing.
It all started for me in the fall of 2016. I had gotten a taste of a new side of myself that awakened when the whistle blew, in my handful of bike races the previous season. I dabbled in crits, cross, and heck, even threw in a 100 mile mountain bike race just to really get a taste of the full menu. With swift success and rapid upgrades into the Elite category, I had a strong desire to test myself and see what I was capable of as I progressed, but I was overwhelmed with how one navigates finding a team, mentorship, and support to build on early success in the sport.
It was not too long into these musings that I received a Facebook Message from Stephen Bilenky himself inviting me to be his escort to a gameshow he was due to appear on along with a delightfully wacky set of other invitations to self proclaimed “awkward social events”. As the plot unfolded over proceeding bike-centric hangs, Stephens need for some help with a creative marketing plan for the Philly Bike Expo and my need for a platform to build a bike racing team paired quite well.
From there, the work of building the Philly Bike Expo team became a truly family driven labor of love. Stephen expertly built a one of a kind Cyclocross racin rig’, Aaron thoughtfully designed the Modrian’ beauty that is the evergreen PBE kit design, and Bina lovingly watered and managed the program into maturity.
Philly Bike Expo exhibitors got wind of the project and also pitched in. In its first couple years, Team PBE supported Taylor in moving from Cat 4 to UCI athlete, an age group National Championship Win, and getting that elusive Cat 1 Road Upgrade while representing by Bilenky Cycle Works, Redshift Sports, Velocity, Paul Components, JLVelo, and Dock Street Brewing.
2019 through 2022 saw exciting growth of Team Philly Bike Expo as a womens road racing team – supporting riders in development with ambitions in the pro field and additions of impactful partners Industry Nine and VeloJawn.
When powerhouses Mark Y and Ryan S joined the PBE movement they brought huge community oriented hype and joy. By 2020 we chose to merge the team and the squad to evolve into the community oriented project that it is now, supporting bike passions in a diverse array of forms from Bike Packing to World Cup Racing.
Backed by this incredible history, it has meant the world to me to be able to step back into Philly Bike Expo kit for my 2023 Cyclocross Season. After a full calendar of racing on the road in 23’, I wasn’t sure how prepared I would be to perform in cross. To my surprise, I came into the first domestic UCI weekend in Roanoke, VA to achieve my best domestic UCI results to date, followed up with a pair of top 10’s at Charm City in Baltimore, MD I secured myself a place at the first stop of the 23/24 Cyclocross World Cup Series: Waterloo Wisconsin! Qualifying for and racing a World Cup race with the absolute best athletes in the world on our home turf was a huge accomplishment in my career. Being able to do so in Philly Bike Expo kit, representing proudly the team where I truly got my start, helped me rekindle the motivation of being a scrappy, fierce, untamed NEVER SAY DIE underdog racer. That served me well on the day while I found myself off the back in the starting straight with a mechanical, but after a visit to the pits chasing from DFN up to 16th place – 1 place off from my best World Cup finish.
After taking some rest and recuperation from a long year and sharpening back up with some domestic UCI racing I loaded the cannon again for one last shebang of the 23 CX Season: the Benidorm CX World Cup in Spain. I was tickled to see not only Americans, but Philadelphians come out of the world works in Spain to play a huge role in what ended up being one of the most memorable and fun events of my racing career, even though my results didn’t stand out as a personal best.
Throughout all the years, I owe endless gratitude to the entire Bilenky family and Philly Bike Expo community for the creativity, enthusiasm, and generosity. I can’t think of any other industry event supporting so many riders’ dreams all while bringing these stories into the light to build community and share joy though cycling. Its truly something special that the Bina and the entire Bilenky family has built here, and I feel lucky to be a part of it!