Tim Racette & Matt Gehling Chasing in the Elite Field
Last weekend the Wisconsin Off-Road Series was back for round 2 to be held in the beautiful north woods of Wisconsin. Camp Tesomas is home to a Boy Scout camp, but once a year the WORS series visits in search of some of the best trails in the Midwest. Just ask any elite racer, Crystal Lake will be high on their list of favorite courses. The lap is dominated by a long 3km gravel road lead out with one major climb before it begins the tight technical and bumpy single track. This pattern repeats several times before coming back to the finish area on another long gravel section.
In the men’s Elite field, KS/TW had 2 riders receive call ups and a total of 4 riders starting. From the gun Joe Maloney had an excellent start making the first selection and riding the first lap and a half in the lead group. Tim Racette also had a good second row start to file in around the top ten. Matt Gehling was fighting a third row start and was able to move up quickly in the first 2 laps. Mike Wenzel also had to fight hard from a bad start spot and used his strength to move up.
As the race progressed, Joe was dropped from the lead group and blew up in “spectacular fashion”. He was caught on lap 3 as the rain began to fall by a chasing group and ended up placing 7th Overall. After some racing back and forth, Tim and Matt rode together until Matt put in some extra effort to finish off the race. Matt finished strong in 14th, and Tim rolled in for 17th. Mike ended his race finishing in 37th.
Once again the Team Wisconsin boys represented well in the WORS series having 4 strong riders and placing 3 riders in the top 20 overall! This is especially amazing because of the two waves of intense rain which made for a changing course and difficult slippery rocks. Next up on the schedule is the always fast and fun Trek Big Ring Classic in Wausau, WI. Rumor has it that Alex Martin will be making an appearance in his first off-road race of the season.