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Viroqua, September 3 Race

The biggest thrill was watching the Blue Dog Cycles 10-14year old race. Ephraim Sutherland, Will Sherwin, Gideon Hooper-Schmidt, Noah Gullion, Hannah Falter, Justice Grenier, and Anders Frost battled out a tightly contested cross battle. From the gun Ephraim jumped the pack and had a slight lead that he extended going into the barriers. After the first lap Ephraim was of the front shadowed by Noah and Gideon. Noah crawled back on while Justice and Anders began to warm-up and move through the group. Gideon, on his single-speed bike was slowly reeled in the straight-aways by his geared companions. Will Sherwin, racing up a category, was steady throughout, holding his position and getting smoother each pass, but so was the rest of the group.

Coming into the last lap, Ephraim’s lead was cut as Noah caught him on the run-up and almost passed at the barriers. Ephraim was able to take advantage of his superior speed in the straight and cruised into the winners circle followed tightly by Noah. While Noah had been clawing away at Ephraim’s lead, Justice Grenier had slowly but surely been moving up. Pulling away from the haggard remains, Justice soloed into third place. It was very, very fun to watch the future of cycling in the Midwest racing with such class and speed. The final results were:

Ephraim Sutherland 1^st, Noah Gullion 2^nd, Justice Grenier 3^rd.  

The locals raced hard in the Kickapoo Coffee Roaster’s Beginner’s race, but were outclassed by Ashley James of ISCorp Racing. It was clear after the first set of barriers that she had actually done this before AND had good handling skills AND pretty good fitness to boot. She won by very many laps, but the rest of the field had fun.

Results:
Ashley James 1^st(ISCorp), Jay Bjorklund(Vernon Trails) 2^nd, Michelle Iham-Ripp(Vernon Trails) 3^rd 

Honorable Finish: Hank Deutsch. Hank has Grandkids older than Ashley! 

In the VMH Wellness Center/The Local General expert/intermediate race local Chris Newlin(Vernon Trails) powered off from the gun and stayed away to win.  Following were Jim Pingel, Bruce Breitrick, Michael James(Baraboo Sharks), and Thom Faulter(Vernon Trails) in that order.