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EDWARDSVILLE - TheBANK of Edwardsville Rotary Criterium Festival was once again a huge draw for people around the area and beyond and a significant fundraising success.
Edwardsville Rotary President Rich Walker said he thought Rotary and the sponsors knocked this event out of the park as a success.
“I am extremely proud of our Edwardsville Rotarians and our sponsors for how they handled this event,” he said. “This gets bigger every year with fantastic cyclists and kids races. The weather also cooperated. It was one of our best festivals so far.”
Walker said there were 225 volunteers, with all the Rotary members volunteering, but others from the community and clubs around the region.
“It takes the whole community to pull off the event,” he said. “It was a terrific event and families can’t say enough about it.”
In the final races, some of the bicyclists reached speeds of around 35 mph, Walker said.
“They whiz by so fast it is almost a blur when they go by and they leave a breeze,” he said.
One of the traditions of the event is for fans to ring cow bells and that happened throughout many of the races.
TheBANK of Edwardsville Rotary Criterium Festival is a series of high-speed bicycle races, free kids races, live bands and open container on the perimeter of the event all on streets of Edwardsville. This is the signature event for the Edwardsville Rotary Club since 2010 and is used as a major fundraiser. All the proceeds from the event go toward community enhancing projects for the Edwardsville area.
The event was sanctioned by the USA Cycling Association and the Missouri Bicycle Racing Association. The event is held rain or shine. TheBANK of Edwardsville, City of Edwardsville and Edwardsville Township are presenting sponsors.
Jacob Slosar of Edwardsville was first place in the Junior Division, Kelsey Tharp won the men’s Category 5 Division and Keith Guilford was first in the Men’s Category 3 Division.
The days activities included high speed children’s races, live bands, food, drinks and the highlight of all were kids’ races.
S.J. Morrison served as Criterium race director and again the competitions and crowds flowed perfectly.
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville student Nate Cox won the Men’s Category ½ race. There were four St. Louis entries who won the other race categories, including: Jen Schook, who took first in the Women’s Category ¾, Chris Harre, Men’s Master’s, Hannah Schell in the Women’s Open and Spencer Seggebruch in Men’s Category ½.
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