Every summer, competitive cyclists from near and far converge on Wisconsin for the Tour of America’s Dairyland – 11 consecutive days of dawn-to-dusk races wrapped up in a block party replete with beer, brats and hijinks. The tour is the longest competitive road cycling series in America. It jumps from Oak Creek and Racine up to the Fox Valley, before winding through Cedarburg, Hartland and ending in the Tosa Village.
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Race executive director Bill Koch says there’s something for everyone. Walk up to the track to feel the breeze of dozens of cyclists whizzing past at 35 mph, or sit back and enjoy food, drinks and games on the outskirts.
The Tour of America’s Dairyland takes a criterium-racing format, meaning each single race in the tour has its own winner. Each race is timed and once the bell rings, whoever crosses the finish line first wins.
The categories of races are broken up by gender and experience level. But every finisher still earns points – beyond the daily prizes, there is a omnium competition that tallies up results from every race in every category at the conclusion.
Therefore, the more races a rider participates in, the more points they earn. First-place omnium winners stand to take home $500, a trophy, a wheel of cheese and a cycling jersey.
Timed races ultimately test a rider’s cardiovascular fitness, pacing and aerodynamics above pure speed. While the race clock counts up, the laps count down. The rule is that every rider finishes on the same lap, so lapped riders who remain in the race after the winner crosses the finish line will be docked points in the omnium for unfinished laps.
Koch has helped organize ToAD since its first race in 2009. He frontloads the schedule for each day with amateur races and saves the cream of the crop for last: pros, national champs and Olympians. In addition to serious cycling, catch mascot races, face painting, adults pulling beer kegs on tricycles, and maybe even a marching band – all depending on the city. The races run June 18-28.
