“I have attended each years ride. This is the best ride I do every year. Everyone knows their jobs and perform them outstandingly. It is a FEEL GOOD ride. Thank you all so much. Looking forward to 2022.”
Meet Our Team.
Mike Barman
Mike has been heavily involved in cycling for more than 30 years.
He has managed and coached various successful cycling teams, including the Georgia Institute of Technology, the East Point Track Club, and the Trek Southeast Regional Cycling Team.
Michael serves as an Advisor/Board Member to multiple cycling associations, helping to promote the sport as much as possible.
Currently, he advises the East Point Velodrome Association, the Georgia Bicycle Racing Association, and the Southeast Collegiate Cycling Conference. Michael participates as a category 2 road, track, cross, and MTB racer as well as being a Coach, Mechanic, Commissaire, Team Manager, and Race Director.
Mike is a Bicycle Fitting Specialist, online bicycle inventory/sales expert, UCI Race Director, and has managed several of the best bicycle stores and restaurants in the Southeast.
Ravi Rajcoomar
Ravi Rajcoomar is an award-winning executive leader, strategist, and producer with more than two decades of experience creating transformative experiences at the intersection of sports, media, events, and brand engagement.
Over his career, Ravi has developed and produced Emmy Award-winning broadcasts, live events, and marketing campaigns across six continents, spanning nearly every major action and adventure sport. His work includes leadership roles with premier properties such as Red Bull’s global live events, the X Games, major cycling properties, and both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games
Known for building meaningful connections between athletes, brands, destinations, and audiences, Ravi has advised an extensive roster of clients, including ESPN, NBC, FOX, ABC, CBS, Specialized, Polaris, CAA, IMG, Wasserman, Cannondale, Clif Bar, Wells Fargo, Jeep, and numerous national governing bodies and destination marketing organizations.
In addition to his consulting work, Ravi leads an executive coaching and mastermind practice for high achievers based on his Hero Maker and Moment of Glory frameworks. He also serves as Vice President of Partnerships and Events at PeopleForBikes, advancing industry collaboration and bicycle-friendly policy nationwide, all in the service of getting more people on bikes.
Robert Evans
Rob, currently residing in Boise, Idaho, brings three decades of cycling industry experience and over a decade of event management expertise to the team.
He grew up in Kentucky, where the rolling Bluegrassenbergs — his name for the short, steep climbs reminiscent of those in Belgium, but without the cobbles — instilled in him a lifelong love of riding and passion for the sport.
He is a former competitive cyclist who has raced on four continents and in seemingly every small town in the United States. He has managed cycling venues such as the Dick Lane Velodrome in Georgia professionally and was an operations director for competitive and professional events ranging from the Tour of Utah and US PRO to Haute Route.
Additionally, Rob manages the Gravel Roll series in the Southeast, the Bogus Basin Hill Climb (the third oldest cycling hill climb in the United States), and many, many more.
He has worked extensively in the cause cycling space, managing operations for rides such as the Patrick Dempsey Challenge, Velosano, Obliteride, among others — events that serve thousands of riders and raise millions of dollars each year for research and support of their endeavors.
Casey Taker
A North Carolina native who has landed in Florida, Casey Taker has worked across both the sports and endurance sports industries for more than 20 years.
Her love for Kentucky comes from her early days as an equestrian, with a dream to one day attend the Kentucky Derby. Early in her career, Casey worked within sports travel, crafting unique travel experiences to some of the country's largest sporting events, including the Super Bowl, Masters, NASCAR, and wait for it… The Kentucky Derby.
Working in this space, she discovered a love for helping people experience something truly special, a love that has carried over into her work in endurance sports.
Casey has worked on multiple sides of the endurance fence, operationally supporting large events including the IRONMAN World Championship, Swim for Alligator Lighthouse, Rock n Roll Running Series, and UTMB Trail Racing.
Never one to let others have too much fun without her, Casey let her career transform her into an athlete, taking on challenges across swimming, cycling, running, and triathlon. She brings her enthusiasm and operations expertise to the Bourbon Team this fall, supporting across the Festival experience.
FOUNDERS
Austin Render
FOUNDER / co-director of the burn
A native of Louisville, KY, by the age of 30, Austin Render had stamps from thirty-five countries in his passport and has worked as an accountant, a fisheries biologist and a professional cycling guide. After leaving a career in accounting in 2010, he took to the road, often times by bike, to explore much of Asia, South America and the U.S. Eventually, this passion for travel by bike would land him a job as a professional bicycle guide in Vietnam, Cambodia, Panama, the Czech Republic, Austria and various U.S. National Parks for Backroads, the world’s top active travel company.
Once back home in Kentucky, Austin brought his experience of delivering high-quality bike excursions to the Bourbon Burn, where he was originally responsible for the logistics of the cycling portion of the event as well as designing the safest and most scenic routes throughout the back roads of the Bluegrass.
Mollie Hanrahan
FOUNDER / Co-director of the burn
A native of Louisville, KY, Mollie Hanrahan considers herself a world traveler, a whiskey advocate, and a Kentucky enthusiast. From pedaling over 3,300 km throughout a three-month independent bicycle tour in Patagonia, to working as a tour guide in the jungles of Ecuador, to having spent time on numerous road and mountain biking trails throughout the country, it is safe to say she left her career in public education as a high school history teacher, for a career of passion in bike tourism.
With her varied professional background of co-founding and operating a successful city bike touring business in Louisville, to working in sales, media marketing, and the ever-growing bourbon industry, Mollie brought her knowledge of event planning and marketing brand development to creating the success of the Bourbon Country® Burn.