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Madison Cyclocross Racing – A Weekend of Contrasts
The Planet Bike - Wisconsin Cycling Association Cyclocross Series rolled into the Madison area for a weekend of great racing on October 13 and 14. On Sat., Oct. 13 Wisconsin cyclocross racers were treated to nearly 60-degree weather under partially cloudy skies and a dry, fast course. However by Sun., Oct. 14 things had completely changed and racers instead faced 50-degree weather with intermittent rain showers throughout the day treating riders to a sea of mud.
Sunday’s
Schwinn Badger Cross, hosted by the Capitol Velo Club and Homegrown
Cycling Team, brought a new challenge to racers as rain started falling
before the sun came up ensuring that mud would be the big factor of the
day. The course at Badger Prairie County Park already offered
significant technical challenges with a course that featured a numerous
tight turns and off cambers along with a hill run-up ridden only by
those with the skills and power to bunny hop the strategically placed
logs. The elite women’s race was stacked with talent including top
regional road racers and mountain bike racers looking to dual it out for
the top step on the podium. In the end the podium looked similar to
Saturday with Devon Haskell (Team Get A Grip Cycles) taking the win. In
second Abby Strigel (Polska) made a last lap move to pass third place
Kristin Wentworth (Team Kenda Tire). In the elite men’s race local
singlespeed star Jesse LaLonde (Bob Brown Cycles/Bareknuckle Brigade)
came out and dominated the race to notch his first cyclocross win ever.
Coming in behind for second place and also on a singlespeed was Ron
Stawicki.The Madison Cross Weekend was also highlighted by a Saturday evening showing of Cyclofile and more beer, food, demo bikes and prizes than any race weekend in Wisconsin ever! In addition, over $200 was raised to help send UW collegiate racers to cyclocross nationals and funds were also raised to support World Bicycle Relief.
Video-added Jan 16, 2008: WMV, WMV-large, MP4, MP4-large
Badger Cross Photos:
Cat 4 40+ and Jr Boys 15-18
Cat 4 Men
Cat 4 Women and Jrs
Kid's Race
Cat 3 Men and Women
Cat 1/2/3 Women, 40+ and 50+
Cat 1/2/3 Men, 30+
Badger Cross Photos by djonn
Badger Cross "faces of pain" by Robin
Badger Cross photos by Robin
Badger Cross photos by Scott