Results are up for the Great Carroll Cycling Event, a quirky road race held in northwest Ilinois. All fields do the same hilly, at-times gravelly 58-mile course, staggered in four waves, and for the second year in a row there was at least one group of riders that took a wrong turn.

The day’s fastest times came out of the 50+ field, where Stan Watkins (Vision Quest), Dan Hill (Proctor) and James Sauls (Vision Quest) did the course in less than 2.5 hours, with Watkins winning with a 30-second gap. At 27 riders the 4’s field was the largest of the day. Thirteen riders remained in the lead bunch, but Tom Wallace (2CC) somehow slipped out of it to win with a 30-second advantage of his own.  And in the 3’s, Kris Kuttler (WDT-Allvoi) won in a small sprint to take what I believe is the first win of his comeback tour.

I should also note the local women who headed to Minnesota for the prestigious Nature Valley Grand Prix stage race. Kristen Meshberg (Flatlandia), Debbie Dust (Team Kenda Tire) and Devon Haskell (Team Get a Grip Cycles) all lined up in the 145-women field, the largest and arguably toughest field of the year. Dust placed 20th in the Thursday’s road race, and Haskell, representing the Ryan Collegiate All-Stars for the second consecutive year, finished 47th overall out of 82 finishers, 11th among the amateurs.

Carroll County race reports
Jessi Prinner (ABD; W-1/2): “How is it possible to completely lose the field in just a matter of seconds? Well, it’s actually quite simple. We missed a turn.”

Nature Valley Grand Prix race reports
Debbie Dust, Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5 (Team Kenda Tire; W-P/1/2): “I just drilled it and bombed the dirt stretch, then rode the right side gutter (with cascading water and potholes) down the hill to the right hand turn, flats and crashes be damned! My thought at that very second? ‘God, it’s like cyclocross. Ick.’”

Devon Haskell, Stage 1, Stages 2-6 (Team Get a Grip Cycles; W-P/1/2): “Being in the back meant that I was constantly getting shed off the back as gaps opened and as we slowed for crashes.”