Rare Disease Cycling - Philadelphia Race Team

Race Report: 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo, by Kevin Claus
We drove down to “24 Hour Town” in the RV on Thursday morning. We found a spot on ‘Solo Row’ just off of the race course, near the start/finish. The first couple of days were spent recovering from travel, pre-riding the course and soaking up the 24 Hour Town vibes. I settled on a strategy of riding two laps at a time and taking short pit stops at camp to refuel. Nate (my son) was a superstar one-man support crew, making sure I had what I needed - bottles, real food, chamois cream, ibuprofen, bike adjustments - each time I pitted. The race began at noon on Saturday with a Le Mans start. Racers ran a few hundred yards to their bikes. It was hard to contain the excitement on the first couple of laps and I probably went out a little hot. I settled in cranking out 1:25-1:35 laps and was able to maintain that pace for most of the night. “Just keep moving” became my mantra. The only snafu was riding about 30 minutes of the “sunset” lap in near-total darkness after failing to grab lights at the appropriate time. My body held up remarkably well - I was mostly coherent like in my other 24 hour adventures. It became difficult to get the HR up after 12+ hours - just keep moving. I must have been passed thousands of times. One team averaged sub-1 hour laps to finish with 25 laps! A solo rider finished with 21 laps! I was operating on a different schedule, aiming for 15. I heard much about the sadistic cholla, but I did collect only a couple of spines in my 24 hours by getting a little too close on a corner. Sunrise was beautiful but not the emotional boost I was hoping for. I was starting to feel some pain in my contact points - primarily the hands. My last pit stop was a little more than an hour before noon and I checked on my competition in the solo singlespeed category. It became clear that I wasn’t going to catch first place and wasn’t going to be caught by third place, so I rested, ate, talked with my crew and began to celebrate the accomplishment. When the clock struck noon, I rolled down to the finish to log my 15th and final lap. The final stats: 246 miles, 18,800 feet of climbing, 2nd place in Solo Singlespeed.

Registration for the Million Dollar Bike Ride is officially LIVE! Join the rare disease community at UPenn on June 13th to raise money for rare disease research. Let's make an impact together! Register: milliondollarbikeride.org

Welcome Jake Snook to the RDC XC team! Jake has been riding with the Lower Merion Trailblazers NICA team for four years and finished second in the conference for JV2 in the 2025 season, contributing to the team’s first place conference finish. Jake also enjoys skiing anything and everything, camping and backpacking with Scouts and biking around town with his friends. He has a younger sister and enjoys playing the guitar. Jake looks forward to riding in more MASS races this year and enjoying time with his teammates.

Let's welcome Laura Hunter to the '26 RDC XC squad!
Laura has been mountain biking for close to 20 years. She primarily races XC in the Mid-Atlantic Super Series, where she placed first overall in her category for the last two years. She is a NICA coach with Delco Revolution. Good luck this year Laura!

More new team member news! We're excited to have Tim Straub join the RDC team. Tim is a longtime endurance sports enthusiast having competed in over 100 events (road racing, triathlon, and running) over the last 20 years. Although family life may have reduced his racing calendar, Tim now enjoys sharing his passion for mountain biking with his three daughters. Outside of mountain biking, Tim also enjoys DIY home repair, coaching youth basketball, and coaching youth mountain biking with the team. Good luck this year Tim!

Also welcome Alex Myers, who's been competing in enduro since 2019, and competing in the MASS Enduro series in the u19, 21-29, and in the pro class since 2022. Alex attends Penn State University for mechanical engineering and until spring 2023, competed in ECCC races through their cycling team. Alex has started racing ESC more recently since then. "I am excited to continue pushing my riding level, gaining experience, and to do my best. I'm proud to be a part of such a talented race team to hopefully bring home some solid results this season!" Good luck this year Alex, we're excited to have you at RDC!

Meet new RDC Enduro Team member Will Myers, a third year engineering student at Penn State University. Will's been competing in enduro since 2019, where in recent years he's taken his riding and racing very seriously. This past race season Will has competed in various MASS enduro races, ESC, and raced for the Penn State Cycling club in the ECCC. "After hitting some popular east coast races last year, I’m feeling more motivated with the help of Rare Disease Cycling for the 2026 season!" - Welcome aboard and good luck this year Will!

More new team member news!
Welcome Brooks Hardy, an 8th grader at Bala Cynwyd Middle School who has been riding since he was just 3-years-old. Brooks recently completed his first year of competitive racing for the LM Trailblazers and is looking forward to continuing that momentum with Rare Disease Cycling Team. He loves riding local trails, especially at Belmont and Wissahickon, and can’t wait to start the 2026 season. Good luck in '26 Brooks!

Welcome to RDC - Cami, Chris & Steve Schwarz!
Cami is a 6th grader at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Doylestown, PA. In addition to racing bikes and other sports, she enjoys spending time with her red lab named Flash. This season, Cami plans to race the MASS series, the Fifth Street Cross series, and NICA.
Chris is a 8th grader at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Doylestown, PA. He loves all forms of bike racing, including mountain bike, gravel, cross, and road, and also enjoys alpine ski racing and track and field. This year, Chris plans to race the MASS series, Fifth Street Cross, NICA, the OZ Stage Race in Arkansas, the Wilderness 101, and the Breck Epic in Colorado!
Steve has been involved in cycling for over 20 years. While his main focus is mountain biking, he also enjoys road, gravel, and cross. This year Steve plans to race the MASS Series CAT 1, 50-59, and also do some longer races like the OZ Stage Race in Arkansas, the Wilderness 101, and the Breck Epic in Colorado.

Good luck in '26 Cami, Chris and Steve! Thanks for joining Rare Disease Cycling and supporting our higher cause of fighting rare diseases!

More new team member news! We're excited to have Cadence Straub join the RDC team. Cadence is a junior racer who, in 2025, took 2nd overall Cat 3 Female U13 in the MASS series. She followed that up with racing Middle School Advanced in the fall for the team where she took 1st in the Pennsylvania Eastern Conference, and 4th in the state. Cadence is the daughter of parents who enjoy endurance sports, and she is the oldest of three sisters. Outside of mountain biking, Cadence enjoys playing basketball and the ukulele. Good luck this year Cadence!

Just when the weather really starts to turn and the freeze thaw season takes hold, the Tussey Mountain Ugly Sweater Race says not yet! Held in the beginning of December in Rothrock State Forest, the weather usually plays a challenging part in the race. This year snow fell during the week before the race and made for some festive conditions (in addition to the ugly sweaters and other festive decor racers are encouraged to wear). The single track was terrific; frozen, snowy and rocky. The forest roads that connect the single track were another story; snow compacted into ice sheets by car traffic and melting and refreezing kept racers on their toes over the course of the 20 mile race. Congrats to everyone who came out, finished and volunteered!

RDC Results:
Men’s 40+
P2 - Dave Breisacher 🥈

Happy Holidays from all of us at Rare Disease Cycling!

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