The 4th installment of the Fyxation Open is in the books and man, what an event it was! We say this every year, but we are humbled by the huge support our race has received from the riders, fans and our growing list of sponsors. We don't get the media attention of the Red Hook Crit and we don't have the sheer volume of potential competitors in our local market that our friends on the West Coast do at the SoCal Crit in Southern California and Mission Crit in San Francisco. What we do have though is a growing and loyal following of riders that hail from as far away as Colombia, Montreal and San Francisco that come out year after year to support our growing event.
The Fyxation Open Omnium is now in it's 4th year and this year we had a record number of riders compete in our fixed gear street criterium. Fixed gear crits are gaining in popularity due to the explosion of popularity surrounding the Red Hook, which has now become more of an international event with 1 event in the US and 3 in Europe. The Fxyxation Open Omnium consists of 4 races that occur in June and July in the Milwaukee and Chicago area and it has grown to become one of the largest and most competitive fixed gear crits in the country.
Men's Race and Omnium Recap
After 4 races and over 2 hours of intense competition, the overall Omnium winner on the Men's side was decided by a bike length. Red Bull rider, Addison Zawada and Team Schindelhauer Bikes/Gates Carbon Drive sponsored rider and former world champion, Emile Abraham, entered the 4th stage of the Fyxation Open tied in Omnium standing points. Whoever finished in front of the other rider would win and both competitors knew what was at stake as they shared the podium at end of stage 3 in Lake Bluff, IL.
Stage 4 featured a packed field of 52 riders and from the beginning the pace was fast and furious. Because of the high speeds, the lead group quickly decimated the back of the field and the USA Cycling officials starting pulling riders off the back of the race to keep things safe and flowing smoothly.
After 30 minutes of intense racing, with a number of riders taking their turn at the front of the pack, it came down to of course the final sprint. Addison dug deep and shot out to the lead with Emile close behind. Addison crossed the finish line first taking both the stage win and the overall Omnium lead.
Women's Race and Omnium Recap
The Fyxation Open features both a men's and women's field and this year's race in Chicago featured a smaller field of riders than we would have hoped for, but the race was fast and exciting nonetheless. We offer equal prize money to both the men's and women's field and pay outs for the top 5 finishers. Because of the prize pool and the 3 primes we offered down in Chicago, chances were high that most of the competitors would be able to take home a prize.
Women's Omnium leader, Ash Duban, was off in London at the Red Hook Crit so it was anyone's series to win. The top 3 spots on the podium in Lake Bluff went to Chelsea Matias, local WI rider Luci Olewinski who was using an Eastside that she got from us prior to the race and Laurie Coulombe, who came to the race all the way from Montreal, Canada.
The Final stage of the Women's Fyxation Open Omnium started off fast on the downtown Chicago course. The field split up mid way through the race with the lead group taking turns at the front.
Laurie Coulumbe split off from the main pack with a few laps to go and was able to hold onto the lead and ended up crossing the finish line first 10 seconds ahead of the pack. It was a close race for second with Luci Olewinski crossing the line just ahead of Chelsea Matias, who ended up with her second podium of the weekend finishing 3rd.
We want to thank everyone that took part in the Fyxation Open Omnium this year. Special thanks for our friends at the Tour of America's Dairyland and the Intelligentsia Cup for working so closely with us again this year and for making the Fyxation Open a world class event. The race organizers and staff work tirelessly from dawn til dusk for 10 days in a row and make these events a blast for the riders and fans.
We'd also like to thank all our sponsors for their support this year. Head on over to the Fyxation Open website to view our full sponsor list and make sure to head over to their websites to learn more about their great products.
Full race results and image galleries can be found here.