Thanks to everyone who helped make this event happen. I would dare to say that this was the best Winfield Criterium Weekend yet! It was certainly a year to remember:
- We had our most riders ever with 200 riders on Saturday and 400 on Sunday!
- We had our first dose of rain at the criterium weekend, and the volunteer crew was totally prepared.
- After our initial 6-year drought, the Elite Men not only pulled off a repeat but went two for two: thanks to Jeff and Josh for two exciting "W's" (of course, made possible from all-around strong team efforts)
- We had no less than four national champions yesterday: Konrad Witt in the Boys 10-12
Savannah Underwood in the Girls 13-14
Jessi Prinner in the Girls 15-16
Josh Carter in the Men's 1/2
- On a sad note, this was our last event (for a while at least) with Dave and Nancy LaRue around. They will be moving to England on Thursday for an indefinite amount of time and will be sorely missed. Best of luck, Dave & Nancy!
- Last but not least, a totally new date meant we conflicted with a lot of other things and had to run with a smaller staff, but so many people stepped up and almost literally pulled dawn to dusk shifts: The Witt family, the Cerwin/Prinner gang, Dan & Pat Tillotson, the Ozguc's, the Stewart family (with Tim on the results until midnight!), the Redlich family, the LaRue's, Vicki, Mom (Mary Lee), Dad (Greg), Farrell, Scott Ligocki, Jimmy C., Mark Y., Paul Z, Robert Fortelka, the Hempe's, "the kid" Ryan Baumann, "the voice" Todd Busteed, my "medical attendant/assistant/minion" Jeff Hansen and my Main Street counterpart: Gary Gall.
... and to everyone else that worked a corner, made rounds on the course, helped set-up, or just jumped in wherever needed: Keith B, Mike Maravilla, the Billingsley's, Dave & Sherri, Dan Reilly, Ben App, Irene Pang, Sue S., Kevin Kelly, Jim Lund, Bill Michaux, Mel Macasu, the Grotto family, Rob Hawco, James Sneddon, Gary Rulo, Coop (Ryan), Jim Flechsig, the Elite Team guys and their families, Ken Fry, Chris Karsten, Brandon Skweres, the Bowden family, Jay Corgiat, Brian McRae, Bill Kallas, Dave Trotter, Sue and Steve Gage, Leitha Walling, Cathy Webb, the Glinka family, Dave and Graham Clark, my little brother Sean and my Dad Ray for hosting the party!
I had a lot of fun this weekend and am very proud of what we all accomplished together.
Hopefully, I'll see you all at the pancake breakfast on Saturday! -Ebert
