With the end of the 2011 season we wanted to provide you all with an update on our season. Before we begin, just know that we are very grateful for the support you provided us this past year – there is no way we would have been able to be as successful as we were without you. We are truly appreciative and hope you were proud to be part of our journey. We are sure to have missed many of the team’s collective wins and accolades with so many of them happening each month. Still the following are but some of the better moments our terrific organization put up through the year.

2011 saw us sprinting out of the gates. By the end of April we had already tallied 33 top 10 places in road and mountain bike events with the highlights being:

- Jonathan Lee’s 1st place in Valley of the Sun’s (Phoenix, AZ) Stage 1 of the Elite Men’s Cat 2 Race

- Twyla Robert’s 1st place finish in the Beginner Women’s class at Boggs 8 hr MTB race

- And the start of Jenny Gott and Kashy Ghazzagh’s impressive seasons with 2nd and 1st place podium finishes (respectively) at the Bicycle Plus Early Bird Criterium.

As the season progressed, we managed to stay in stride with 65 more top 10 finishes (28 of them podiums) by the time summer came to a close at the end of July. Perhaps more astounding was the emergence of a strong group of Cat 4 women racers from within the Club Women’s team. They took the racing scene by storm proudly displaying their team and sponsors on the podium all over Northern California and in Wyoming and Idaho!

By the time the last race was completed, Red Peloton tallied a total of 70+ podium finishes and another 100+ top 10 finishes (4th – 10th place). That includes:

- Keith Flood’s overall win in the NorCal MTB series

- Shannon Mitchell’s 1st place in the Dunnigan Hills Cat 4 Women’s Race

- Nina Strika’s 2nd place finish at the Esparto Time Trial in the Women’s 1,2,3 race

- Lauren Rignel’s overall 2nd place finish (women’s Cat 4) at the Folsom Cyclebration Omnium, and Kashy Ghazzagh’s overall 1st place finish in the Men’s Cat 3 field at the same Omnium.

That is nothing short of outstanding given the field sizes and competition! But all of the victories aside, the greater outcome is the fact that all of this was completed while maintaining a great core of philanthropy and support for our local community charitable events.

Although being successful on the bike is important, it comes second to what we strive to do as an organization: give back to a community that gives us so much. In 2011 we proudly supported many events and organizations that are important to the community as a whole. That includes:

- $1000 donation to Bike Monkey for their Annadel fundraiser
- $2000 + volunteers to the Tour De Fuzz which supports the Sonoma County Chaplaincy
- $1000 to Santa Rosa’s chapter of Bikes for Humanity
- $500 + event participants to support Sutter’s Cat Walk for a Cure (fundraiser for Breast Cancer research & Services) which raised a total of $250,000 for their cause
- $500 sponsorship as well as volunteers for CX Nation/Bike Monkey Santa Rosa Cup cyclocross series
- And The coordination and staffing of Levis Gran Fondo On-Bike Course Marshals

Add in mentoring the new riders and juniors at the local TNT crit races, our volunteer support for the Tour d Organics and our holiday donations (by bike!) of food to Redwood Gospel Mission and toys for Toys for Kids drive this December, and you get an idea as to how much we gladly give back to our community. We’re proud to be a team that gives back in this way and we were glad that you could be a part of it all with us.

As we move into 2012, we hope you and yours all have a wonderful holiday season and we look forward to even greater successes both on and off the bike!