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Memorial Day Weekend Bike Races

Quad Cities Bicycle Club

Hundreds of bicycle racers from across the country are coming to eastern Iowa for the annual Memorial Day Weekend series. They start Friday night with the Burlington Road Races, followed by the Snake Alley Criterium in Burlington on Saturday, the Melon City Criterium in Muscatine on Sunday, and conclude Monday with the Quad Cities Kwik Star Criterium in Davenport.

John Harrington from the Quad Cities Bicycle Club says many professional teams come for the whole weekend. 

"If they're going to travel from California or Colorado or Kentucky, then they want to come in for a bunch of races and make it worthwhile. They'll come in for all four races for some of them."

One of the attractions that's started to bring a lot of women professional racers is the equal prize money for men and women. Harrington says several years ago, the Quad Cities began paying the same, to the top women's and men's finishers, and this year for the first time the Burlington and Muscatine races will pay the same to the first four finishers of the women's and men's races. 

A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois.