Kudos to Carlos Rodgers and his crew who present the annual Historic Riverton Criterium in their beautiful borough just over the big water in Burlington Co., NJ. The race has been kind to us with Chris Meacham winning the men's elite race in 2018, Jessica Chong 2nd in 2022, and Julianna Rutecki 3rd in 2023. The town turns out for the race with lots of porch and lawn parties on the course. The race attracted a strong field of regional and international talent that included Olympic hopeful Colleen Gulick (Team Skyline-Cadence) and Colombian champion Mateo Garcia (CRCA/Foundation). Julianna Rutecki represented us in the Women's Elite Race finishing 4th in a field sprint behind break-away winner Kristina Grossman of the powerful Automatic-Abus Team.

The final record will record that the Men's Elite Race was two minutes faster than the 2019 and 2021 versions. The pace was blistering for the full 1 hour, 12 minutes and our team was very aggressive in the race. Colin Fitzgerald, Sean Guydish, Brad Green, and Alden Weinhold covered a lot of early moves by other teams to set up our opportunities. Connor Thompson returned to the start line for our team after a lengthy travel. Both Colin and Sam Smith went on early breaks of their own to test the other racers. Ultimately, Sam survived a seven-man break late in the race to sprint to 4th overall.

It's time to highlight those talented artists who lend their talent to us. Joshua Owens Smith races for our local friends and competitors at Watts & Whiskey Cycling Team. He is a long-time friend of the Bike Works community, and currently serving as our Giant Bicycles Ambassador Athlete. Josh is an amazing photographer and when he's not racing himself, he photo documents individual people, the local bike race community, and the beauty of our sport. You can follow his agency Maple Collective on Facebook and Instagram.

Ron Short is the Senior Creative Director at Quaker City Mercantile. He is simply the OG of the artists in the local and regional cycling community. Ron is known for his amazing photography, but has increasingly spread his palette into incredible short, film edits captured by drone. You can introduce yourself to his work on Facebook, Instagram, and online portfolio.