Mad Anthony Cyclocross Race in Detroit's Fort Wayne

When Mad Joe Lo! grabbed the microphone and started belting out the words to "Crossroads," I thought, yes, Mad Anthony is in the room and laying it down. Who needs cowbells when you've got Joe!









Historic Fort Wayne near downtown Detroit is the place to host cyclocross. It's certainly a great place for madness, and psychocross is as close as you'll ever get without involuntary brain implosion.

It would be exciting to imagine all the battles that took place in Fort Wayne. It would be very exciting. Except battles didn't happen here. It's never come under attack, though it was built in the 1840s to defend against those pesky British across the Detroit River in Canada. Then we decided that the British weren't so bad after all because soon they'd bring us Sherlock Holmes, the Beatles, the Stones, and Winnie the Pooh, so instead of busting head or getting shot there was a lot of musket shining, brass polishing, and general obsessive tidying to fill that time.

It took a hundred and seventy years, but the warriors finally clashed. The lactic skirmishes were hard fought, ramparts were scaled and plummeted over, and many tires were impaled, all in the name of cyclocross.

The race itself wound inside and along the outside walls of the battlements. Karaoke Joe told me that if it weren't for the soccer match going on nearby, the race would have wound further into the extended grounds of the fort. The plan next year is to schedule it after the soccer matches are over for the season and the cyclomanics will have the whole place to themselves. Then the battles can rage from one end of Fort Wayne to the other.

Saturday's bastion scaling began with the C race and a mad barrage of maniacs charging the first hill. These were short climbs, but they required a good explosive prep in the flats below due to the wicked pitch. Those who didn't or couldn't build enough momentum found themselves in full halt halfway up the slope.

When it all sorted out, the winner of the women's C race was Lynne Sienkiewicz, with Lacy Jones second, and Vanessa Stauffer, and the men's Trey Cassidy, followed by Ryan Katulic and Scott Gifford.

I know that Andy Klumb won the men's B race, but I'm not sure who won the Elite women's race. I think it was a Wolverine. I do know that the inimitable Anne Grofvert was on the course, and Jess Bratus was up near the front somewhere, and Laura Johnson found the one stubby root on the entire course to kick her front wheel out and land on butt first.


I slipped away and drove along the river about ten minutes before the end of the A race, so I'm not sure who won, though when I left Vince Roberge was leading by a good margin, Jonathan Card was cranking to get back to his wheel and Jay Moncel was a ways behind them.

Videos & Photos
MattMTB1 Video:

It gives a great sense of the surroundings and of the race. Nicely crafted video.

Go to
picasaweb.google.com/Pulcipher/MadAnthonyCXOctober172009#
for unpasteurized, unretouched photos of history happening where it should.

Also check out Hans Nyberg's Ten Mile Media and Andrea Tucker for really good photos.