For years, a secret enclave of singletrack awesomeness has been hidden among the rolling hills east of Madison. Previously restricted to product testing and employees of a giant in the bike industry - the curtain was finally lifted for Wisconsin's High School and Middle School mountain bikers on a very special weekend. Trek rolled out the red carpet and hosted an incredible festival of interscholastic cycling. Trek-sponsored athlete and Candadian olympian, Emily Batty was on hand to help with the festivities and the weekend was filled with activity. The Shorewood MTB camping compound was buzzing with anticipation through a cool fall evening and the sun rose to present a picture-perfect race day.
The trails at Trek have been designed to challenge their bikes and riders...and that they did for this third race of our season. Double-track sections were added across fields and meadows to connect the super-fast hardpack trail sections. Temperatures were perfect for fall and the air was filled with dust from so many wheels rolling through the dry tracks. The course layout featured steady doses of flowing hills and a prominent technical switchback climb at the midway point. All the climbing was generously rewarded with fast, banked descents to find that elusive mountain biking mojo.
The higher speeds of this race likely contributed to a few mechanical incidents and quite a few riders from all the teams were not able to get their bikes to the line intact. Special awards for perseverance to Scott, who lost his front shifting very early in the race and was forced to spin out the majority of his day in the granny gear, and to Aidan C., who flatted on the last lap and was forced to run his bike through large stretches of the finishing miles. Seeing our racers do whatever it takes to get to that finish line never ceases to be inspirational.
The Hounds were highly visible again at the post-race awards. Janneke returned to a familiar spot on the Junior Varsity podium with a very solid and steady race. On the boys' side, Clayton and Eli tag-teamed the JV field, with Eli getting the win as they rode in together. Liam joined them on the podium for another impressive result. In the Freshman race, Isak and Zane worked together to build a gap on the rest of the field in the early part of the race, with Zane surging ahead on the last lap to take his first ever win! All the Hounds were impressive in their performances and the energy of this new course was readily apparent.
Trek provided an amazing race venue that we hope becomes a regular fixture on our Race Season! Thanks again to all of our volunteers and support crew. See below for the detailed race results and photos from the event...
