Danny Summerhill (REIGN Storm Racing) has had an erratic profession of racing success and private challenges – generally turbulent, generally mercurial, at all times entertaining. In 2023, he had what he referred to as a “fairy-tale season” and received the boys’s particular person and dash titles on the American Criterium Cup, a sequence of 10 one-day races throughout the US.
His success final yr additionally helped his American Biking Group squad win one of the best total crew classification within the ACC. Professional bike owner turned movie maker, Angus Morton, joined the crew on 5 race weekends to seize the ethos of a gaggle of riders experiencing the US criterium life and, because it turned out a metamorphosis of Summerhill, in ‘Crit Desires’.
This yr, the crew races underneath the REIGN Storm Racing model, nonetheless led by chief sports activities director and former professional Thomas Craven, whom Summerhill calls “the glue.” REIGN Storm has already swept crew prizes at two spring sequence—the six-race USA Crits and eight-race USA Velocity Week. The crew had seven podiums throughout USA Crits, with Summerhill ending third total behind total winner and teammate Alfredo Rodriguez.
“I say it doesn’t really matter who wins for us. The a lot bigger goal is that we win. This yr, I do not care. In different years, I’d completely have a distinct reply for you. I’ve a give attention to simply being a part of one of the best crew and displaying that we’re one of the best,” Summerhill instructed Cyclingnews through the crew’s cease on the Athens Twilight Criterium, a part of USA Crits and USA Velocity Week, the place he completed second.
Having turned 35 in February, Summerhill confirmed no indicators of slowing down, utilizing his legs in a dash or along with his vocal cords in a dialog about sprinting. His biking profession goes again to 2004 when he raced a number of disciplines, together with US cyclocross titles as a junior and U23 athlete, plus a silver medal as a junior on the 2007 Cyclocross World Championships. It wasn’t till Craven signed the Coloradoan to the Finest Buddies Workforce in 2021 that Summerhill refocused on criterium racing and regarded himself now not a ‘bridesmaid’.
“I’ve lots of pleasure for the ACC, clearly. It has a particular place in my coronary heart, simply as a result of those who I met via the group who give their blood, sweat and tears for that occasion. And never that USA Crits doesn’t do the identical, however I simply have a particular vested curiosity within the ACC on account of the truth that I received each competitions final yr. And naturally, like anybody would need to win it once more,” Summerhill instructed Cyclingnews.
“I’d like to win it [American Criterium Cup] once more, in fact, or it’s received by somebody on REIGN Storm – me or Alfredo [Rodriguez] or [Bryan] Gomez. Whether or not it finally ends up being my goal to win ACC once more, or that of the crew’s, so long as I’m serving to contribute in both of these two, it’s the identical.”
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The 2024 ACC started June 7 at Tulsa Powerful, REIGN Storm taking the lead within the crew rankings with Bryan Gomez and Alfredo Rodriguez ending within the prime 5 and Summerhill setting the mark because the dash chief.
The second cease of the sequence will happen this Saturday at Tour of America’s Dairyland on the Downer’s Basic. And it was at ToAD final yr that the ‘Crit Desires’ story took form.
“I’ve at all times been a bridesmaid. I’m proud of that, [but 2023] moved me away from being a lead-out rider, and I’ve been completely happy I’ve been capable of have this success…a fairy-tale season,” Summerhill mentioned within the movie.
The unexplainable fairy story
Morton’s movie, with help from BMC, follows the second half of the 2023 ACC, which included racing close to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for ToAD. Craven mentioned again in his day of US racing this was the “holy grail’ of criterium racing and outlined a lifestyle.
Utilizing behind-the-scenes footage, private interviews and race highlights, ‘Crit Desires’ tells the story of the hunt for this holy grail, which Craven mentioned was “for the group. You need to do loopy issues to placed on a present”.
From varied suburban host homes with massive plates of pasta on riders’ laps to crew conferences utilizing a pc to translate audio to Spanish for a number of riders, the American Biking Group squad labored to win the crew and particular person titles final summer time in what they referred to as “David versus Goliath” as a small crew in opposition to the groups with huge budgets.
Summerhill recounted his main profession setbacks alongside the best way, admitting “the world thought I used to be a ‘Loony Toon’” after he was let go in 2017 by the extremely profitable UnitedHealthcare highway crew. He resigned after expenses of ‘disorderly conduct, discharging a weapon in a public place and reckless endangerment’ associated to firing a gun right into a hillside whereas on a coaching journey in a rural space exterior Denver. It turned out to be a snowball impact of profession begins and stops.
“He offers a shit,” was how Craven summed up his crew chief. “He cares in regards to the race. He cares about individuals. He’s tremendous compassionate, good. He might in all probability make more cash with a much bigger crew, doing different sorts of races, however he’s content material with the crew setup, a really cohesive setup.”
Earlier than using for Craven, Summerhill was invited by USA Biking to participate on the boys’s Workforce Pursuit squad in 2019, which he referred to as ‘a present’ and made an try and earn a spot on the Tokyo Olympic Video games. Whereas he helped the squad win a number of lead-up races, the US didn’t qualify sufficient spots for crew occasion and he mentioned he acquired burned out from the monitor expertise. He began taking anti-depressants, which led to a one-year suspension for failing to acquire the correct Therapeutic Use Exemption for Adderall, a drugs used to deal with ADD.
That was additionally in regards to the time Summerhill’s father was identified with Alzheimer’s illness, and he turned the principle caregiver for the household.
“I’m nervous for the day that he forgets my identify,” Summerhill managed to say as he acquired choked up speaking about his father, Ed, within the movie. His father succumbed to the illness this spring, and the movie pays tribute to Ed Summerhill within the credit.
“I’m chaotic sufficient, and with ADD, there’s no manner that I’d have the ability to hold biking. I do know all the pieces occurs for a purpose, and it’s tough understanding what these causes are generally. I’m completely happy for all of the cases in my life which have introduced me right here,” he would summarise on the finish.
