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Chequamegon MTB Festival presented by Trek was held Saturday in Wisconsin, doubling as the penultimate leg of the Life Time Grand Prix off-road series.
A pair of 23-year-olds won individual titles, Savilia Blunk for women, the reigning US cross-country mountain bike champion, and Bradyn Lange for men, the youngest male rider in the Life Time series.
The 40-mile point-to-point course began in downtown Hayward in northern Wisconsin and followed parts of the famed American Birkie Cross-country Ski Trail across forest roads and snowmobile trails with short, punchy climbs to the finish line in Cable.
The Chequamegon MTB Festival held a total of three race distances, which combined for more than 2,800 participants ranging in age from 2 to 80 years old, representing 38 states and four countries.
Blunk, who is not part of the Life Time series, won the women’s 40-mile event in a time of 2:27:26 good, which was good for 37th overall in the pro/elite field. Rose Grant took second in the women’s division, three and a half minutes back. Kelsey Urban outsprinted Alexis Skarda for the final spot on the women’s podium, 24 seconds later.
Lange won the men’s pro/elite race from a pack of three riders in a time of 2:05:54, outkicking Riley Amos, who settled for second, and pushing Alexey Vermeulen, who is second in the Life Time men’s standings, to the final step on the podium. Series leader Keegan Swenson came close to continuing his streak of wins, but a crash in a slippery corner near the home stretch allowed the trailing trio to overtake him and set up the finishing sprint.
“Honestly, I didn’t expect to win a stop of the Life Time Grand Prix this year being the youngest in the series. I was taking it race by race just learning as much as I can from these guys so this was a pleasant surprise,” said Lange on his Instagram feed, now 14th in the series standings.
It was a who’s-who for the Grand Prix series contenders on the rain-soaked…
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