Weekend Review - May 8 & 9

We all know that the US Collegiate Nationals took place in and around Madison, WI this weekend and those races have been covered, but what else happened around the area? Let's take a look.

In Minnesota, where some snow did fall on Friday, the weather was .. well, tolerable on Saturday for the SIbley County Road Race. It appears that there were come close field sprints according to the results, and Brian Koeneman reports on his second ride to victory this year as well as his ingenious use of the neutral rollout to take a pre-race pee break!

Iowa City had the Black Diamond Time Trial on Sunday - no reports, no results. Did it happen? Who knows!

Elsewhere in Wisconsin, Hampshire Cycling put on the Matt Wittig Memorial Circuit Race in Muskego Park. Again, NO RESULTS, but William Pankonin (XXX) does give us his version of how the race played out during his solo breakway to victory! Well done. Also, Dan Andrews (XXX) blogs about the Muskego race, but his luck was on the opposite end of the spectrum. You an prepare for these races and feel you've got it all down, but then something out of the ordinary happens and it's: "Bollocks!" "I've just paid $27 to ride this thing  . . .  there’s no way i am quitting this darn race no matter how far back or how much this hurts. i paid for this thing...i am going to finish." It's a great read.
Isaac Holton has posted some excellent quality photos for you to look at HERE, check 'em out.

In Illinois, ABR had the Verizon Wireless Two Man TT, 40k of riding pleasure. Again, NO RESULTS, but XXX comes through again with a great read from Bill Barnes in his "First TIme in the Pain Cave". A pair of green horn Cat. 5's with no aero gear GET IT DONE for some great results. Bravo!

Over in Indiana on Saturday there was the Brookside Circuit Race and ABR had the Eagle Creek Criterium. Guess what ... NO RESULTS and NO STORIES available.

In Michigan on Saturday, they had the Tour of Kensington Valley, near Detroit and by looking at the results the Men Cat 3's had a two up breakway with a photo finish sprint with the two riders finishing only 0.2 seconds apart. While over in the Cat. 5 race, the top 5 riders were only separated by 0.3 seconds! We would love to see the photo of that finish! While I don't see that finish in particular, Erika Fulk does have some nice shots posted at her page. Scott Cantanzaro tells the story of his first Pro 1/2 race: "This past saturday was probably one of the most brutal road races (Tour of Kensington Valley)  I could have imagined in May."

In Michigan on Sunday, there was the Cone-Azalia Road Race put on by the Ann Arbor Velo Club. NO OFFICIAL RESULTS posted yet, but someone took a photo of the results and we see that Paul Martin (Panther) won the Pro 1/2. About the race, Cantanzaro writes: "Sunday I had my first experience with the anomaly that is the Cone Azalia Road Race. The race claims to be the "Paris-Roubaix" of the Midwest, I wasn't really sure what to expect. Dudes showed up with all sorts of different gear: Cross bikes with road tires, road bikes with cross tires. crappy wheels, carbon wheels, etc... Long story short, more than 30% of the race was offroad on some pretty rough gravel/dirt roads." Tim Finkelstein summarizes this day nicely in his blog: I may of been DFL but I refused to DNF." Well put.

There were no races in Ohio, so that wraps up this weekend in review report!