We just wrapped up the first 2 stages of the Fyxation Open Omnium here in Milwaukee and as always, we are humbled by the results. This is the 4th year that we've hosted the Fyxation Open and the 2nd year in a row that we've turned our race into a 4 race omnium. Every year the level of riders and competition gets more intense, and this year's competition was by far our best yet. The Fyxation Open started as a single race in Chicago and is now the largest fixed gear criterium series in the US and our plans are to continue to growing the series and expose even more people to the exciting sport of fixed gear street criteriums.
Cafe Centraal Bay View Classic
The first stage of the Fyxation Open Omnium took place on Friday, June 23rd at the Cafe Centraal Bay View Classic. Here in Milwaukee, the Fyxation Open is hosted in conjunction with the Tour of America's Dairyland (TOAD). The TOAD Series is an 11 day race series held here in Wisconsin that brings in riders from all over the world to compete in an exciting road criterium series.
The Fyxation Open fixed gear street criterium took place between the Women's and Men's Pro races and thousands of spectators were on hand to watch our event. By partnering with an established race like the TOAD series, we're able to take advantage of the amazing race infrastructure already set up by the TOAD criterium. Courses are amazing and pace cars, motorcycles, USA Cycling officiating, world class announcers and live coverage via the Jumbotron are all part of our event. This gives our competitors an amazing experience on par with some of the largest cycling events in the country.
We had a great field of over 30 riders for the Bay View race with riders coming from all over the US and as far away as Montreal, Canada and Medellin, Colombia. The race started off fast, and Red Bull sponsored rider, Addison Zawada, jumped out to a large early lead. The pack wasn't expecting Addison's move and the peleton spent the entire race trying to bring him back into the race.
Addison's team mate and 2016 Fyxation Open Omnium winner, Josh Tyrell, played a bit of defense for Addison by riding at the front of the chase group and helped Addison maintain a lead from start to finish of the race. When the riders eventually crossed the finish line Addison took 1st place and former world champion and previous Fyxation Open stage winner, Emile Abraham, took 2nd place on an amazing belt drive Schindelhaer track bike. Rounding out the top 3 was Colombian rider Sebastian Salinas, who were proud to say was riding a Fyxation Eastside that we built for him to race on.
This year we had a low turnout from the women's field so we ran a combined race with the men. Coming in first for the women was the 2016 Red Hook Crit and Fyxation Open series champion, Ash Duban. Coming in 2nd was State Bicycle rider Erica Schwanke and Reina Placer placed 3rd.
The top 10 finishers of the Fyxation Open get Omnium points for our series and this year the winners of the men's and women's field received 1st place Fyxation Open jerseys made by our friends over at Pactimo.
This year's race was exciting, had a very competitive international field and set the stage for a very fast, competitive and fun Fyxation Open Omnium here in 2017. Stay tuned for results from stage 2 here in Milwaukee and for stages 3 and 4 that will take place in the end of July, 2017.
