It’s easy to get caught up in the racing aspect of Tulsa Tough, but bringing the party to the three-day cycling festival comes naturally for St. Vitus CC.
“Only one person can win a race, but all of us can have a great time,” said Oliver Seekins, the team’s founder.
Equal parts bikes and booze, St. Vitus CC is a team of cyclists born out of Tulsa’s bar scene. Originally founded as Team Jane’s Delicatessen in 2020, Seekins said he and other service industry workers downtown liked riding bikes but didn’t enjoy the intensity associated with racing.
“At the time, everything felt super intimidating. All the teams were really race-focused, the rides were serious,” Seekins said. “Talking amongst our friends, we were like, ‘Man, we just want people to ride with to have fun — without the intimidation factor.’”
Over time, employees from the bars Valkyrie and St. Vitus began riding with Team Jane’s Delicatessen, Seekins said. St. Vitus picked up the title sponsorship when the Route 66 deli closed in 2024. Now, the team has cyclists from all walks of life.
“We’re pretty widespread,” Seekins said. “From stay-at-home moms to rigid professionals.”
Aaron Post owns Relentless Hospitality Group, the company that brought Valkyrie, St. Vitus and now Maestro downtown. The cycling team fits right in with the inclusive, cultural brand at St. Vitus, he said.
He credits his team for building an environment that ditches the dangerous stigma often associated with nightclubs.
“Pre-Vitus in Tulsa, clubs were dark boxes that didn’t feel safe, didn’t have high production value, didn’t stand for anything,” Post said. “They just didn’t have the community and cultural infrastructure, and we set out to say that it doesn’t have to be that way … We can stand for dance music, dance music culture and progressive inclusivity.”
To that end, Post said St. Vitus CC is focused on equity within the sport — and bringing together a group of people who “like to go out and have a good time.”
“We are a competitive team, but it’s more so about lowering the barriers to entry for cycling, an expensive, exclusionary sport,” Post said. “If there are ways where we can help people do the things they want to do — especially on our team that they couldn’t do otherwise because of financial constraints — we’re going to make that a little bit easier.”
‘A place for them under our tent’
Whether it’s one of his bar concepts or a cycling team, Post said the pillars of hospitality — not to be confused with service — still apply.
“We separate service and hospitality,” he said. “Service defines this idea that you got what you asked for. The expectation was set, whether it’s a product or service, and was it tendered to you.”
Hospitality is different, he argues. It’s about the way an experience makes you feel.
“Hospitality is about empathy,” Post said. “We hope in our efforts as a team, that comes across.”
Cyclists similarly find themselves “in the weeds” during races, Seekins said. It’s not very different from life inside the kitchen or behind the bar.
“You’re behind on everything, you’re overwhelmed, but there is this beautiful peace in the chaos. You don’t have to worry about anything except the next thing on your to-do list,” Seekins said. “There’s a similar peace of chaos in crit racing. There’s a lot going on, but there is something beautiful about making it to the finish line, and letting the things outside of your control fall where they may.”
Each year, St. Vitus, the business, hosts a pop-up tent outside of Valkyrie on Saturday from noon until the final race concludes. On Sunday, St. Vitus CC will pitch a tent on Climax Corner near 13th Street and Galveston Avenue.
“We’d love to meet, chat, hang out with anybody who is interested,” Seekins said. “If anybody feels awkward at the race or like they don’t have a place to be, there’s a place for them under our tent.”
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