Another huge win for Einstein Racing in the event that matters most: Bananas. 

Johanna Schmidt went into the Iceman Cometh with some big expectations after last season’s 6th place. One thing off her mind was the Top Banana Competition. After going out of her way to make Banana-starts around the state, she wrapped up the first-ever Women’s title in style with a confirmation-stamping tenth place this past weekend.

For her teammate Mackenzie Woodring, the real ambition was to take the win against some of the best pro women in the world. In the process, she would not only vault up the Banana standings, but also soak up a few more points away from other riders threatening the Einstein choke-hold atop the table. It took a lot of effort to fend off the likes of Cooper Dendrel, Kati Krikke, Lauri Brockmiller and Susan Vigland, with a tough few final miles taking Erin Vicary out of the top ten. Here’s how the points stack up:

    1   50 Georgia Gould          Ft. Collins     CO LUNA PRO TEAM   
    2   49 Emily Batty            Brooklin        ON SUBARU - TREK       
    3   48 Heather Irmiger        Boulder         CO SUBARU - TREK        
    4   47 Mackenzie Woodring     Belmont         MI U.S. NATIONAL PARALY   
    5   46 Chloe Woodruff         Tucson          AZ CRANKBROTHER RACE CL  
    6   45 Erica Tingey           Salt Lake City  UT ROCKY MOUNTAIN/ KUHL  
    7   44 Cooper Dendel          Marquette       MI                      
    8   43 Abby Strigel           Madison         WI SUBARU TREK TEAM     
    9   42 Kathryn Krikke         Rockford        MI                   
   10   41 Johanna Schmidt        Traverse City   MI EINSTEIN          
   11   40 Lauri Brockmiller      Traverse City   MI                       
   12   39 Christy Keely          Greenville      SC TEAM KENDA           
   13   38 Amy Campbell           Portland        OR              
   14   37 Amy Stauffer           Lowell          MI PH                   
   15   36 Amanda Ryan            Farmington Hil  MI EINSTEIN RACING     
   16   35 Susan Vigland          Traverse City   MI                         
   17   34 Erin Vicary            Walled Lake     MI QUIRING CYCLES  
   18   33 Emily Ponti            Mentor          OH THE BICYCLE HUB      
   19   32 Janelle Renschier      Indianapolis    IN BICYCLE OUTFITTERS  
   20   31 Bonnie Van Volkinburg  Ada             MI FARM TEAM RACING/ 616

The 50-1 point haul for the race was a huge opportunity to shake and/or bake up the standings, with great rides from Cooper Dendel, Kati Krikke and Lauri Brockmiller paying off in spades. For the Quiring duo of Sue Stephens and Erin Vicary, however, the Iceman was an opportunity lost after an extremely impressive start to the mountain bike season at the Battle at the Burg, Crybaby and Peak2Peak. Bad luck and untimely bad days cost them their high rankings, but they’ll be back in 2013 for more.

kolo t.c. is proud to present to you the final standings of the 2012 Women’s Top Banana Competition:

Johanna Schmidt at 185 points

Amanda Ryan at 141 points
Mackenzie Woodring at 122 points
Amy Stauffer at 114 points
Susan Vigland at 111 points
Lauri Brockmiller at 106 points
Erin Vicary at 69 points
Sue Stephens at 59 points
Georgia Gould at 50 points
Emily Batty at 49 points
Heather Irmiger at 48 points
Chloe Woodruff at 46 points
Erica Tingey at 45 points
Cooper Dendel at 44 points
Abby Strigel at 43 points
Zoe Reeves at 42 points
Kati Krikke at 41 points
Christy Keely at 39 points
Amy Campbell at 38 points
Julie Whalen at 38 points
Cady Chintis at 36 points
Kathy Everts at 35 points
Sarah Rice at 34 points
Emily Ponti at 33 points
Janelle Renchsler at 32 points
Janette Rho at 33 points
Elizabth So at 32 points
Bridgett Widrig at 32 points
Bonnie Von Valkinburg at 31 points
Melissa Ryba at 31 points
Alicia Trevino at 31 points
Tiffany Bangma at 29 points
Kristen Rashberg at 28 points
Sarah Demerly at 27 points
Heather Spencer at 20 points
Patricia Devost at 19 points
Samantha Brode at 19 points
Stephanie Swan at 17 points
Jane Van Hof at 16 points
Lisa Markley at 16 points
Amelia Moore at 16 points
Laura Webb at 16 points
Amanda Schaap at 15 points

A huge congratulations to the Einstein team on sweeping the Banana podium. With Johann and Amanda Ryan committing early and Woodring riding huge wins late to join them, Einstein took the top three spots with of their four  qualified riders. Amy Stauffer got herself smack dab in the middle of a Traverse City sandwich in fourth, stuffed between the Einsteinians and Hagerty’s Susan Vigland and Lauri Brockmiller in fifth and sixth. Behind them is yet another tandem in Stephens and Vicary. The next local racer is Cooper Dendel, followed by Zoe Reeves.

Thank you all very much for following the Top Banana Series and congrats to the winners, who will get a voucher for a single bunch of bananas. There will be a lot of news and updates on next year’s edition, including a super-drawn out week of revealing the schedule, points ratings and some new elements thrown in for good measure.

If you’d like your race to be considered for the 2013 Top Banana Series, send an email at the address listed in the Contact page.