The evening started off with a 60 lap Madison where Olympians and world champions such as Colby Pearce and Hayden Godfrey went head to head in this grueling 20km race.  Throughout three sprints in the event it was Rodney Santiago and Geraldo Fernandez who ended up taking the race just behind Pearce and Dan Holloway.  The teams took to the track once more before the 100 lap L’Americaine Finale which consisted of 5 sprints.  The field stayed strong and it was U.S. Olympian Colby Pearce and his teammate Dan Holloway riding for the Chipotle Slipstream team who fought hard and took the win, earning the Bob Rodale Madison Cup.

The women competed in a record attempt one mile event and Laura McCaughey of Australia came just short of beating Jennie Reed’s record of 1:50:00.  McCaughey did not go home empty handed however as she accumulated the most points out of all of the women throughout the season taking home the title of 2008 Rider of the Year!  She had strong competition in the 5km Scratch final from fellow country mate Kaarle McCulloch who took the win in a photo finish with Verducci rider Kacey Manderfield.  Despite the third place positioning for McCaughey, she had collected enough points during the seven race season to earn her the Rider of the Year position.

The Australian’s swept the Rider of the Year competition as Doug Repacholi kicked it into high gear in the men’s 20-lap Scratch Final to determine the winner in the close standings between Repacholi, Shane Kline, and Pete Fitzpatrick.  In the end it was Repacholi who broke into second place in the finals, earning him the title of 2008 Rider of the Year.  This was Repacholi’s first year competing at the Cycling Center and proved to the other riders that he is a force to be reckoned with.

During the men’s Sprint Invitational, local favorite Ben Barczewski, who is just back from Europe where he was training with Italian Olympian Roberto Chiappa, made the competition fierce for Australian national team member Jason Niblett.  After several rounds of sprinting, Niblett came out on top with Barczewski just behind him and Gary Ryan hanging on in third place. 

Along with the professional racing on Friday night was the Air Products Finals where the top participants in the most popular community program at the track, the Air Products Developmental Cycling Program, competed for the Air Products Championship jersey!  This program has had over 18,000 participants over the past 32 years and this was some of the best racing the facility has seen! 

The youth participants displayed their new skills and tactics on the track with Alec Ratzell, Zachary Houlik, Colin Fitzgerald, and Charles Hanlon earning championship jersey’s for the boys and Claire Harris and Nadia Latzgo were the champions for the junior girls.  In the adult fields it was Christopher Farrell  and Loustau Emmerson for the men and Chloe Bartholomew for the women who took home champion jerseys. 

The final event of the 2008 season was a great success at the Red Robin Madison Cup XXXII featuring the Air Products Finals.  Overall the World Series of Bicycling saw riders from over ten different nations including 2008 Olympians Bobby Lea and Roberto Chiappa.  The Valley Preferred Cycling Center looks forward to another awesome season in 2009!      

For a full list of results please click here.