Aevolo’s Lance Haidet and Michael Hernandez captained Donnelly LCV road tires to the top step of their respective U-23 podiums adding two national titles to the tire brand’s palmares at the USA Cycling Amateur Road Championships in Hagerstown, Maryland. It was yet another storybook ending for the non-profit development Aevolo Cycling Team who under the direction of former pro road racer Michael Creed has had a stream of non-stop successes since the team’s inception. The past weekend was no different.
On Friday with less than five kilometers to go Aevolo’s Lance Haidet attacked from the pack to take USA Cycling’s U-23 Road Race National Championship. On Sunday pre-race favorite Michael Hernandez heeded the pressure for the win earning the right to wear red, white and blue for the next year as the 2019 USA Cycling U-23 National Criterium Champion. Igniting the fire on Thursday with less than five days of racing under his belt all season Aevolo’s Gage Hecht time-trialed to second place in the U-23 National Time Trial Championship. Hecht had been recovering from a March training ride crash. All three were riding Donnelly’s premium LCV road tire.
Fairly unique to Donnelly is its choice of locale for the manufacture of its high-end tires like the LCV. Like many tire brands the majority of Donnelly tires are made in Asia. But as Donnelly mechanic and product manager James Sullivan explained “For years we’ve been manufacturing high-end road tires and cyclocross tubulars in Eastern Europe with the result being a superior quality casing for increased comfort durability and speed. Aevolo has been training and racing our tires since 2017,” Sullivan continued “and it is our hope the quality of our tires and the miles the team has logged on the LCV has instilled the kind of confidence it takes to win a national title.”
Of that confidence Aevolo’s head mechanic Vincent Gee - with more than 25 years of pro wrenching under his belt - has stated “I've mounted thousands and thousands of tires in my career as both a shop mechanic and pro team mechanic” he said. “Besides the performance advantages that help our riders achieve their best I can feel the suppleness in my hands when I mount these tires and suppleness equals performance.”
Haidet is no stranger to winning titles on Donnelly tires. In 2017 he took the PDX tubular to a U-23 National Cyclocross title. And while that one was certainly special to Donnelly owner Donn Kellogg these two victories almost shine brighter. As Kellogg explains “It’s not that one victory is any less glorious or one any greater but we want people to know that we are in fact more than just a niche ‘cross and gravel brand. Lance and Michael’s victories couldn’t say it any more clearly. These two wins are an honor.”
Named after the Italian town of Lucca – famous for its legendary races and surrounding training roads – the LCV has been positioned since the day of its release as a high-performance competition level road tire. At 240 tpi the tire features an innovative vulcanized casing that incorporates varying thread counts giving the tire both tough and supple qualities. The end result is a 180-gram tire (700 x 23) with integrated puncture protection that is light fast and durable. Haidet’s latest national title certainly lends credence to such claims.
To learn more about the Donnelly LCV tire CLICK HERE >>
All images property of Casey B Gibson, Aevolo Cycling and Donnelly Sports.