August 20, 2019
We don’t like secrets at SplitMango. Things we don’t keep secret:
- We Love the Web
- We Love Web Development and Design
- We are proud Vancouver Web Developers
- We want to build a better Web Experience
- We Love empowering our clients with powerful websites
- We’re Experts
- David Miller Loves Cycling
You’ll see a trend in the things SplitMango really cares about. Clearly as web experts in Vancouver, we’re over the mountains (well, just below them) for Web-Development and it’s related wonders that we find ourselves intoxicated by. But if you’ve met David Miller, SplitMango’s Founder, Leader and daily driving force: you know why that last point about cycling is in there.
Around the office, if there’s one thing outside our daily operations David is guaranteed to want to talk about, it’s cycling. The excitement on his face is palpable. He’s keen to share how his coach made him suffer in the early hours of the morning on his home-trainer. He regales us with stories of attacks he’s made in his local racing. To massively understate it: He’s very keen.
David is, in all honesty, relatively fresh to competitive cycling and even cycling in the general sense. He started racing just over two short years ago, without looking back. In those years, he’s learned to race on the Velodrome (cycling’s contained, continuous oval racing track), out on the road in Crits (short circuit, hour long, technical and physically intense races) and road races (longer circuits, longer efforts, very demanding races). He’s since travelled to compete in National level Masters Championships on the track and road, even making the podium in the track events!
Before racing David was drawn to cycling for better health and fitness. Cycling transformed David, literally. When he started cycling regularly, inspired and informed by new friends in the cycling community he put cycling and a concentrated diet together to lose 91 extra pounds of weight. David’s transformative experience with cycling, combined with the inclusive and positive experience he found in the community drove him to want to start his own cycling team.
From David’s experience as the guiding momentum of SplitMango the Agency he knows that putting the SplitMango name on a jersey and wearing it to bike rides and races is not the same as starting a team. David wanted to create a place where he could contribute to the community that reinvigorated his health, participate in the ecosystem that had given him so much in such a short time. Starting a team also gives David the chance at building the micro-community of the team, where members can lean on each other for advice, camaraderie, training partners and every now and then gossip about the competition.
One thing that motivates David more than others in bike racing is the community. We know David feels that presence most at the Burnaby Velodrome Club, where he’s already become an elected Board Member. He just feels the positive vibe of the Velodrome and wants to make sure he’s contributing what he can to it. Being on the board and starting a team where every member rides or races the track in some capacity seemed the best way he could do it.
The team recently made the trip to another velodrome with an amazing community behind it: The Jerry Baker Memorial Velodrome in Redmond Washington. In July each year the JBMV throws the Vision Grand Prix, a two day track tournament that has a great local feeling but draws racers from around the world. The level of racing is high, but so is the level of enthusiasm, support and good vibes. David and his teammates on SplitMango Racing went to the event as the kick-off to their track season (Track cycling for Vancouverites begins in the fall, with the Burnaby Velodrome being indoors) and as a litmus test to determine where they should take their training in preparation for this year’s Nationals competition at the end of September.
It’s no secret that the team had an awesome time at the Grand Prix, it’s easy to have a good time at that event. A tight community bringing together a tight event is a script for success. The event isn’t being quiet about what’s going on either with a live YouTube feed that showcases their sunny park with cool evenings, a beer garden, food trucks and everything the local crowds need to swell. And the crowds are swell, making a lot of noise for the local athletes as the racers go at it, their cheering sounds the tailwind pushing the riders faster.
We’d say David’s cycling secret is out, but he’s not trying to keep anything secret with SplitMango Racing, if anything he’s trying to share his passion for cycling with the community he’s clearly been enthralled by. We can’t wait to hear the adventures him and the team get into when they head to Victoria in August, their midway check en-route to Nationals.