He Wants to Award Cycling Excellence—With Cash from His Own Pocket
It started, as most things in cycling do, with trash talk. Gathered at the start of Montrose, one of the fastest Saturday-morning group rides in Los Angeles, back in March, Sean Hall and his fellow riders gently ribbed each other over who would “win.”
Montrose is known for attracting pros in the off-season-past riders have included former Road Worlds champion Taylor Phinney-so Hall, a 45-year-old music producer and Category 3 racer, decided to up the stakes. He offered $300 in cash to the first person to cross the finish line at the end of the 45-mile course. (Let the record show that John Janneck, a Category 1 racer for Southern California Velo, took the win.)
That spontaneous bet was the start of No Braques, a movement aimed at what Hall calls “rewarding gladiator-type mentality on the bike.” The concept is simple: Hall will give crash prizes (a “bounty” out of his own pocket) to athletes that push their limits on the bike during select rides. That can mean pulling off an impressive sprint, beating a personal best time, or newcomers hustling to stay with the group.
A post shared by sean k hall (@nobraques) on Sep 4, 2018 at 10:01am PDT
He faced some criticism after that first Montrose ride for compromising safety in what is traditionally a non-racing environment. So Hall revised his approach by making all bounties “secret.” Instead of announcing it in advance, he’ll let participants ride as they wish and reveal the prize only after the event wraps up.
“I don’t want to change the behavior of someone in their natural state to make them do something crazy,” Hall said. “I want to keep it safe and reward people that push themselves to their own limit, so I watch closely during the ride, and the bounty is given based on that.”
Past winners have earned bounties for everything from hard pulls at the front of the peloton to exceptional sportsmanship throughout the day. “It’s random at its best,” Hall said of the criteria.
To keep things interesting, he also started a Strava club and regularly posts bounty challenges: the best performance on a tough climb, for instance, or longest hours in the saddle. He’s currently planning a bounty for the Crystal Lake climb, a long and tough route infamous among L.A. cyclists.
“I might put up a $200 bounty on that,” Hall said. “The money has to be worth the effort.”
A post shared by sean k hall (@nobraques) on Jun 30, 2018 at 8:04pm PDT
Hall expects to have awarded more than $7,000 of his own personal money by the end of 2018. “You don’t start things with permission from anyone else, and if I’m not going to put my money where my mouth is, I don’t expect anyone else to,” he said.
While he’s used only his own wallet so far, Hall has partnered with several companies (including State Bicycle Co., Brandt Sorenson, and Pedal Mafia) to offer gear and product bounties. Eventually, he hopes to attract sponsors that share his vision.
Hall is tight-lipped about his plans for 2019, but said he’s in the process of developing a strategy to spread No Braques across sporting disciplines. If the past year is any indication, there should be more money up for grabs in the future-and whole lot more trash talk on the start line.
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