Discussed: Pacelines, potholes, ballet and CTA
In the parking lot next to Winnemac Park, I’m the third rider to show up. I’m ready to ride—always am—especially when it’s cold and the sun hasn’t quite worked its way above the apartment buildings.
But it’s April 20th…
— N.Wright
Its my first race as a newly minted cat3. I’m mixing it with a big field of handy looking guys as we line up at the Blackhawks Farms motorsport racetrack course startline for Spring Super Crit.
Off the line, its a giant lunge down the straight, wind behind us. Its tight and 5 wide through the first easy curve, with riders attacking and the field veering left and right as the wind gusts. I’m toward the back and for some reason favoring hanging left – probably instinct from growing up in the UK….
— Bevan Brookfield
Calling all lady dirtbaggers! The Dirt Days are a monthly series of group mountain bike rides held at local Chicagoland and nearby Wisconsin trails throughout the summer months. It’s a perfect event for women of all skill levels to meet up, enjoy friendly, non-competitive rides and get some time on the trail. Rides begin at 9am, rain or shine, so mark your calendars for these upcoming dates:
May 4th: Palos Forest Preserve, Willow Springs, IL
June 8: Southern Kettles, La Grange, WI*
July 6: Palos Forest Preserve, Willow Springs, IL
August 3: Southern Kettles, La Grange, WI*
*We will announce a carpool/meetup spot in the city for the Kettles dates
These rides are brought to you by our wonderful ride leaders with the support of their organizations:
Becky Welbes, Pretty. Fast. & Kinky Llama Racing
Jen Mosley, Half Acre Cycling
Gina Kenny, League of Illinois Bicyclists
More updates to come. We hope to see you out on the trails!
First off, let’s get this out of the way now: this has been the longest winter EVER! At first I thought it was just part of living in Chicago – a purgatory I happily (ignorantly) signed up for when I accepted my new job and moved away from temperate Kansas City. Every day during the month of February, I would log on to weather.com and check not only the forecast for Chicago (surprise, surprise: mostly cloudy, highs in the 30s) and Kansas City (most of the time, sunny and highs in the 50s). Then I would check every sunny, warm snowbird destination and crunch the budget figures over and over hoping each time I would magically find a way to finance a week-long traincation to: Tucson, San Diego, Austin, etc.
— Andrea Devine
Just a couple last words regarding the 2013 Gapers Block Crits: THANK YOU!
Thank you to all of our racers. Without all of your excitement and interest in trying out racing, we wouldn’t be able to put on this practice series for as many years as we have. And it just seems to keep growing and getting better every year — because of all of you guys and gals coming out with the passion to race!
Thank you to all of our sponsors for donating the awesome prizes and swag! Thanks to Johnny Sprockets for sponsoring the Cat 5 race; Psimet Custom Wheels for the gift cards for the Women’s Cat 4 race; HPI for the computrainer certificates; CarboRocket for the tasty samples; Enzo’s for the Buttonhole Chamois Cream samples; and Specialized for the socks! And thank you Beverly Bike-Vee Pak for donating the bar tape and pumps for our premes!
And a round of applause to our excellent officials and hard working volunteers. You guys rock!
Lastly, the final set of OMNIUM RESULTS are now available. Nice work everyone!! Hope you all have a great race season. We look forward to seeing out all out there real soon!
THE HAC TENT
The Half Acre Cycling tent is continuing to make the rounds of local road, criterium, mountain, and cyclocross events. Stop by, say hi, and enjoy our namesake refreshment.
TEAM RIDE
Hey, if you are like us, you like to ride bikes!! Come ride your bike with us on one of our team rides! Get on our Forum and get the whens and wheres!!
