Our Board | ESCAPE VELOCITY

Meet our Board

Our Board: Meet the Team

President

Bruce Law

Bruce has been riding since he was seven years old. After a career as a commercial photographer, he’s now focused on coaching education and certification. For Bruce, cycling is more than a sport—it’s a metaphor for life. The bike has taught him about goals, setbacks, pain, progress, and growth, lessons he carries off the road as much as on it. As the years have added up, so has the perspective, and he’s chosen to pass that on. Today, he coaches not just to teach young riders how to ride, but to help them discover why riding matters.

Member at Large

Stephen Schwartz

Stephen has been an avid recreational cyclist for about 25 years. His professional background is as a litigation lawyer, with a practice that includes insurance and corporate litigation. In addition to cycling,

DEVO Road Member Representative

Caroline King

A dedicated devo parent and coach. A formidable competitor on the road. Escape Velocity is lucky to know Caroline.

Secretary

Joseph Tam

Joseph is a founding member of Escape Velocity, when it was formed way back in the Paleozoic Era. In the following years, he has held nearly every role within the club, only resigning when members became aware he was no good at any of them. He engages in many cycling activities, and what he lacks in competence, he makes up in enthusiasm.

Adult Membership Representative

Sean Baird

Actual living legend.

DEVO Mountain Bike Member Representative

Jose Rubio

Don't blink on the single track, you'll miss him

Brief History of Escape Velocity

The legend of what we now call the Team Escape Velocity Cycling Club (plus DEVO) is long and storied. What follows is a silly precis.

Normally, one begins at the beginning, but that may be the hardest place to start. When EV began, it wasn't EV at all, it was the Bike Cellar's bike club. That was in 1989.

Then in 1991, more or less, the founding members mostly left the Bike Cellar to form their own club, Escape Velocity. Club elder Michael Haywood shares this tale:

I pulled out of my driveway onto Pemberton Meadows Road on the weekend, with my wife in her usual spot hard on my rear wheel. Joe Tam’s favourite spot. Up the road was a solitary rider and we soon rode past her. She and Heather started talking, while I slaved away up front.

I was not paying much attention until I heard the visitor to our miniature pace line say, “I invented the name of your club, you know.” The pace-lining ended as I sat up to join the conversation.

Her story was that she, Alistair Barret (first club president, I think, and three in line prior to me) and two others were sitting around a kitchen table. The club was about to evolve from The Bike Cellar to something new. Alistair had liked the word “escape”, which makes sense if you know Alistair. She suggested velocity, as a combination of Velo and City. And the rest was history.

We later rode up to her spouse, who she met through their mutual membership in the club. He insisted on a slightly different story, but I like hers better.

DEI at Escape Velocity

Escape Velocity/DEVO is committed to fostering, cultivating and preserving a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Our members are the most valuable asset we have. The collective sum of the individual differences, life experiences, knowledge, inventiveness, innovation, self-expression, unique capabilities and talent that our members invest in our club represents a significant part of not only our culture, but our reputation.

We embrace and encourage our members’ differences in age, color, disability, ethnicity, family or marital status, gender identity or expression, language, national origin, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, and other characteristics that make our members unique.

Escape Velocity/DEVO’s diversity initiatives are applicable—but not limited—to our practices on recruitment and selection of coaches and volunteers, compensation, development, training and ongoing development of an environment built on the premise of gender and diversity equity that encourages and enforces:

Respectful communication and cooperation between all members.
Teamwork and participation, permitting the representation of all groups and member perspectives.
Contributions to the racing community to promote a greater understanding and respect for diversity.

All members have a responsibility to treat others with dignity and respect at all times. All members are expected to exhibit conduct that reflects inclusion during practices and events.

Any member found to have exhibited any inappropriate conduct or behavior against others may be subject to disciplinary action.

Members who believe they have been subjected to any kind of discrimination that conflicts with EV’s diversity policy and initiatives should seek assistance from the Board of Directors or Executive Director.