MABRA Annual Meeting, Vote for New Board Members, and Welcome to New Volunteers

This is a reminder that the MABRA Annual Meeting will be held on January 11 from 2 to 5pm at the Jane E. Lawton Community Center in Chevy Chase, MD (same location as last year). All members of the MABRA community are encouraged to attend and participate! We especially request attendance from (a) leaders of member clubs or their designates and (b) race directors for MABRA events. The meeting agenda is as follows: 

• Year-in-review: MABRA Board Members, officials, and race promoters will review the past year and outline their successes, challenges, and plans for 2026. 

• Vote on Officials pay: Class A member clubs will vote on this proposal to raise race official pay in MABRA.  

• Annual election: Member clubs will vote to re-elect Paul Lengermann and Craig Etheridge to the MABRA Board. 

• Rob Laybourne, President and Founder of the Armed Forces Cycling Classic, will discuss upcoming changes to AFCC. 

• Race director break out session: Directors for road and CX will discuss their 2026 calendars and designate the 2026 championship and series events. 

We’ll have light snacks and refreshments on hand. If there are other agenda items you’d like to cover, please contact Paul Lengermann (president) and Craig Etheridge (vice president) and we’ll consider them. Hope to see you there! 

Please Welcome (and Vote for) your new Rider’s and Women’s Representatives: Although the elections for both of these Board positions are uncontested, please read the candidate statements below to learn more about them and consider casting a supporting vote at this link.  

• Rider’s Representative - Taylor Hayek (Total Civil Construction): This director advocates for the interests of all MABRA riders. They must be elected by vote of all MABRA riders with an active USAC license. Craig Etheridge is the outgoing rider’s rep but will be stepping into a general director position and continuing his work as Vice President and Cross Coordinator.

  • My name is Taylor Hayek and I’ve been racing since 2019. I started out road cycling by commuting to work during recovery from a femur fracture riding at my old BMX trails. Slowly that transitioned into group rides and eventually racing around MABRAland! I worked in the cycling industry full time for about 13 years before transitioning to work for a local water utility. I still work on bicycles for teammates, friends and a few clients I’ve kept. If selected I would like to help my fellow racers and friends have a louder voice when it comes to racing and keeping our sport fun and safe especially between officials and race organizers/promoters. Thanks for the opportunity! 

• Women's representative - Dominique Mack (National Capital Velo Club): This director advocates for the interests of all MABRA women. They must be elected by vote of MABRA female riders with an active USAC license. KJ Phillips is the outgoing women’s rep and is not seeking re-election.  Thank you KJ for your service to the MABRA community!

  • For those of you that don't yet know me, my name is Dominique Mack and I'm excited to be considered as the next MABRA's women's representative! As the women's representative I will be committed to growing the participation of women, minorities, and anyone curious about cycling events across MABRA. 

  • I got into road cycling in 2014 with my first triathlon, but by 2019 I'd hung up my swim cap to focus on my favorite of the three disciplines. That year I also competed in my first cyclocross race and was immediately hooked by a sport that made no sense whatsoever but had the best community. Cyclocross was my first introduction to MABRA and to the National Capital Velo Club, the team I would eventually join in January 2023. I've grown to love all cycling disciplines and you can catch me on the roads of Potomac, the gravel of Loudoun, or the MTB trails of Alexandria.

  • I know personally how intimidating it can feel just to show up to a cycling event, whether it's a group ride or a race. I therefore plan to use my position as Women's Representative to engage directly with all clubs and race directors to continue to identify barriers to participation, regardless of background or demographic. My goal is to promote both inclusivity and fair competition, especially given the new limitations that our community must contend with. 

• I believe that the MABRA cycling community is a place for adding more young riders to the top-tier international pipeline (as we've already done), for helping people to explore a new and healthful hobby, and for everyone in between. I look forward to working with you all!

Thank you Taylor and Dominique for putting yourselves forward and welcome to the MABRA Board! 

New Interim Board Member, NaLette Brodnax. Board Member At-Large, Stacie Kemp, will be stepping down at the beginning of this year. NaLette Brodnax of Getting It In Cyclists will be serving as an interim Member At-Large for the remainder of Stacie’s term this year. We are grateful for Stacie’s service over the past year and are thrilled to have NaLette join the Board.  

• My name is NaLette Brodnax and I am excited to join the MABRA board as Member-At-Large. After many years of casual biking, I bought my first road bike in 2022 and entered my first race in 2024. Since then I have loved participating in our local MABRA and VACA races and traveling to a few national races. As a board member I hope to contribute to MABRA's efforts to keep bike racing fun, fair, and accessible. 

New MABRA Volunteers: We are very happy to introduce two new MABRA volunteers – Sam Brummitt and Bassel Shalaby – for the upcoming year.  To learn more about Sam and Bassel see their statements below.

• Sam Brummitt – Social media coordinator: Sam will be stepping into a new position aimed at better promoting MABRA events and race series, highlighting the successes of riders and clubs, and improving awareness of all things MABRA through our social media channels.

  • My name is Sam Brummitt and I first got into road racing with the University of Wisconsin cycling team. The road trips to collegiate races around the Midwest are some of my best memories from college. In my 20s I spent a number of years working in China. Cycling as a recreational sport was not common there at the time, but I found ways to go bike packing on a mountain bike and did several triathlons on a steel road bike. Since 2013 I’ve lived in DC, where I’ve gotten back into bike racing with Route 1 Velo. In addition to endurance sports, my other passion is sports videography and photography. I’m excited to get more involved with the cycling community by volunteering as MABRA’s social media coordinator. My goal is to connect racers, race organizers, and local cycling clubs and to highlight the wide range of great bike races in the mid-Atlantic area. 

• Bassel Shalaby – Road coordinator: Bassel will be taking over road coordinator duties from Sunny Gill in 2026.  He will work with race directors, clubs, and officials to set the racing calendar each year, designate championship events, and coordinate the Road Series.

  • Hi, I’m Bassel Shalaby. I got my first road bike in March of 2020 (technically just before the pandemic shutdowns ). I originally just wanted a more convenient way to get around town, but it didn’t take long before I fell in love with going fast, pushing my limits, and learning everything I could about the sport. That quickly led me to group rides, cycling clubs, and an incredible community that I’m grateful to still be a part of today.Since then, my cycling “hobby” has steadily turned into a full-blown obsession, including road racing, regular group rides, organized events, and bike trips abroad. I spent my early cycling years riding in and around Baltimore City and County, but for the past three years I’ve been based in Montgomery County, where I’ve really enjoyed getting involved in the local riding and racing scene.I’ve been looking for ways to get more involved in the community in a meaningful way so I’m very excited to be stepping into a role with MABRA to support road racing in our region. We have a really strong racing community here, and I’m looking forward to helping preserve what makes it great while also finding ways to help it continue to grow. I’m especially excited to work with Sunny, learn from his experience, and help carry forward everything he’s built over the years.

Welcome Sam and Bassel and thank you to everyone who contacted us about volunteering!