Minnesota State Championship Series

The Team Competition will be returning for the 2008 Series with a few minor changes:

 The first will be the addition of a team racing category for the   Citizen Class racers.

All the changes are focused on getting as many people involved in the team competition as possible and keeping the turnout high throughout the season.

Now that the business end of things is taken care of let’s move on to more pressing matters.

         Preview and predictions for the team competition in 2008

First up is the Citizen Class. Since there isn’t any team data from last year to look at this has to be the one class that’s up in the air. Of course LCR has about 100 riders out to the races every week and so if they decide to enter a citizen team as well they could be the team to beat. The wildcard team could turn out to be a local club of weekend warriors like MORC or RASC.

The sport class had close racing last year and in the end Hollywood lost the overall through lack of an updated roster. Barring another technical glitch like that they are the pick to take the title. The dark horse of the sport class has to be LCR. With the biggest and deepest roster last year if they show up to race they could ruin the Hollywood party. Don’t overlook the defending champs Wannabe, but something tells me they might be looking to spoil it in the Comp class this year.

The Comp Class looks to be firmly in Peace Coffee’s Control. In the 2007 season they won 7 of the 10 events and cruised to the easiest victory of the series. They have a deep roster, good turnout, and an organized structure. Look for them to get it done again this year. The only spoiler could be LCR if they can take advantage of their numbers and get some turnout. LCR’s bigger guns in Comp Class like Heath and Raymond may be making the move to expert this year though so Peace Coffee could be safe at the front of the pack.

Last years expert class seemed easy to predict. There were lots of strong riders on other teams, but one team had 3 of the strongest riders in the state if not the Midwest. Velo Rochester just needed one thing to be unbeatable last year, a fourth rider. Nature Valley Penn cycle was able to take advantage of their numbers throughout the series to take the overall in an 8 races tie breaker. This year Velo Rochester’s endurance specialist Charly Tri has signed on to compete at more of the MNSCS races and they’ve added a further 5^th member to their ranks. Given this, they have to be the favorite. Hollywood is packing some fire power as well and if they can get more than two riders to show up to the races they should be able to give Velo Rochester a run for their money.

The race for the overall team competition is a tough one to call without knowing which teams will be able to field a citizen class. Smart money would go on LCR though. The Larson Cycle Racing team might be hard to understand, but they have a good time out there. Combine that with a deep roster and a knack for attracting new racers who don’t take themselves to seriously makes them the favorite to score across all the classes. Peace coffee is the other team that could show up for the overall if they can field an expert team.

So with the predictions out of the way it’s time for everyone to start making the phone calls and dropping the emails to recruit your heavy hitters and prove the predictions above completely false. Start sending in rosters with the names and classes of the riders in to mjkurke@hotmail.com. The start of the season is just around the corner.