C3's Laura Van Gilder has a firm hold on her third MAC series jersey. © Jamie Mack
Valentin Scherz and Laura Van Gilder continue to maintain their points leads in the Champion System MAC Series. But behind them, there have been some shake-ups following this past weekend’s race in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania.
In the Elite Men’s division, Valentin Scherz took his first win of the year to solidify his position at the top of the table. But after a strong second place showing in Bryn Athyn, Scherz’s Cyfac-Champion Systems Racing teammate Anthony Grand has moved past former MAC champion Davide Frattini and into second spot. Greg Wittwer of Alan North America is currently in fourth, within quick striking distance of Grand’s second place. Scherz and Grand also lead the standings in the Elite U23 Division.
On the Women’s side, Laura Van Gilder (C3-Athletes Serving Athletes) continues to lead despite not starting in Bryn Athyn. Rocketing up the standings into second place is Erica Yozell of PAValleys.com. Yozell almost doubled her season points total with a win in the WhirlyBird Cross, while solidifying her commanding lead in the Women’s 35+ division. After a breakout early season, Kristin Gavin missed the WhirlyBird Cross and slipped down to third place in the season standings. With one race to be dropped from the final points tally, Gavin is still solidly in the mix.
Van Gilder has also led her C3-Athletes Serving Athletes club to the top of the standings in the team competition. After four of the eleven races, C3-Athletes Serving Athletes have scored a perfect 48 points after winning maximum points at every event so far this year. In second place is the decidedly smaller Cyfac-Champion System Racing with just 31 points.
As expected, the tightest of the Elite points chases is in Champion System MAC’s very competitive Elite Masters division. None of the top seven competitors have missed a race a third of the way into the season, and this week’s winner, Roger Aspholm (Westwood Velo) isn’t even in the top ten. On the strength of his two wins last week at Charm City, Philadelphia Ciclismo’s Stephan Kincaid continues to lead the standings by a narrow margin ahead of Ralf Wamuth (Highland Park Hermes), Bob Campos (GS Gotham/Toga), Greg Ferguson (Beacon Cycling) and PAValleys.com’s Mike Yozell (Erica’s husband).
The Elite Juniors saw both of the top two riders in the division missing in action, with the result that Dag Anderson (Team Somerset) and Zach Bender (Cycle-Smart) have both overtaken Sam O’Keefe while narrowing Jeff Banshon’s (Van Dessel Factory Team) lead.
Full standings are available on the Champions System MAC website. Next up on the Champion System MAC series is the first-ever two-day UCI cyclocross event at Delaware’s legendary Granogue Estate. Information is available on BikeReg.com.
