Strigel and Schouten win again for Wisconsin Off Road Series

Image 1 of 8

As the cross country racing season winds down, the Subaru Wisconsin Off Road Series (WORS) is still thrilling audiences and riders alike with challenging events. This holds true with the Treadfest race course in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Hidden away behind the famed Grand Geneva Resort, Treadfest offers riders a rare chance to race on private trails that are full of features and technical sections. The course is built around a ski hill that dares riders to keep climbing. Spectators are presented with many options for great photos and cheering as well as a nail-bitingly close encounter with a steeply descending and loose rock garden.

Women

With all of the climbing, the elite women pushed hard up the start climb with Cooper Dendel (Border Grill/Quick Stop) and Abigail Strigel (Honey Stinger/Bontrager) fighting for the top spot. This was the first time Dendel had raced in Lake Geneva and after pre-riding the day before the event, she said she couldn’t wait to race. Both women are very comfortable with rocks and roots and managed to create a fairly big gap over the rest of the women in the field.

Lori Sable (Team 65?/W&S) also has her strengths in technical singletrack, of which Treadfest offers a lot. Sable was not able to hang onto Dendel and Strigel but put a comfortable cushion between herself and Lisa Krayer(Adventure 212/Specialized) who ended up in fourth place.

While Dendel was fast and smooth through the singletrack, Strigel was a bit faster as she broadened her lead by about two minutes by the end of the race. This was Strigel’s 6th win in the 2013 WORS season.

Men

The elite men's race once again had stacked lineup. As the men took to the starting climb, Joseph Maloney (KS Energy Services/Team Wisconsin) burnt a match or two to drive the front of the field. Maloney has been impressing many lately by improving his results almost every race. Tristan Schouten (Rolf Prima Wheels) even said "he's gonna win one of these races".

Maloney said his strategy was to create a gap to cushion him if and when he hits a wall. After two laps, that wall came to him in the form of Brian Matter (RACC/Trek/Gear Grinder) and Tristan Schouten. Schouten and Matter worked well together throughout most of the race to reel Maloney back in. As the cyclo-cross season is starting, Matter and Schouten will be shifting focus. Matter actually raced his first 'cross event the day before Treadfest. In the end, he felt that Schouten had a bit more gas in the tank as he pulled away from Matter in the final climb of the race.

Schouten grabbed his sixth win of the season also. Nathan Guerra (Vision Pro Cycling) started off with a bit of bad luck with a dropped chain. Feeling the pressure after being passed by most of the field, Guerra gave it all he had to not only put himself back into the race but to finish impressively in fourth place.

WORS will pick up again at the end of September on the 29th with the Cascade XC. A first for WORS in many ways, the Cascade XC is a fund raiser in support of the recently established WIN (WORS Interscholastic) Cycling, a not for profit organization devoted to the mission of the establishment of school-based mountain bike clubs in communities throughout Wisconsin. For more information, visit www.wors.org or www.wincycling.org

Results