What comes to mind when you hear America’s Dairyland? …Well, Wisconsin of course! Wisconsin is known as the Badger State and it is also the dairy capital of the U.S. It is sometimes called “America’s Dairyland” and has more dairy cows than any other state. And yes, it’s not a surprise that the recovery drinks handed out at the races were milk cartons. Wisconsin produces 15% of the entire country’s milk (2003, “Awesome America”).
After absolutely loving our racing experience at the Manhattan Beach Grand Prix, my teammate Siobhán and I decided to go race some more big-time races. Next up on the calendar was the Tour of America’s Dairyland (aka ToAD).
ToAD is made up of 11 consecutive days of racing, has lots of primes, equal payouts for male and female racers, and each course presents a unique challenge. Since we couldn’t both take enough time off to race all 11 days, we decided to race 5 races.
Race 1: Schlitz Park
Race 2: Elkhart Lake Road Race at Road America
Race 3: Neenah Rocket Crit
Race 4: Cafe Centraal Bay View Classic
Race 5: ISCorp Downer Classic
Finding host housing was much easier than I had thought. Fortunately, since I went to college in the Midwest, I still had several of my former basketball teammates and their families living semi-close to Illinois. After several email exchanges we had found the perfect safe haven in the woods to stay for the duration of our visit in Wisconsin. Racing can be very stressful, and it was such a relief to have our hosts take the best care of us we could have ever imagined. From arrival until the day of our departure, the car, food, and racing situation was all prepared.
To make things even more fun, I invited my sister to join us for the weekend. She arrived on our second day in WI and became our team manager. She did an excellent job and was phenomenal with the cowbell. Though there is obviously never enough cowbell to be heard at the races!
Moogy 