Meet the Race Directors!
Chris Gates: Chris is a lifelong endurance athlete who got into cycling in college after joining the Ohio State Triathlon Club. Chris joined the Dublin Tuesday night group ride in 2016, where he learned how much fun it was to ride with other people rather than by himself in aero. Chris’s first bike race was in 2019, when he raced the VT Cycling Maggie Valley Road Race. After having his butt handed to him, he was hooked. Since then, Chris has joined the New Albany group rides, where he has fun with the Rivet group on Thursday nights, as well as being a member of Team Dayton Cycling. Chris’s greatest cycling accomplishment, and the greatest between the two race directors, was winning the Carter County Omnium Roan Groan Road Race in the cat 4-5 group. Outside of cycling, Chris works at RacePenguin LLC, a race timing and production company, where he is the Columbus office manager and lead timer. As part of his work with RacePenguin, Chris manages over 100 running races per year, and has worked with Pelotonia and other cycling events in Ohio.
Mitchell Steindler: Mitchell wanted to be a bike racer ever since he was a kid, but didn’t know anyone who even rode a bike for exercise! However he took up bike training as a freshman in highschool to avoid injury in cross country. Like Chris, Mitchell started riding seriously when he joined the OSU Triathlon Club, which is also where they met. Since then he’s regularly participated as a member of the (New Albany) Cycling Club, as well as former member of the Healthy and Happy Cycling team and current member of Team Dayton. Mitchell has been bike racing since 2016, and has had podium finishes at several Ohio crits and Road Races. Mitchell works as an Advanced Process Scientist at Owens Corning, where works at the intersection of research and production to optimize processes for quality and productivity. As part of his work, Mitchell’s number 1 priority is safety, because without safety we have nothing.
Mitchell and Chris are also consulting with our beloved Spencer Hackett, the President of the Ohio Cycling Association, and Alex Montoya, a prominent race promoter in Texas and Alabama. We can’t wait to see you!
