UC Vélo Café

We have moved!

2008-11-19T18:22:00.001-06:00

The UCVC blog has moved here. Please keep visiting us! Don't forget to update your RSS feed.

Thanks Saris!

2008-11-08T13:04:00.008-06:00

After coming off of a strong 2007 season, the UCVC had its eyes set on another successful season for 2008. The club attracted a record number of 90 members this year, ranging from elite racers to newbie’s having recently acquired road bikes. The enthusiasm and skills of our racing members promised a successful season ahead for the collegiate racing team.

The biggest obstacle that we face at the University of Chicago is the endless winter that begins as early as October and can last well into April. A good 6 months of icy bike paths and frigid temps is enough to wipe out early season enthusiasm that forms under the sunny skies and beautiful weather of September. In the past, group rides fizzled out as temperatures became unbearable and our riders were left to figure out how to stay in shape and get ready for the first collegiate races on their own.

Luckily, this year we had a generous Saris Sponsorship to help us form team indoor training sessions. With a fleet of Fluid2 Trainers and Aluminum Rollers, UCVC indoor training sessions began! For some it was their first indoor riding experience on trainers, and for many it was their first attempt at rollers (which aren’t as hard as they look). Often riding inside can be a gloomy winter experience, but being able to ride together with teammates made for fun times.

Winter training helped the team come together and kept the enthusiasm for racing high throughout the winter. We had a record 9 riders come out to the first race in March, with 5 racers competing in their first ever road race! We even came home from the weekend with two 1^st place finishes and a 3^rd and a 4^th. (Thanks to the Saris racks, we were able to easily transport the bikes to all our races!) The success continued throughout the season for our racers, with 23 top-five finishes overall. The strong results were enough for our team to win the D2 MWCCC Championship! In addition, we had one rider win the women’s D2 MWCCC Championship and sent 3 riders to nationals.

All of our Collegiate National Participants spent the season training on Cyclops Powertaps. For Aspen Gorry and Carly Schuster, it was their first time competing at Nationals. Devon Haskell returned after finishing 4^th overall at last year’s nationals. This year she came in 4^th in the criterium and won the road race. Her placings earned her the Omnium National Championship!

Overall, UCVC has had their best year to date. Thanks again for the Saris sponsorship. The quality trainers, high-tech power taps, and easy to use racks certainly helped us in our successful season.

UCVC gives their pre-race prediction as they warm up on Cyclops Fluid Trainers

Saris trainers are great for warming up on cold days...

... and for downtown crits when there are no good roads to warm up on...

Thanks Saris!!

Lights, Lamps, and Shorter Days

2008-10-22T14:53:00.002-05:00

Heya folks! As you all know, the days are getting rather short, and I think this week may be the last that super early into work will allow for ride time afterwads... or at least daylight ride time. I am thinking that as long as the roads are dry and temperatures not too unreasonable, a nighttime ride wouldn't be the worst thing. Do any of you have suggestions on lamps, headlight, and lights? I don't want to break the bank. I do want to be safe!

Also, a friend recently wrote of another woman in her cyclocross race, 'She was living in the cottage of wattage.' I really liked that term.

Guest Speakers

2008-10-07T10:55:00.003-05:00

Last night I attended a meeting of CU's cycling team as I recently discovered I am allowed to race in the conference season in the Rocky Mountain region. The team's size is huge, which is really cool to see, and they have regular Monday night meetings. They often line up 'guest speakers' for these meetings, people who agree to come in and talk to the team about different cycling-related subjects from bike fits and physical therapy to nutrition to competing internationally. Boulder is an easy area to find such people, certainly, but this idea struck me as something cool for the good ol' UCVC to consider. I bet there are UCVC'ers who know people who would want to do this, and it never hurts to ask someone. I know J. is running a series of workshops for beginners and has done a ton for cycling in Hyde Park, and this could be another way to increase knowledge and enthusiasm about cycling.

The Juice

2008-09-22T13:43:00.004-05:00

Meltdown

2008-09-18T15:58:00.008-05:00

I got back to my mountain biking ways a couple of weekends ago at the Palos Meltdown out in the forest preserves west of town on top of the Manhattan Project detritus. Hosted by CAMBR, the great guys who keep Palos well-kept, and a shop called Richard's Bicycles out in Palos Heights. I haven't raced mtb in 4 years, so I went out to try and get back into the groove of mtb racing, which pretty much means dealing with pain for the duration of the race. At the sport class call-up I Lined up in front sporting my trusty Schlitz jersey, sprinted like hell to get into the single track in 5th position, and then settled in to dealing with the pain for the next 1.25 hours. Passed a couple of guys and was rolling with XXX'er Greg Heck (who's hosting the Jackson Park X race this Sunday) and we worked our way through the 20-29 field that had started 2 minutes ahead. He was on a rigid 29'er which turned out to be a great choice for this course. On the big grass sections he steadily pulled away and I dug deep to catch him again on the technical backside. Unfortunately, as soon as I made contact cramps set in, and it was all damage control until the finish. I held off a hard-charging Guinness rider and ended up with 2nd place in the 30-39 age goup - not bad for the first race back. I rolled around easy to get the cramps out, congratulated the other guys from my mtb posse and promptly went to get a hamburger and coke with my wife. I was gone eating when they did the awards ceremony, but when I got back they took my picture alone on the podium (above). Kinda like the Flemish saying, "no one else in the picture"... but not really. Nice crowd, great promoters, good times.

UCVC: First Forays into the Chicago Cyclocross Cup

2008-09-15T16:15:00.010-05:00

In honor of this weekend's opening of the Chicago Cyclocross Cup, I am posting photos featuring Thomas Berube, Andrew Nicholson, Pat Kelly, and Jon Tenney from the first UCVC team forays into cyclocross . If you look closely you will find proof that the Ironman will make me skinny, that the XXX-Athletico jersey have improved greatly over the years, cross can be raced with a 3,000-pound mountain bike, and Thomas was, in fact, a racer.

All of the pictures were taken during the 2003-04 season, which I believe was the first season of the Chicago Cup. The first four were taken at the Wheeling race with the remainder taken at Jackson Park. Tenney and Berube had matching bicycles courtesy of Get A Grip Cycles and Cannondale.

Make Sure to Train This Winter

2008-09-05T15:04:00.005-05:00

Don't end up like these guys (or me). They would not be good at pedaling a bike. Maybe they could eat the tires.

Result of the sox poll

2008-09-02T12:07:00.004-05:00

Assuming that the price of the socks is between $10 and $15, how many pairs of socks would you buy? Total votes: 30

One pair of each kind: 14 (47%)

Two pairs of each kind: 2 (7%)

Three pairs in total: 5 (17%)

Four pairs in total: 3 (10%)

Five pairs in total: 0 (0%)

More than five pairs: 0 (0%)

Just one pair: 4 (13%)

No socks at all: 2 (7%)

Which kind of sock would you prefer? Total votes: 31

Tall socks (4''): 10 (32%)

Crew socks (2''): 18 (58%)

I would buy both: 3 (10%)

The poll is now closed.

Sox poll

2008-08-28T20:41:00.010-05:00

IMPORTANT!! I (Francisco) changed the poll, because the first time I forgot to include some relevant options. You should vote again, if you did it before Friday 8/29 7:00 AM. The poll has been reset. Sorry about the changes.

The club is making custom socks and we'd like to know your opinion before we order. The socks are made by DeFeet and customized with the school's and/or club's colors and logos. We will have two designs available, both cool-looking, but different. They're not male- or female-specific. The socks can be used for running or other sports too.

Please don't vote more than once. If you have any questions, please ask Devon or Carly. Thanks.

The poll is now closed.

Holding Down the Fort

2008-08-28T10:22:00.004-05:00

Whilst the youngster racers have flown the UCVC coop for the summer, it should be known that long (and not so long) time members Eric Norstrom, Tim Belton, Thomas Bérubé, Rob Fairbanks, Suchandra Thapa, and Jeff Norris have all been doing their share of riding and racing in the maroon this season. Eric has been posting solid M4 and Masters crits & road races. Tim can be seen on the path at all hours, mondo 53x11. Thomas has been doing his usual brevet madness. Rob posed as and injured Francisco at the Chicago Crit! Suchandra has jumped headlong into M5 racing solo style. And Jeff has posted respectable results in this, his first real season of racing.

I'm sure that there are others out there, too.

Cross Is Here!

2008-08-26T19:46:00.003-05:00

The collegiate cross schedule has been posted. Here are the races:

Nov 1/2: Mizzou

Nov 8/9: Michigan Tech

Nov 15/16: Purdue

Nov 22/23: Lindsey Wilson

Dec 14: Nationals in Kansas City

For more collegiate racing info, sign up for the Midwest Collegiate Cycling Conference (MWCCC) group at http://groups.google.com/group/mwccc

Yay for Cross!!!

CX and other blogging continued elsewhere

2008-08-25T10:12:00.005-05:00

I am continuing the series of Cyclocross 101 posts on my own cycling blog, Morning Roll, which I just started. In fact, from now on I'll do all my cycloblogging there, except for posts where I specifically write about UCVC, which will remain here. I have also copied all my previous Vélo Café posts to the new blog.

I encourage everyone to keep visiting, posting stuff, and writing comments on UC Vélo Café, and also to visit Morning Roll and to leave comments there too.

Question About Switchbacks

2008-08-24T21:42:00.003-05:00

The point of this is not to rub in that I live in the best place for riding. It's a real question, and it could affect parts of my road racing. When a road is really steep, say 14-20%, for a while, is it better to ride a switchback on the inside, which is shorter in distance but steeper in grade, or outside? Or does it even matter?

On a slight aside, have you guys ever heard of the term 'paper boy weave'? I hadn't until this spring, and I totally had to bust it out yesterday, even with a 27 on my back.

Crosstube

2008-08-22T06:51:00.003-05:00

Once you're done watching all the great how-to videos Francisco has been posting, you may want to head over to Crosstube to see the techniques in action. I was making a list of the watchable (and it takes more than bad 80's hair band music to make them unwatchable) 'cross videos I could find on Youtube when I stumbled on Crosstube -- it is essentially just that kind of list nicely divided into categories etc.

Al Stern Road Race 2004

2008-08-21T14:24:00.007-05:00

A picture of three (Kent, Eric, and Jon) of the six cat fours who raced that day. We thought that we were awesome, but we actually sucked.
Mark Edele who now teaches at the University of Perth, Australia. Mark's bike was a piece of garbage, and we kept hoping that he would ride it into the lake and be forced to buy a new one. Debbie MacDougall, the first female member of the UCVC to race her bike. She would later marry Mark and move to Australia with him.

Andrew, now teaching in one of the SUNY schools, Ben, who does mathematics research for some slimey, money-grubbing hedge fund, and big-headed Sam Yount, who probably still lives off his parents. In 2004, Sam was trying to be a professional triathlete so he went running after his category 3 race.
Although we look like tools in these photos, Andrew and I actually came in second in the Ironman Triathlon Collegiate National Championships later that year.

Do bike lanes increase pollution?

2008-08-20T18:10:00.007-05:00

The argument is that bike lanes reduce the space available to cars, contribute to traffic congestion, and therefore cause more idling and more pollution. Obviously, the answer to this question depends on:
a) Whether bike lanes decrease the number of cars in the street
b) Whether they increase the CO2 emissions of the remaining cars (via reduced speed)

I don't take a stand on the issue, but I found it stimulating to read and think about it, in today's Wall Street Journal (I'm not sure whether the link will remain ungated, so I'm pasting the whole article below).

San Francisco Ponders:
Could Bike Lanes Cause Pollution?

City Backpedals on a Cycling Plan
After Mr. Anderson Goes to Court

By PHRED DVORAK
August 20, 2008; Page A1

SAN FRANCISCO -- New York is wooing cyclists with chartreuse bike lanes. Chicago is spending nearly $1 million for double-decker bicycle parking.

San Francisco can't even install new bike racks.

Blame Rob Anderson. At a time when most other cities are encouraging biking as green transport, the 65-year-old local gadfly has stymied cycling-support efforts here by arguing that urban bicycle boosting could actually be bad for the environment. That's put the brakes on everything from new bike lanes to bike racks while the city works on an environmental-impact report.

Cyclists say the irony is killing them -- literally. At least four bikers have died and hundreds more have been injured in San Francisco since mid-2006, when Mr. Anderson helped convince a judge to halt implementation of a massive pro-bike plan.(It's unclear whether the plan's execution could have prevented the accidents.) In the past year, bike advocates have demonstrated outside City Hall, pushed the city to challenge the plan's freeze in court and proposed putting the whole mess to local voters. Nothing worked.

"We're the ones keeping emissions from the air!" shouted Leah Shahum, executive director of the 10,000-strong San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, at a July 21 protest.

Mr. Anderson disagrees. Cars always will vastly outnumber bikes, he reasons, so allotting more street space to cyclists could cause more traffic jams, more idling and more pollution. Mr. Anderson says the city has been blinded by political correctness. It's an "attempt by the anti-car fanatics to screw up our traffic on behalf of the bicycle fantasy," he wrote in his blog this month.

Mr. Anderson's fight underscores the tensions that can circulate as urban cycling, bolstered by environmental awareness and high gasoline prices, takes off across the U.S. New York City, where the number of commuter cyclists is estimated to have jumped 77% between 2000 and 2007, is adding new bike lanes despite some motorist backlash. Chicago recently elected to kick cars off stretches of big roads on two Sundays this year.

Famously progressive, San Francisco is known for being one of the most pro-bike cities in the U.S., offering more than 200 miles of lanes and requiring that big garages offer bike parking. It is also known for characters like Mr. Anderson.

A tall, serious man with a grizzled gray beard, Mr. Anderson spent 13 months in a California federal prison for resisting the draft during the Vietnam War. He later penned pieces for the Anderson Valley Advertiser, a muckraking Northern California weekly owned by his brother that's known for its savage prose and pranks.

Running for Office

In 1995, Mr. Anderson moved to San Francisco. Working odd jobs, he twice ran for a seat on the city's Board of Supervisors, pledging to tackle homelessness and the city's "tacit PC ideology." He got 332 of 34,955 votes in 2004, his second and best try.

That year Mr. Anderson, who mostly lives off a small government stipend he receives for caring for his 92-year-old mother, also started a blog, digging into local politics with gusto. One of his first targets: the city's most ambitious bike plan to date.

Unveiled in 2004, the 527-page document was filled with maps, traffic analyses and a list of roughly 240 locations where the city hoped to make cycling easier. The plan called for more bike lanes, better bike parking and a boost in cycling to 10% of the city's total trips by 2010.

The plan irked Mr. Anderson. Having not owned a car in 20 years, he says he has had several near misses with bikers roaring through crosswalks and red lights, and sees bicycles as dangerous and impractical for car-centric American cities. Mr. Anderson was also bugged by what he describes as the holier-than-thou attitude typified by Critical Mass, a monthly gathering of bikers who coast through the city, snarling traffic for hours. "The behavior of the bike people on city streets is always annoying," he says. "This 'Get out of my way, I'm not burning fossil fuels.' "

Going to Court

In February 2005, Mr. Anderson showed up at a planning commission meeting. If San Francisco was going to take away parking spaces and car lanes, he argued, it had better do an environmental-impact review first. When the Board of Supervisors voted to skip the review, Mr. Anderson sued in state court, enlisting his friend Mary Miles, a former postal worker, cartoonist and Anderson Valley Advertiser colleague.

Rhonda Winter/San Francisco Bicycle Coalition
San Francisco cyclists protest bike-plan delays in front of City Hall.

Ms. Miles, who was admitted to the California bar in 2004 at age 57, proved a pugnacious litigator. She sought to kill the initial brief from San Francisco's lawyers after it exceeded the accepted length by a page. She objected when the city attorney described Mr. Anderson's advocacy group, the Coalition for Adequate Review, as CAR in their documents. (It's C-FAR.) She also convinced the court to review key planning documents over the city's objections.

Slow Pedaling

In November 2006, a California Superior Court judge rejected San Francisco's contention that it didn't need an environmental review and ordered San Francisco to stop all bike-plan activity until it completed the review.

Since then, San Francisco has pedaled very slowly. City planners say they're being extra careful with their environmental study, in hopes that Mr. Anderson and Ms. Miles won't challenge it. Planners don't expect the study will be done for another year.

Meanwhile, Mr. Anderson and Ms. Miles have teamed up to oppose a plan to put high-rises and additional housing in a nearby neighborhood. He continues to blog from his apartment in an old Victorian home. "Regardless of the obvious dangers, some people will ride bikes in San Francisco for the same reason Islamic fanatics will engage in suicide bombings -- because they are politically motivated to do so," he wrote in a May 21 post.

"In case anyone doubted that you were a wingnut, this statement pretty much sums things up!" one commenter retorted.

Mr. Anderson is running for supervisor again this November -- around the time the city will unveil the first draft of its bike-plan environmental review. He's already pondering a challenge of the review.

Write to Phred Dvorak at phred.dvorak@wsj.com

CX 101 on video: Off-the-bike skills II

2008-08-20T10:00:00.001-05:00

1) How to go through barriers in a CX race (by Mickey Denoncourt)

(Velonews.tv has its own video on going through barriers, but as of the time of writing this post, I couldn't play it. Maybe you'll have better luck: How to get through barriers. Click on the "how-to" tab. You'll find this video near the end of the list.)

2) How to run in sand in CX racing (by Mickey Denoncourt)

CX 101 on video: Off-the-bike skills I

2008-08-18T10:19:00.002-05:00

So you have dismounted and need to carry your bike: How do you lift it? How do you carry it? How do you drop it back on the ground?

1) How to carry and shoulder your 'cross bike. (Again, click on the "how-to" tab and scroll down to the end of the list of videos.) From VeloNews.

2) How to carry a cyclocross bike on a shallow run. (By Mickey Denoncourt.)

3) How to shoulder a cyclocross bike for a steep run. (Also by Mickey Denoncourt.)

Points rides-Classification as of August 16

2008-08-17T12:46:00.002-05:00

	GC (top 15) - August 9	Points	Miles
1	Elisabet	63	480
2	Joe	51	465
3	Jeremy	47	340
4	Francisco	36	275
5	Andreas	31	290
6	Dan	28	205
7	Bernard	26	190
8	Mickey	26	240
9	Jesse	24	120
10	Sarah	23	155
11	Araba	23	120
12	Joel	22	205
13	Philippe	22	205
14	Jonathan	19	85
15	Suchandra	19	85

Some weekend CX fun

2008-08-16T09:38:00.000-05:00

A seven-minute excerpt of the 2007 Women's UCI World Cyclo Cross Champs. I'll be back on Monday with more educational videos.

CX 101 on video: remounting

2008-08-15T09:54:00.000-05:00

1) VeloNews' video is the best I could find. (The guys approach the subject from a, hmmmm, male-centric perspective, but I'm sure everyone can benefit from a smooth remount.)

How to remount your 'cross bike. (Click on the "how to" section and then scroll down to near the bottom of the list of videos.)

2) Mickey Denoncourt didn't do a very good job of making videos about remounting, but here are his two cents anyway:

How to remount a cyclocross bike at a run

How to dismount and remount in cyclocross racing

Free books from a tricycle

2008-08-15T09:48:00.001-05:00

From DailyCandy Chicago:

August 15, 2008
Free Ride
The Book Bike
bookworm!

Once upon a time, there was a bibliophile named Gabe Levinson who wanted to spread the word about his passion for books.

So he did the obvious: ordered a custom-built tricycle with a 200-pound capacity and wrote to dozens of publishers asking for book donations. The hook: He’d ride around in his Book Bike and give away free books to the masses.

The responses flooded in — from McSweeney’s, Dark Horse Comics, Not for Tourists, Drawn & Quarterly, and Washington Square Press, to name a few.

Levinson now spends his Saturdays pedaling around Chicago parks giving away free reads. Cops have tried to stop him, but he woos them with his bounty.

This Saturday, you, too, can be wooed (check his website for location).

Pretty cool in our book.

For locations, go to somethingtoread.net.

Points ride-Classification after August 9

2008-08-14T11:53:00.002-05:00

	GC (top 15) - August 9	Points	Miles
1	Elisabet	59	445
2	Jeremy	47	340
3	Joe	47	430
4	Francisco	32	240
5	Andreas	31	290
6	Dan	28	205
7	Bernard	26	190
8	Mickey	26	240
9	Jesse	24	120
10	Sarah	23	155
11	Araba	23	120
12	Joel	22	205
13	Philippe	22	205
14	Jonathan	19	85
15	Suchandra	19	85

CX 101 on video: Dismounting II

2008-08-13T09:54:00.002-05:00

The first of today's videos doesn't teach a new skill, but brings up an issue that is relevant to those of us who are building a CX bike now: the setup of your brakes.

1) Dismounting II. Part I. Dismounting a bike at speed in CX racing.

I can't explain it better than cyclingnews.com does in its CX section:

Often the brake levers are set up opposite from road bikes, so that the left lever controls the rear brake. This is to allow for better speed modulation during a dismount, where the racer is still moving quickly, has already swung their right leg over the bike and only has their left shoe clipped into the pedal and has their right hand on the top tube (or down tube) ready to lift the bike. Using the left hand to brake the rear wheel allows for a smooth deceleration without the risk of locking the front wheel or making the rear wheel pop up.

Would our in-house CX experts care to chip in with their experience in this matter?

Now a video on how to dismount in sand, which apparently is different from dismounting in other terrains:

2) Dismounting II. Part II. How to dismount in sand from a CX bike.

Let's wrap up the dismounting section with a summary from VeloNews (hat tip to Bernard for directing me to these videos):

3) Dismounting wrap-up from VeloNews. How to dismount your 'cross bike. (Scroll down about two thirds down the list of videos.)

CX 101 on video: Dismounting I

2008-08-11T10:19:00.006-05:00

Mickey Denoncourt explains the basics in three videos (watch them in that order):

1) Dismounting I. Part I . Introduction to dismounting and remounting.

2) Dismounting I. Part II. How to dismount a cyclocross bike.

3) Dismounting I. Part III. Doing a step-through technique.

Points Ride August 9th

2008-08-10T21:57:00.004-05:00

Proving that the points rides are never dull, we set off into uncharted territories this week. Okay, they were pretty charted, but we did ride a new (for the points ride) route, and we traveled with the Tatitos for the first half of it. We followed Team Tati's excellent route out to the riverside town of Willow Springs, where we found hills, trees (like foresty kinds of trees), hills, awesome roads, and some hills. Once there, we wished the Tatios well and took our own lap around the Palos Forest Preserve. On the way we rode up some more hills before heading back.

We were having so much fun, I neglected to take a single photo, but I feel compelled to relate that the points ride regulars are getting very strong! Thanks to Team Tati for having us along: I think I can speak for all the points riders when I say it was great riding with you!

CX 101 on video: more "get-excited" stuff

2008-08-05T13:01:00.004-05:00

OK, one more get-excited video and then I'll post some educational material... This one is more about the atmosphere surrounding CX, plus some people talking about the sport.

Cyclocross 101 on video: a prologue

2008-08-04T17:36:00.005-05:00

I'm gonna start posting videos about cyclocross, starting with the basics and hopefully proceeding in an organized way towards more advanced stuff. (Warning: this is a learning process for myself too, since I've never ridden a cross bike...)

Watch this first to get excited...

Points ride classification - August 2

2008-08-04T09:03:00.004-05:00

Time to update the general classification of the points ride series. Elisabet's maillot jaune is proving hard to grab. Regulars (and ride leaders) Jeremy and Joe continue to amass points, but Elisabet rarely misses a ride. Will Je-Jo be able to take the top spot when when she's temporarily gone in September?

Andreas quickly made it to the top ten, after attending several rides in a row. He shouldn't have any problem climbing to the top five and crossing the 500-mile mark if he can make it to the upcoming longer rides.

J is fighting hard for the lanterne rouge spot, accumulating -27 points (!!!!!) in a single ride. Whether he broke 27 different rules, or the same rule 27 times, I won't discuss. But it's not hard to believe that he could accomplish such feat in a single morning (those of you who've ridden with J know what I'm talking about...). Please don't do what J does.

	GC (top 15) - August 2	Points	Miles
1	Elisabet	54	395
2	Jeremy	47	340
3	Joe	41	380
4	Francisco	32	240
5	Dan	28	205
6	Bernard	26	190
7	Mickey	26	190
8	Andreas	26	240
9	Jesse	24	120
10	Araba	23	120
11	Joel	22	205
12	Philippe	22	205
13	Jonathan	19	85
14	Suchandra	19	85
15	Charlie	18	170
48	J/Tati	-14	120

Points ride Aug 2

2008-08-03T12:24:00.005-05:00

A nice points ride to Shererville Starbucks on Sat, joined by the (hard-core!) TATI crew for coffee while down there. Beautiful day, little traffic, good company, and we were back well before noon! Definitely, a success.

Jeannie Longo Is One Tough Cookie

2008-08-02T20:37:00.003-05:00

Since May, Jeannie Longo has been training and racing in Colorado in preparation for Beijing. Sure, she's headed to some bigger races like Mt. Hood, but she also has shown up to almost all the local things. Sometimes she races in the men's 35+, a field that is stacked with former pros, former Olympians, and other local strongmen, and she walks away in the top three. When she races the women, she always adds another one to her list of over 1000 career wins. 1000! I think I have 3-5 career wins, and 2 of them don't count as they were by default, so 3. She is also in her 50s, went to the Olympics the year I was born (1984), and is a really cool person. She hangs out after the races and shoots the shit with everyone and talks about how much she loves Colorado. I would love to be badass by proxy by saying that I have raced against her, but really she and I have only ever shared the same start line for a very short amount of time, and then she lights the field on fire, cooks it, eats it, and spits it out. The picture is lifted from a friend, M. Hottman, and is of Jeannie accepting a medal at the Salida Omnium. She is so cool, and though French, I'm totally rooting for her in Beijing!

Chicago Crit, and Hoping It's Not a One and Out.

2008-07-28T09:34:00.003-05:00

pic: Bernard & Jesse try bribing Devon into racing the Men's 4s.

Thanks to everyone who raced, watched, and stumbled upon the inaugural Chicago Criterium on Sunday. In what appeared to be an almost overly polished production (read: testing the waters for the Olympics) the day-long event offered a reasonably exciting course, some decent racing, and excellent free entertainment, if not sufficient shade. Title sponsor ING was giving out chilled water in fancy little bottles, rides in a hot air balloon, and orange cowbells, to boot.

I counted at least ten UCVC racers this day: Suchandra and Rob in full kit, with the remainder in lime green, black, or orange for their summer teams. Better yet, the points ride crew arrived, maroon akimbo... and another twenty or so friends/children/spouses-of came to watch and wonder.

Let's just hope they do it again next year. And if not, the next Monsters director should try to borrow that hot air balloon...

Chicago Crit. No excuses.

2008-07-25T18:22:00.004-05:00

Come out and watch the most spectacular bike race in Chicago this season: the Chicago Criterium. Click on the link to see the schedule of races. This is the first time the city puts on this particular race, and who knows if they'll ever do it again.

When: This Sunday
Where: Grant Park (the finish line is on Columbus, right by Buckingham Fountain)
Who: The very best from the Chicago cycling scene and beyond. (Including Team Tati. Advice: Watch the clockwork orange at their best in the men's 4 race. I believe Liz will be racing in the women's 4 too.)

And if this doesn't convince you, this will: Jumbotron. That's right. The city is installing a giant screen for your viewing pleasure. Watch the riders sprint, bridge, corner and suffer to the max, in the maximum possible size.

Aside from the finish line area, I would recommend turns 2 (Michigan Av with Jackson) and 4 (Columbus with Balbo) for spectators. Watch cyclists take those downhill turns screaming fast, and probably some live crash porn. The hard kind. (Hopefully none of us Tatitos/UCVCers will star in that movie.)

Evanston Crit

2008-07-21T14:05:00.005-05:00

Photos courtesy of J~ my low res shots were not nearly as good...

The cat 4/5 lineup. Note Liam front left in TATI orange looking down. Were it not for the folks who should be in Cat 4 or higher, Liam would have had a podium spot.

Liam in action:

And Jess, in a race I didn't see

Points Ride July 20

2008-07-21T14:01:00.003-05:00

We had a nice leisurely ride north, with a few other people on the path (including some Fleet Feet runners), but it wasn't as crazy as expected! Then up to Evanston to watch the racers. Great job! Super fun.

See you on the trail~
jeremy

Points ride classification-July 21

2008-07-21T08:50:00.002-05:00

Below is the classification of the points ride, as of last weekend. Sorry I didn't post an update last week.

	Classement générale (top 15) - 20 juillet	Points	Miles
1	Elisabet	45	310
2	Jeremy	42	290
3	Joe	38	345
4	Francisco	32	240
5	Dan	28	205
6	Bernard	26	190
7	Mickey	26	190
8	Jesse	24	120
9	Araba	23	120
10	Joel	22	205
11	Philippe	22	205
12	Jonathan	19	85
13	Suchandra	19	85
14	Charlie	18	170
15	Sarah	18	105

Cadel Evans or the Joker???

2008-07-18T23:19:00.004-05:00

Discuss.

This Sunday in Chicagoland

2008-07-16T13:10:00.006-05:00

Enjoy a beautiful day of bicycle racing this Sunday (July 20). Evanston is putting on its annual Northwestern Healthcare Grand Prix, part of the prestigious International Cycling Classic/Superweek series.

The organizers have put together an excellent website, including a guide on how to watch a criterium race. The course is smack in the middle of town, so you'll have plenty of coffee shops and outdoor seating to enjoy the festivities in comfort. (Leave the sweating and puffing to the racers...)

I would say that this is one of the two big events within rideable distance of Hyde Park this summer, so don't miss it! (The other one is the Chicago Criterium, on July 27.)

The morning and early afternoon will see the lower category races. Tati will be present at the Men's Cat 4/5 race at 9:00am, with its trio of creamsicles Liam, Dan and Bernard, provided that the former two recover from their recent injuries (I am not ok yet). (Warning: the race might be delayed a few minutes.) Then the duo of tangerines Carly and Liz will make their appearance at 1:00pm in the women's 3/4 race. I presume that our stars Devon and Aspen will be there too, albeit in Get a Grip colors. And we might even have one or two guys racing for UCVC. Cheer for them all.

There will be some sort of concert/dancing with live music at 3.00pm, kids races also at 3.00pm, and the pro races after 4.00pm.

Misc

2008-07-12T13:12:00.004-05:00

As its title suggests, "Training and Racing with a Power Meter" is a training guide for wattheads. People familiar with the book tell me, however, that it's a good read for the workouts, even if you don't have a power meter. Only $14 on Amazon.

Hat tip to Tim H., who swears by Fausto Coppi that this book is better than the Training Bible.

* * *

After riding the Panaracer Ribmos for a while (ok, only two days), I confirmed my suspicions: these are not tires for racing bikes. It's not just the weight, it's that they feel very different from regular road tires. I knew they would offer very high rolling resistance and poor acceleration--that's to be expected. What makes them unacceptable for me is the uncomfortable sensation they provide when leaning into a turn: the transition from the center to the side of the tire is sharp and unexpected. This is perhaps due to a big change in the thickness of the tire or in the composition of the rubber, or perhaps to the "pointy" shape of the cross-section, I'm not sure.

There's no point in training on a tire that doesn't corner at all like racing tires do. They might perform better with slightly wider rims, but I'm not sure. If you get lots of flats or absolutely hate ever having a flat, stick with Schwalbe Stelvio Plus. They offer superb protection without sacrificing as much in terms of performance as the Panaracers do. Reserve the Ribmo's for your commuter bike.

Regarding racing tires, Dan may have found the optimal combination of speed, grip, and puncture protection. He set up his bike with a Schwalbe Ultremo in the front, for speed and unparalleled grip among clinchers, and a Panaracer Extreme Duro in the back, for better puncture protection while keeping weight and grip within acceptable limits. Maybe he can share his impressions (or maybe I will, since I've copied his setup).

	Weight (g)	Price
Panaracer Ribmo	360	~$30
Schwalbe Stelvio Plus	310	~$42
Schwalbe Ultremo	190	~$45
Panaracer Extreme Duro	240	~$26

Le Tour live and free (in English)

2008-07-08T10:30:00.001-05:00

http://www.justin.tv/giac2007

UPDATE (7/22/2007): the link no longer works, at least today. I read on steephill.tv that ASO, the Tour organizers, forced steephill to remove their link to justin.tv, because it's unofficial streaming of the Eurosport broadcast.

Oh well... You can still see live video from Eurosport. Go here, scroll down to "Le Direct: Live Video" and click on the Eurosport video link.

Points ride-June 29

2008-07-03T15:51:00.002-05:00

Joe is slowly clawing his way into the top of the classification. He's now number 4, tied with Dan in points. (It certainly helps Joe that the Tati folks are busy with their strenuous training rides on weekends now.) The ranking is still commanded by Elisabeth, in spite of skipping this weekend's ride.

Only three people came to the latest ride (perhaps due to the anticipated rain?). Our brave riders endured rain and heat going north (and then south) to cover 70 miles. The hero of the day was Andreas, who rode longer than he ever has. He's now 23rd, with 11 points and 105 miles. Will our Greek man make it to the top ten?

Next weekend we put a hiatus in the series of points rides, since many folks will probably take advantage of the 4th of July holiday to go on a long weekend out of the city. We'll resume activities the weekend of 12-13 of July. We'll send an e-mail.

	Classement générale (top 15) - 29 juin	Points	Miles
1	Elisabet	41	275
2	Jeremy	36	240
3	Francisco	32	240
4	Joe	28	260
5	Dan	28	205
6	Bernard	26	190
7	Mickey	26	190
8	Jesse	24	120
9	Araba	23	120
10	Joel	22	205
11	Philippe	22	205
12	Jonathan	19	85
13	Suchandra	19	85
14	Charlie	18	170
15	Sarah	18	105

Fun rides

2008-07-01T20:14:00.003-05:00

Recreational riders, here are two websites with calendars of rides (some centuries, but also some longer and shorter ones):
-Mike's Illinois Bicycle Rides (rides in IL)
-Midwest Bike Rides (rides in IL, IN, WI, MN, IA, MO, OH and MI)

Tires and caps

2008-06-26T11:05:00.008-05:00

Some of you know about my unshakable devotion to Schwalbe Stelvio Plus, the most durable, puncture-resistant road tires I've ever used. (The Plus is important; regular Stelvios are a completely different breed of tire.)

Now that my current pair is begging for retirement, I've found out that they're out of stock. Apparently, those lazy Germans don't produce them fast enough... Still, if you can find them, BUY THEM. But if you can't, Panaracer is coming to the rescue with their own version of an ultra-strong road tire: the RiBmo (hat tip to J/Tati).

I'll write up my impressions as soon as I get my hands on them and use them for a while. For now, their "facebook profile" is rather unattractive. Panaracer seems to be marketing it as an unashamedly strong, urban tire, with a deeply marked tread pattern and all. (Schwalbe tried to disguise the sturdiness of its little beasts by putting very shallow tread patterns on them and calling them "race tires.") Plus, the Ribmo's only come on 25c or wider--the Stelvio Plus are 23's, althought they look more like 25's. The weight of both Panaracers and Schwalbes is around 340g.

Yes, I know, I know: in a world of ceramic bearings and titanium derailleurs, a tire that weighs more than your iPod is completely unacceptable. But Stelvio Plus tires are meant to be for training and commuting in urban settings. (And by the way, Schwalbe claims that the Ultremos are as puncture-resistant as the Stelvio Pluses, at almost a third of their weight. In my experience, that is absolutely false.)

If you stick to the lakefront path you probably don't need Ribmos or Stelvio Pluses. But city streets in the south seemed to be covered by a blanket of glass, nails, metal shards and what not, and rare is the day when one person or another in my training group doesn't get a flat... Plus, I believe the old-fashioned theory that training on heavy, slow components makes you stronger...

* * *

Today Carly was wearing the most stylish, well-fitting cycling cap I've seen in recent eons. She had it custom-made (no wonder) at little-package.com, a one-woman operation in Portland, OR. You'll have quite a few decisions to make before you place an order: style, fabric, ribbon and size, at least. As for me, I think I will order a "Carly special" (black, cotton twill, with two asymmetrical orange stripes). Enjoy.

Points ride classification-June 21

2008-06-23T10:05:00.005-05:00

No major changes this week, as most of the participants in the top of the classification came to the ride and everyone got the same number of points, regardless of which ride they did. Everyone except... J, Mickey, Dan, Bernard and myself, who skipped a red light in a moment of excitement while trying to chase the lead pack, and so got penalized with -1 point. (Note to yourself: don't follow Mickey at the traffic lights.)

	Classement générale (top 15) - 21 juin	Points	Miles
1	Elisabet	41	275
2	Jeremy	36	240
3	Francisco	32	240
4	Dan	28	205
5	Bernard	26	190
6	Mickey	26	190
7	Jesse	24	120
8	Araba	23	120
9	Joel	22	205
10	Philippe	22	205
11	Joe	21	190
12	Jonathan	19	85
13	Suchandra	19	85
14	Charlie	18	170
15	Sarah	18	105

Sat Points Ride

2008-06-22T09:01:00.005-05:00

Great ride yesterday. Slow group had a leisurely ride north, a nice coffee, and an empty path southbound at 9am on Saturday--truly amazing! The few rain sprinkles sent the runners home, I think. Happy riding~

Points ride: classification as of June 14

2008-06-17T14:14:00.003-05:00

	Classement générale (top 15) - 14 juin	Points	Miles
1	Elisabet	37	240
2	Jeremy	32	205
3	Francisco	29	170
4	Dan	25	135
5	Jesse	24	135
6	Araba	23	120
7	Bernard	23	120
8	Mickey	23	120
9	Joel	22	205
10	Philippe	22	205
11	Jonathan	19	85
12	Suchandra	19	85
13	Charlie	18	170
14	Joe	17	155
15	Ari	15	50

Dauphiné Libéré on TV

2008-06-13T08:38:00.001-05:00

Click here to watch the Dauphiné Libéré, live and free (in Danish).

Former UCVC Rider Gets in on the Anti-Doping Fight

2008-06-09T10:56:00.005-05:00

J (full name is Jean Jacque Cabou) was one of the guys who led the charge of the UCVC into the collegiate racing scene. After stints working for the government (including our own Mayor Daley), it seems that he has been pulled into the dope wars.

Results of Monsters are finally up

2008-06-07T16:58:00.001-05:00

ABR finally sent the results.

pre points ride June 7

2008-06-07T15:16:00.006-05:00

Nice ride, all!

Points ride: June 7

2008-06-07T12:25:00.003-05:00

The fifth ride of the series went in the casual spirit that characterizes this event.

Earlier this week I announced that I would grant an extra point to everyone who sported the UCVC jersey. I have to say, carrots work like a charm: twelve folks showed up in the club maglia. In fact, the only three who didn't are guests in this ride, not members of the club.

"People will do anything to get an extra point," Joel said. (Hmm..., I'm starting to get Machiavellian ideas...) Or maybe people just wanted to see me go insane with glee... I don't know.

The incident of the day was that one of the riders (actually, one of our guests) broke the rear derailleur and the chain. Our able mechanics McGyvered the drivetrain into a single speed, and our unfortunate friend was able to ride to Starbucks and back home--I'd give him an extra point if he were a UCVCer.

Below is a (partial) general classification. (The list of participants is getting longer and longer, so I'm only posting the points and mileage of people with more than ten points--the rest of you still have your points, I keep a full list in a spreadsheet.)

The classifica is now commanded by the Catalan mafia, with Elisabet ahead by just one point. Dan, Jeremy, Jesse, Araba and Bernard are close behind.

Classifica generale - June 7	Points	Miles
Elisabet	30	170
Francisco	29	170
Dan	25	135
Jeremy	25	135
Jesse	24	120
Araba	23	120
Bernard	23	120
Jonathan	19	85
Suchandra	19	85
Mickey	16	50
Ari	15	50
Joel	15	135
Philippe	15	135
Sarah	14	35
Noah	13	120
Charlie	11	100

According to the initial schedule, all our century rides were gonna take place in September (we had two in mind, the North Shore Century and the Apple Cider Century). I'd like to have another one in August, perhaps as an alternative option to a regular ride, for folks who have achieved sufficient endurance by then and can't wait...

Somebody mentioned the "Dairy Farm" or "Dairy Queen" ride, or something like that. Mickey mentioned another one, I can't remember the name. If you have suggestions about centuries that will take place in August, within two hours of Chicago, leave a comment or e-mail me.

"The Climb"

2008-06-06T10:04:00.003-05:00

I'm glad somebody mentioned this blog: "The Climb," the account of a regular dude's quest to complete a mountain stage of "le Tour." (Hat tip to Thomas Sutton.)
Looks kind of entertaining.

Matteson is back

2008-06-05T16:30:00.004-05:00

Just in case you don't read CBR (and everyone should), the Matteson crits are back this Tuesday. Free entry to everyone who shows up early to sweep the course this week!

(I wrote about the Matteson practice crits before here.)

The race site has been under construction recently and the South Chicago Wheelmen folks have had to put the event on hold for a coupl' weeks. It looks like there's gonna be a narrow window of three weeks during which it'll be possible to hold the event again. Thanks to SCW for putting on these races!!

A grain of salt in your sports drinks

2008-06-05T14:33:00.009-05:00

From the New York Times (hat tip to James Forester).

Filip Kwiatkowski for The New York Times

Real Thought for Food for Long Workouts

By GINA KOLATA

DR. MARK TARNOPOLSKY, a muscle physiology researcher at McMaster University in Canada and a physician, knows all about the exhortations by supplement makers and many nutritionists on what to eat and when to eat it for optimal performance.

The idea is that you are supposed to consume carbohydrates and proteins in a magical four-to-one ratio during endurance events like a long run or bike ride, and right after. The belief is that such nutritional diligence will improve your performance and speed your recovery.

Dr. Tarnopolsky, a 45-year-old trail runner and adventure racer, might be expected to seize upon the nutritional advice. (He won the Ontario trail running series in 2004, 2005 and 2006.)

So might his colleague, Stuart Phillips, a 41-year-old associate professor of kinesiology at McMaster who played rugby for Canada’s national team and now plays it for fun. He also runs, lifts weights and studies nutrition and performance.

In fact, neither researcher regularly uses energy drinks or energy bars. They just drink water, and eat real food. Dr. Tarnopolsky drinks fruit juice; Dr. Phillips eats fruit. And neither one feels a need to ingest a special combination of protein and carbohydrates within a short window of time, a few hours after exercising.

There are grains of truth to the nutrition advice, they and other experts say. But, as so often happens in sports, those grains of truth have been expanded into dictums and have formed the basis for an entire industry in “recovery” products.

They line the shelves of specialty sports stores and supermarkets with names like Accelerade drink, Endurox R4 powder, PowerBar Recovery bar.

“It does seem to me that as a group, athletes are particularly gullible,” said Michael Rennie, a physiologist at the University of Nottingham in England who studies muscle metabolism.

The idea that what you eat and when you eat it will make a big difference in your performance and recovery “is wishful thinking,” said Dr. Rennie, a 61-year-old who was a competitive swimmer and also used to play water polo and rugby.

Here is what is known about proteins, carbohydrates and performance.

During exercise, muscles stop the biochemical reactions used to maintain themselves such as replacing and resynthesizing the proteins needed for day to day activities. It’s not that exercise is damaging your muscles; it’s that they halt the maintenance process until exercise is over.

To do this maintenance, muscles must make protein, and to do so they need to absorb amino acids, the constituent parts of proteins, from the blood. Just after exercise, perhaps for a period no longer than a couple of hours, the protein-building processes of muscle cells are especially receptive to amino acids. That means that if you consume protein, your muscles will use it to quickly replenish proteins that were not made during exercise.

But muscles don’t need much protein, researchers say. Twenty grams is as much as a 176-pound man’s muscles can take. Women, who are smaller and have smaller muscles even compared to their body sizes, need less.

Dr. Rennie said that 10 to 15 grams of protein is probably adequate for any adult. And you don’t need a special drink or energy bar to get it. One egg has 6 grams of protein. Two ounces of chicken has more than 12 grams.

Muscles also need to replenish glycogen, their fuel supply, after a long exercise session — two hours of running, for example. For that they need carbohydrates. Muscle cells are especially efficient in absorbing carbohydrates from the blood just after exercise.

Once again, muscles don’t need much; about one gram of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight is plenty, Dr. Tarnopolsky said. He weighs 70 kilograms, or 154 pounds, which means he would need 70 grams of carbohydrates, or say, 27 ounces of fruit juice, he said.

Asker Jeukendrup, a 38-year-old 14-time Ironman-distance finisher who is an exercise physiologist and nutritionist at the University of Birmingham in England said the fastest glycogen replacement takes place in the four hours after exercise. Even so, most athletes need not worry.

“Most athletes will have at least 24 hours to recover,” Dr. Jeukendrup said. “We really are talking about a group of extremely elite sports people who train twice a day.” For them, he said, it can be necessary to rapidly replenish muscle glycogen.

The American College of Sports Medicine, in a position paper written by leading experts, reported that athletes who take a day or two to rest or do less-intense workouts between vigorous sessions can pretty much ignore the carbohydrate-timing advice.

The group wrote that for these athletes, “when sufficient carbohydrate is provided over a 24-hour period, the timing of intake does not appear to affect the amount of glycogen stored.”

For protein, it is not clear what the window is. Some studies concluded it was less than two hours, others said three hours, and some failed to find a window at all.

Dr. Rennie and his colleagues, writing in Annual Reviews of Physiology, concluded that “a possible ‘golden period’ ” for getting amino acids into muscles “remains a speculative, no matter how attractive, the concept.”

Although studies by Dr. Jeukendrup and several others have shown that consuming protein after exercise speeds up muscle protein synthesis, no one has shown that that translates into improved performance. The reason, Dr. Jeukendrup said, is that effects on performance, if they occur, won’t happen immediately. They can take 6 to 10 weeks of training. That makes it very hard to design and carry out studies to see if athletes really do improve if they consume protein after they exercise.

“You’d have to control everything, what they do, how they train, and also their carbohydrate and protein intake,” Dr. Jeukendrup said. “Those studies become almost impossible to do.”

As for the special four-to-one ratio of carbohydrates to protein, that, too, is not well established, researchers said. The idea was that you need both carbohydrates and protein consumed together because carbohydrates not only help muscles restore their glycogen but they also elicit the release of insulin. Insulin, the theory goes, helps muscles absorb amino acids.

Insulin may stimulate muscle protein synthesis in young rodents and in human cells grown in petri dishes, Dr. Rennie said. But studies in people have shown convincingly that insulin is not required for protein synthesis in adult human beings; it is amino acids that drive protein synthesis. As yet no convincing evidence exists that a special carbohydrate-to-protein ratio makes a noticeable difference in muscle protein maintenance after exercise. “There is no magic ratio,” Dr. Jeukendrup said.

The American College of Sports Medicine is equally skeptical. “Adding protein does not appreciably enhance glycogen repletion,” its paper states.

“Some studies suggested that adding proteins to carbohydrates during exercise can enhance performance,” Dr. Tarnopolsky said. “Many other studies suggested it didn’t do any good.”

Even if there are effects of protein and carbohydrates, they are not important to most exercisers, these researchers say. Serious triathletes and elite runners, who work out in the morning and at night, need to eat between training sessions. But people who are running a few miles a few days a week don’t need to worry about replenishing their muscles, Dr. Phillips said.

Dr. Rennie agreed. “If you are a superathlete, hundredths of a second matter,” he said. “But most Joes and Janes are just kidding themselves,” he said.

Some, like Dr. Jeukendrup, say they use a commercial protein-energy drink after training hard, for convenience.

Other researchers take their own nutritional advice. Dr. Tarnopolsky has a huge glass of juice, a bagel and a small piece of meat after a two- or three-hour run. Or he might have two large pieces of toast with butter and jam and a couple of scrambled eggs. But no energy bars, no energy drinks.

Dr. Phillips might have an energy bar during a long workout. But ordinarily he does not worry about getting a special carbohydrate-to-protein mix or timing his nutrition when he exercises. Instead, Dr. Phillips said, he simply eats real food at regular meals.

Cornering: the theory

2008-06-05T08:31:00.000-05:00

Coach Carl explains how to corner. Now go out there and do it.

other cycling websites

2008-06-04T10:09:00.005-05:00

On the right margin of this website there's a short list of "useful sites" and "other sites we like" about cycling or bicycles. I'm not particularly familiar with the cycloblogosphere or cycling websites in general, so if there are other sites that you think would be of general interest to UCVC members, please leave a comment below with the name of the site and its URL, and maybe I'll add them to our lists. Thanks!

Weighty issues

2008-06-03T10:13:00.009-05:00

I've been toying with data on height and weight of professional cyclists for a while and I want to show you this graph:

Click to enlarge

Find yourself in that graph. How do you compare to the pros? (I originally put a data point representing me in the grah, but the comparison was too embarrassing, so I removed it.)

The lines show combinations of height and weight that give a constant BMI, so they are iso-BMI curves. Most pros have a BMI between 20 and 23, as you can see because most dots are between the two lines. To calculate your BMI, use this formula:

BMI = 703*(weight in pounds)/(height in inches^2)

In the metric system:

BMI = (weight in kg)/(height in meters^2)

Ladies: sorry, the graph is only for men. I don't have data on the weight and height of female riders.

Points ride: report and classification

2008-06-01T14:48:00.004-05:00

It looks like there was pent-up demand for a regular recreational ride in the club, since we keep adding new people to the UCVC "Points ride." We hope we can keep it going.

Today we had a group of 12 folks who completed the whole ride as a group, which looked like a big crowd. (We had a couple of others who peeled off or came back on their own.)

We rode north to Metropolis Cafe, as planned, which was a predictable mistake. The path, which is usually crowded on weekends, was today extra busy due to the Avon Breast Cancer walk plus a race. It was a reminder of why we don't ride the path after 8am on weekends. For the future, we should either a) leave at 6am if we wanna go north, or b) go south.

In spite of the crowds, nobody crashed and we didn't hit anybody. We split into two groups on the way north, and we rode more or less all together on the way south, including some cycloX riding on the grass to avoid the Breast Cancer walkers.

Elisabeth continues as the maglia rossa of the competition (notice that I write rossa, which means red or maroon, not rosa, which means pink.)

Classifica generale - June 1	Points	Miles
Elisabeth	24	120
Araba	23	120
Bernard	23	120
Francisco	23	120
Dan	19	85
Jeremy	19	85
Jonathan	19	85
Suchandra	19	85
Jesse	18	70
Ari	15	50
Sarah	14	35
Carly	10	0
Devon	10	0
Mickey	10	0
Saud	10	0
Liam	10	0
Ricardo	10	0
James	10	0
Tim	10	0
Paige	10	0
Jason T.	10	0
Jason F.	10	0
Eric	10	0
Matthew C.	10	0
Matthew M.	10	0
Bruce	10	0
Robert F.	10	0
Jon	10	0
J/Tati	10	0
Joel	9	85
Noah	8	70
Charlie	5	50
Miles	5	50
John B.	5	50
Jeff N.	5	50
Claus	5	50
Rasi	5	50
Maris	4	35
Philippe	4	35
Joe	4	35
Andrew	4	35

Giro d'Italia Live and Free

2008-05-31T08:28:00.001-05:00

Click here to watch the Giro d'Italia live, free. (And in Italian! How awesome is that???)

An interview with Devon at cyclingnews.com

2008-05-31T08:12:00.002-05:00

Cyclingnews.com published a short excerpt of an interview with Devon yesterday. (Hat tip to Loren Bo.)

Nature Valley announces women's collegiate team

By Mark Zalewski, North American Editor

The Nature Valley Grand Prix, one of the top NRC stage races in America, will once again have a special collegiate women's all-star team comprised of the top riders from the recent US collegiate nationals. Each member of the team will race in her school's team kit, garnering national exposure for the school, while the rider gains exposure in front of the top women's teams.

The first year success of the program prompted its continuation, as half of the 2007 team were signed to pro contracts for this season – Penn State's Erica Allar (Aaron's Pro Cycling), Fort Lewis College's Kristin McGrath (Colavita-Sutter Home), and Lehigh University's Andrea Luebbe (Verducci Breakaway Racing).

Devon Haskell (University of Chicago) is returning to the team this year. She told her school newspaper, The Maroon, after last year's race that being the test group meant a lot of unknowns, but was happy with the result.

"Nature Valley is one of the biggest and most competitive races in America for women's cycling," said Haskell. "All the big pro teams are there. [It was] my first year bike racing so it was a pretty cool experience to be racing with the best. [It was] the first year that they put a collegiate all-star team together, and I think nobody really knew what to expect, [but I] think we came out of the event feeling like the team was a success."

Collegiate cycling is seen as one of the biggest potential recruiting venues for women's cycling in the US, said USA Cycling board president Mark Abramson, who sits on the board as the collegiate cycling representative. ""The Ryan Collegiate All Stars is a great way to build awareness of collegiate cycling and to help talented women move up the ladder in the sport."

Ryan Collegiate All-Stars: Chloe Forsman, University of Arizona; Devon Haskell, University of Chicago; Anna McLoon, Harvard University; Amanda Miller, Colorado State University; Jen Stebbins, Dartmouth College; Carla Swart, Lees-McRae College.

Last 2k of 17th stage

2008-05-28T12:46:00.003-05:00

Notice how Ongarato, the Milram guy, does a lead-out only to realize that Zabel is not on his wheel. Notice also how Bettini gets squished between the pack and the outside of the last turn and how, miraculously, he doesn't crash into the fence. These guys know how to handle a bike...

Giro d`Italia 2008 - 17.Etappe
by hautacam2000

Watch Out for Waves!!

2008-05-27T13:52:00.008-05:00

It's windy out there on the path today... and with the wind comes some crazy wave action from Lake Michigan. The waves are especially vicious along the Oak Street Beach stretch of the path. The waves were coming over the edge and flowing up onto the path this morning... most of them can be avoided by riding up high on the path. However, on the corner after the long straight away, there were some monster splashes that shot up in the air almost 20 feet and then came crashing across the whole path. You might think a good strategy to minimize wave damage would be to continue cycling as far from the water as possible and close to the far wall. I used this strategy this morning... just as I came around the corner with monster waves, the water struck, shot up in the air, and came rushing across the path about 1.5 ft. deep when it hit me (and this was the shallow part because I had the brilliant strategy of staying close to the wall). Then my plan backfired because the wave hit the wall, traveled up the wall, and came back and dumped on my head. Meanwhile, I got laughed at by an oncoming rider. Oh dear! So - I would not recommend riding close to the wall around this corner! I do not have a good alternative strategy... on the way home I just kept my fingers crossed and rode really fast through that section of the path - I escaped with relatively minimal wave wetness.

A view of the Plan de Corones course

2008-05-27T11:58:00.003-05:00

A view of the course of the Plan de Corones time trial (gravel section only). Via steephill.tv

(The dude riding the course wears the exact same Rudy Project helmet I use.)

Points ride--Classifica generale

2008-05-27T10:37:00.003-05:00

Dopo la terza tappa of the "Points ride" series, including volunteering at Monsters, here's the new classification:

Classifica generale - ventiquattro di maggio	Points	Miles
Elisabeth	20	85
Araba	19	85
Bernard	19	85
Dan	19	85
Francisco	19	85
Jeremy	19	85
Jonathan	19	85
Ari	15	50
Suchandra	15	50
Jesse	14	35
Sarah	14	35
Aspen	10	0
Carly	10	0
Devon	10	0
Mickey	10	0
Saud	10	0
Liam	10	0
Ricardo	10	0
James	10	0
Tim	10	0
Paige	10	0
Jason T.	10	0
Jason F.	10	0
Eric	10	0
Matthew C.	10	0
Matthew M.	10	0
Bruce	10	0
Robert F.	10	0
Jon	10	0
J/Tati	10	0
Rasi	5	50
Charlie	5	50
Miles	5	50
John B.	5	50
Jeff N.	5	50
Claus	5	50
Noah	4	35

What to bring to a race

2008-05-25T18:06:00.000-05:00

This is a list of things to bring to a race. It was posted originally by Charles, an experienced racer, on the blog.

-Race clothes, including shorts, jersey, skin suit, arm and leg warmers, socks, gloves, rain jacket
-warm up and cool down clothes - jacket / tights
-helmet
-shoes
-glasses
-bottles for warm up / race / post race
-food pre-race / race / post race (I always pack food because I don't want to be scrambling to find some place open when I should be warming up -- I've learned that lesson too many times.)
-HR monitor / strap / computer
-trainer (plus front wheel prop and iPod)
-license
-pump
-tools
-cash / checkbook / phone / wallet / keys
-sunscreen
-towel
-spare wheels
-race flier / map / directions

I would add

-coins (for the road tolls)
-a large bottle of water, aside from the water bottles (there's no such thing as too much extra water)
-an extra set of racing clothes
-health insurance card
-chamois cream/jelly (for those who use such things)
-sugary drink/sports recovery drink (to avoid the sugar crash at the end of the race)
-spare tubes

Comments from CBR

2008-05-20T11:25:00.001-05:00

Luke Seemann's chronicle of Monsters (and links to pictures).

Photos from the Race

2008-05-19T14:26:00.003-05:00

Movies about cycling or bicycles

2008-05-19T09:09:00.005-05:00

Jacques Tati, in "Jour de fête"
Here's a list of movies about cycling or bicycles. In some of them bicycles play a really secondary part (did you know that Goldeneye or Tomorrow Never Dies were movies about bicycles!?). But all the important ones are there, I think, up until 2007. I think we can consider the list comprehensive.

Monsters wrap-up -- from an organizational point of view

2008-05-18T16:36:00.007-05:00

Thanks to all the volunteers who showed up to make the race happen. It wouldn't have been possible without you (I know this sounds like an over-used line, but it's literally true: one needs tons of people on race day to keep the event going).

The day started with a major problem: there was a ditch on the course, on the eastbound side of the Midway, between Ellis and Woodlawn. I learned about this on race day, at 5.30am. It's totally my fault that I didn't know: I should've inspected the course a couple of days before. I wish the guys who were distributing "No Parking" flyers would have noticed.

The ditch was about one-foot wide. It was covered with gravel, but the passing cars had scattered the gravel all over the place and there were rocks the size of fists near the ditch.

Fortunately, Mickey Eder saved the day by bringing some wooden planks and taping them to the asphalt to cover the ditch. The sweeping crew promptly removed all gravel and rocks from the course. Big, big thank-you to Mickey.

The second problem arose when the Ida Noyes building manager didn't open the doors of the building by 6.30am, as they had promised (eventually they opened past 7.30). This was a big problem because:
a) The tables and chairs we were going to use were inside
b) We had no access to restrooms

I was prepared for a), by asking Devon to bring our own chairs and table. But I made no preparations for b), and this is my fault again. Lesson: do not trust Ida Noyes Hall again and rent portapotties. This is the second year that this happens. I felt like an idiot when dozens of people kept asking me for a restroom and all I could do was apologize and tell them that the building wasn't open yet. It doesn't matter that you reserve your space with Ida Noyes months in advance, as we did; that you reconfirm your reservation twice on the week of the race, as we did; that you go talk to the manager of the building the day before the race, as we did; that you call the building manager on the morning of the race to ask him to open the building, as we did. None of that guarantees that the building will be open at 6.30. JUST RENT PORTAPOTTIES.

The rest of the day went more or less smoothly. The registration table worked like a well-oiled machine, thanks to Steve and Paul.

The races were slightly behind schedule, as usual, and the officials had to shorten almost all the races. This, I must say, was not really UCVC's fault, since we were ready to go at 7.30 sharp.

I couldn't make sure that every corner marshal was where he/she was supposed to be 100% of the time, but most of the time, I think, they were. Thanks for enduring the boredom of standing on a corner for hours.

The announcer was really good. I love that he started collecting a big prime from spectators for the P/1/2 race. People were really enthusiastic and the money starting piling up fast. I think that Jon actually enjoys himself as announcer. And thanks also to Carly, who was forced to stand in for Jon for the first 15 minutes of the event. I hope some day she'll forgive me.

We had few and minor crashes, so the ambulance was never necessary.

We didn't lose any race sheets. We had an abundance of trash bins near the finish-line tent. The registration table was safe from the wind (can you imagine dozens of banknotes flying across the street?), and we had plenty of change. Basically, things that don't make an event, but avert disaster or the discomfort of the race attendees. Except for the restrooms, of course. Did I mention that WE MUST RENT PORTAPOTTIES next time?

I couldn't watch much of the racing, so I encourage people to write another post with a chronicle.

Second article in the Maroon

2008-05-16T11:14:00.005-05:00

We got some more love from the school's newspaper.

They say that Devon placed second in the omnium, which is not true, she won the omnium. This is my fault because this is what I announced in the first place, following the list published by USCF. I corrected this information on the club's website and on this blog as soon as Devon and Megan told me, but the Maroon wasn't aware of the change. Oh well, I guess it wouldn't be the Chicago Maroon if all the information was correct.

But, again, for the record, Devon won the omnium, as well as the road race.

Here's the article:

Haskell wins national title for cycling
By Steve Saltarelli
16 May 2008

The University of Chicago Velo Club (cycling) may not be the best-known team on campus, and they may not even have the title of “varsity sport.” They do, however, have something other teams on campus don’t have—a national title.

On Saturday, economics graduate student Devon Haskell took home the national championship at the D-II road race, dominating the field in Fort Collins, CO. Haskell, along with her teammates, economics graduate student Aspen Gorry and anthropology graduate student Carly Schuster, qualified for the race by earning enough points at the conference championships. The trio took on the rolling hills of Colorado, and Haskell came away with her first national title.

After the first climb, the pack started to break up, and Haskell established her place among the five pace-setting racers. She made her break from the front six miles from the finish and never looked back, crossing the line for first with 24 seconds to spare. Taking the gold marked an improvement from a third-place effort in last year’s race in Lawrence, KS.

“I’ve been training all season with this race as a priority,” Haskell said. “The road race turned out to be a challenging course with strong winds, long and steep climbs (which you can’t find anywhere in Chicago), and tough competition. [The win] was definitely a highlight of my cycling career.”

While Gorry and Schuster weren’t able to join Haskell among the top finishers, they completed their races successfully and earned valuable experience in their first appearance at nationals. They didn’t have much time to rest, and Haskell was unable to savor her victory because the next day the three were back on the bikes and competing in the D-II Criterium race.

Shorter and usually held on closed-off city streets, the Criterium featured a much tighter race. Gorry and Schuster both turned in solid performances, with Schuster finishing in a strong position and Gorry among the pack. Haskell was again at the front of the race, this time taking fourth. No clear break occurred in the Criterium, and Haskell ended up being part of a mad dash for first.

Combining the points from her results in the road race and the Criterium, Haskell wrapped up the weekend tied for first in the ominium classification but had to settle for second overall. Taking runner-up honors bumped her up from last year’s fourth-place standing.

The strong showing at nationals by Haskell, Gorry, and Schuster is a sweet end to a successful season that included a Midwest Collegiate Conference championship for the Maroons. Haskell’s individual title is the second of its kind for the velo club; the first came when Todd Yefezski won the Criterium race in 2005.

This is an especially amazing accomplishment given the difficult competition at nationals, where powerhouse programs are able to qualify more riders with their large budgets. Chicago’s cyclists, on the other hand, are part of a club sport that gets the majority of its funding through donations and sponsorships. In addition, riders have to balance the rigorous demands of academic pursuits with a world-class training schedule.

“I have a great coach, Brian Conant, who helps me keep a manageable workout schedule that fits in well with a grad student’s agenda,” Haskell said. “My training actually provides me a good balance with my studies.”

Haskell will continue to train and compete in races over the summer, but for now the Velo Club’s focus is on this Saturday’s Monsters of the Midway Criterium, when the UCVC will play host.

The race, which attracts over 400 participants from the Chicago area, has been organized by the club every year since 1993 and perhaps earlier. The one-day event, which takes place on a 1.1-mile rectangle around the Midway, features categories for all ages and skill. The youngest competitors fall between 10 and 12 years old, and the oldest bracket is from 60 to 69, while the experience ranges all the way up to the professional level.

The Monsters of the Midway competition gives UCVC riders an opportunity to compete without traveling, as well as to gauge how the young riders are progressing.

The first race will start at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday at the Midway Plaisance between Ellis and Dorchester Avenues.

Hawaiian news

2008-05-14T13:57:00.009-05:00

In case you don't know, UCVC has a one-man outpost in Hawaii. His name is Mark Kadowaki, and in spite of the oceanic distance, he continues to race for UCVC.

He participated in the "Tour de Big Island," a stage race in Hawaii, and placed 2nd in the overall classification of his category!! Check out the results.

Tony Lang in action
Incidentally, while at the race he bumped into Tony Lang. Tony Lang is one of the founders of UCVC and creator of the UCVC logo, back in 1989. Tony won the overall classification of the 1/2/3 category at the same race!!

Here's an interview with Tony, where he briefly mentions his initiation to competitive cycling, while at the UofC. I've tried to find his e-mail address to ask him to write a summary about the origins of UCVC, but his contact info proves damn hard to find (maybe it's because he works for the FBI). Hopefully he'll read this and will contact me...

Official Monsters poster

2008-05-12T13:59:00.001-05:00

Soon on display all over Hyde Park. Art by Mitchell Malinowski Art Partners.

MONSTERS WEEK

2008-05-12T09:42:00.013-05:00

This is Monsters of the Midway Week. For UCVCers, this is the home stretch of the lengthy preparations for our race. For all racers in the Chicago area, a week of eager anticipation of one of the few criteriums in the city proper.

This year we'll have a pace car, sponsored by Zipcar, which should make the race safer and even more professional.

We've also added a women's cat3 race. This race is not combined with masters or cat4. It's all for you, cat3's. It's hard to go from racing against 4's to competing against 1/2's, so we wanna help you a little bit, ladies. Of course, this also means that you, poor cat4's, don't have to race against those super-fast, daredevil cat3's, and that you'll have a better chance of placing well in your race.

Check out the schedule of races and come out for a fine day of cycling next Saturday!

Second article in the Maroon on Friday

2008-05-12T09:36:00.001-05:00

Our second article in the Maroon is coming out on Friday, not tomorrow.

DEVON NATIONAL CHAMPION

2008-05-10T22:51:00.006-05:00

Devon won the Division II Road Race today at Fort Collins, Colorado!!!!!

Check out the full results here.

This is HUGE, guys. I don't know if you realize how incredible it is that a club as small as ours, that does not even have a team coach, that is not a varsity sport, in a place with a dearth of good roads to train on, wins a National Championship.

Big congratulations to Devon on her victory, and to Carly and Aspen for making it to Nationals.

All three must be pretty tired tonight, but I'm sure they'll be strong enough tomorrow to put on a great performance at the criterium!!!

We're cheering for you from Chicago!!

UPDATE: Devon placed fourth in the criterium on Sunday. After winning Saturday's road race, ~~she secured a second place in the omnium, although tied in points with the winner~~ her fourth place in the crit was enough to secure the victory in the omnium too (she has the same number of points as the second rider, but NCCA breaks ties using the number of victories). I spoke with Devon. She said that no break stuck in the crit and that it ended up in a mass sprint. With a few laps to go, Devon was far in the back of the pack but she pushed herself to the front to sprint for fourth.

Carly was placed 30th. Aspen finished with the pack. I was worried about him, after not seeing his name in the results of Saturday's road race. Don't worry, he didn't crash. He just had a hard time following the pack in the climb and decided to save himself for today's race.

Congratulations to all three.

UPDATE (5/12/08): We got some coverage on Chicago Bike Racing too.

Matteson practice crits

2008-05-10T12:46:00.003-05:00

UPDATE (5/18/2008): the practice crits are temporarily suspended due to construction work on the course. Check the website for updates.

I want to bring the Matteson practice crits to people's attention. This is a series of crits that takes place in an access road around a factory, in Matteson, IL. Matteson is about 40 minutes away from Chicago, by car. The event is held on Tuesdays at 6 pm. Check out the website.

Depending on hours of sunlight, they hold two or three crits on any given Tuesday. The first one is about 15 laps, the second one is about 40 laps, and the last one, if it's not too dark to keep riding, is either 10 or 15 laps.

They split riders into two groups, A and B. The A's start first, followed by the B's shortly after. In theory, if you're a cat4 or 5, the officials will make you do the B race. After a while, when you've proven that you are a safe and fast rider, they'll let you do the A race. (I was lucky to know someone at the event who could attest that I was strong enough to start with the A's right away, a year ago.)

Good things about the event:

a) Good atmosphere.
b) Safe course.
c) Very low racing fees.
d) Good cornering practice. Since the course has four corners, you end up doing over 200 corners in one evening.

Not-so-good things:

a) Easy corners. It's a flat rectangle with a wide road and excellent pavement. You can zoom by the corners; you don't even have to stop pedaling.
b) Riders are quite less aggressive than in a real race, because there's nothing at stake.

Something I read

2008-05-05T08:43:00.005-05:00

I read this yesterday and I was wondering what you guys think:

When riding in a group, keep your front wheel 12 inches behind the wheel in front of you. If the gap gets narrower than six inches:

a) Soft-pedal, don't coast. If this is not enough to keep you more than six inches behind, then

b) Coast. If this is not enough, then

c) Move slightly to one side and lift your upper body, so that air resistance slows you down. But don't let your front wheel overlap with the rear wheel of the person in front of you.

Do not touch your brakes, unless it's an emergency or the group is coming to a halt.

What do you guys think?

Points championship: first ride

2008-05-03T12:02:00.008-05:00

The first ride felt like a success. We had a peculiar mix of alpha types and recreational folks, who got along surprisingly well as riders.

The group had to turn around near McCormick Place because there seemed to be some kind of walk or race on the path. So we went south to Calumet Park and then we rode the path south of there to that other park by the lake. But we still did 35 miles.

The racing types got rid of some of their testosterone at a couple of sprints and a mini-crit at Calumet Park. But overall they behaved, waiting for everyone and doing almost the whole ride as a group. Thank you guys for waiting.

Jesse turned out to be the offender of the day, skipping two red lights. Yes, they were pedestrian red lights, but we were using them to cross the road, so they still count. We'll let it pass this time, but remember: pedestrian red lights are still red lights.

Extra point of the day for Elisabeth, who rode without water. Somebody give a couple of bottle cages to this girl! (Orange would match nicely her Orbea frame...)

Some of us stopped for an après-ride café at Bon Jour.

Classification générale - May 3rd	Points	Miles
Elisabeth	5	35
Araba	4	35
Bernard	4	35
Dan	4	35
Francisco	4	35
Jeremy	4	35
Jesse	4	35
Jonathan	4	35
Noah	4	35
Sarah	4	35

UCVC points championship

2008-05-02T18:36:00.007-05:00

Dan and I came up with the latest crazy idea to keep ourselves riding bikes for months on end. We proudly present the "UCVC Points Competition" --the name is provisional; we haven't found a sexy name other than the "UCVC Brioche Competition."

The idea is to have a series of weekly rides, on Saturdays, from this weekend until October. Every ride is assigned a certain number of points, based on distance and difficulty. Every person who comes to the ride earns the points assigned to that ride. The person who accumulates the most points by the end of the series becomes the championship winner. Dan and I will keep track of the points. THE FIRST RIDE IS THIS SATURDAY! See the schedule and other details below.

At the end of the season we'll have a dinner/awards ceremony, an *Ibex* champion jersey made especially for the occasion, trophies for everyone who accumulates at least 500 miles,... the whole shebang. Details are below. The schedule of rides is below too.

I am perfectly aware that this is one of those "grand plans" that don't take off in this beloved club of ours. I wanna give it a try anyway. I think there is a void in terms of activities organized by the club that we can fill.

The idea is actually not that crazy. In fact, it's inspired by the practice of neighborhood clubs in Spain, Italy and France. In Spain we call it "cicloturismo." (Rough translation: "cyclotourism." In spite of the name, it does NOT involve sightseeing, visiting places of cultural interest, or eating brioches out of a basket while your ride.) This championship is for people who don't compete, but still wanna feel the rush of riding fast in a pack. Or for people who do compete, but just feel like going out for a recreational ride once a week or once in a while.

Neither Dan nor I are sure that we'll be able to make it to every ride (we might be racing some weekend, or out of town) but we hope that the project gets some traction soon and some other person can lead for us in our absence.

I'll post this permanently on the website when I find the time.

Schedule:

An asterisk (*) means that we need to drive

-May 3: Metropolis (~35 miles). 4 points.

-May 10: Schererville (Starbucks) (~50 miles). 5 points.

-May 17: Monsters of the Midway (Volunteering, not racing. Racing doesn’t carry any points.) 10 points.

-May 24: Highland Park (~70 miles). Optional alternative: Bike the Drive (May 25). 7 points.

-May 31: Metropolis (~35 miles). 4 points.

-June 7: Schererville + short extra loop (~70 miles). 7 points.

-June 14: Italian coffee bar, Evanston (~40 miles). 4 points.

-June 21: Barrington ride* (70 miles). 8 points.

-June 28: Schererville (Starbucks) (~50 miles). 5 points.

-July 5: Fort Sheridan (70 miles). 7 points.

-July 12: Argonne ride* (70 miles?). 8 points.

-July 19: Schererville + short extra loop (~70 miles). 7 points.

-July 26: North suburbs route (basically the Team Judson route). (~100 miles). 10 points

-Aug 2: Metropolis (~35 miles). 4 points.

-Aug 9: Schererville (Starbucks) (~50 miles). 5 points.

-Aug 16: Barrington ride* (70 miles). 8 points.

-Aug 23: Schererville + long extra loop (~100 miles). 10 points. Note: Chicago Triathlon! Don’t use the path.

-Aug 30: Italian Coffee Bar, Evanston (~40 miles). 4 points.

-Sept 6: Highland Park (~70 miles). 7 points.

-Sept 13: Schererville (~50 miles). 5 points.

-September 21: North Shore Century (100 miles) Leaves from Evanston. 10 points. (Extra 5 points if you ride from Hyde Park to Evanston.)

-September 28: Apple Century Ride* (100 miles) Note: need to drive to Michigan. 10 points.

-October 4: Schererville (~50 miles). 5 points.

-October 11: Time Trial: bike path, from 55th to 72nd and back. 4 points.

-Dinner and awards ceremony (some time the following week)

-October 18: Champion Honorary Ride (the winner gets to ride to Metropolis in the champion’s maglia). No points.

Details:

-Italian, French and English are all official languages of the campionato.

-Every participant in a ride will earn the points assigned to the ride, as long as he or she follows the established corso, all the way. Two or three UCVC folks will keep track of the points.

-The winner of the championship is the person who accumulates the most points. In case of a tie (highly unlikely after such a long series of rides) the champion is the person who wins la course contre la montre (TT, see the calendar above).

-Everyone is welcome to participate —of course riders of Team TATI too! We only ask that you are able to ride safely dans le peloton. However, only members of UCVC can get points and sweet awards (sorry). The definition of UCVC member is on the club’s website.

-At the end of the campionato we will have a dinner/award ceremony and we will give the winner a UCVC maglia rossa (maroon jersey) especially designed for the occasion and a trophy. We might also give certificates to various categories (the least-young person, the best anecdote, the guy with the cutest Spanish accent, etc) and cycling swag... It depends on the resources that we can either spare from our budget or forage out there.

-Every eligible participant who accumulates at least 500 miles will receive a trofeo.

-Pénalisationnes: Minus 2 points for anyone who doesn’t stop at a red light (messengers and people in a hurry don’t get a waiver).

-We believe in gender equality. So, given that this championship is based purely on participation and guys don’t have an advantage over gurls, we won’t have a separate winner by gender. Unless… a male and a female are tied in points and the time trial needs to break the tie. In that case, there will be a winner award for the both the ragazzo and the ragazza, regardless of who wins the TT. (Exception: if Devon is the ragazza, she’ll have to win the TT.)

-Bad weather cancellation: On verra (in English, TBD).

Volunteering at Monsters

2008-04-30T10:07:00.003-05:00

Just in case you still don't know, the club is putting on its annual race, the Monsters of the Midway, on Saturday May 17. As always, we will need a ton of volunteers to run the event.

I have set up a schedule so that people can sign up for a volunteering slot. I sent an e-mail to the club's list a while ago, inviting you to sign up. You just have to click on the link in that e-mail, and that will take you to a Google Docs document that you can edit.

I believe that you need a Google account to edit it. If you don't have one and don't want to open one, send me an e-mail and tell me what times you're available. I'll sign you up.

Dope Socks

2008-04-29T22:19:00.003-05:00

So with all the seriousness floating around, I figured now would be a good time to remind everyone why we ride bikes - to look hot. Check these:

Yeah, I know, this doesn't have anything to do with anything and the only doping ever undertaken by UCVC members has been of the decidedly non-performance-enhancing variety, but these socks are so awesome I just had to share them with the world.

Meeting place and other stuff

2008-04-29T16:22:00.004-05:00

One of the ideas that somebody proposed the other day is that we should meet at Ratner for our rides. There are reasons for meeting there, and there are also reasons for meeting at Istria or somewhere closer to the lake. I won't get in that discussion now.

I just want to give that idea a fair chance. So for the next few days I'll be calling rides that will start at Ratner. I'll be speaking with people, collecting their opinions about the issue, and gathering a sense of what people, or at least the ones who actually come to the rides, think. I'll get back to you when I've done that.

We did this today for the first time and we had a group of three, including myself. Admittedly, it was very cold.

Next ride: tomorrow (Wednesday April 30), at 6.30am

Of course everyone is free to do whatever they want. All I'm asking is some collaboration from you for the next ten days or so and that you make an effort to meet me at Ratner instead of Istria.

(I'll be totally accommodating at those rides: I'll never leave anyone behind, and if everyone who shows up is strong, I'll go as fast as they wanna go.)

Another idea that someone pitched was calling rides through a club calendar. Ben created a calendar months ago, and nobody seems to be using it. Again, to give the idea a fair chance, I've put the calendar on the club's website (last option in the menu). Everyone can see it. And you can post a ride if you know the user name and password. (I'll send them by e-mail.) For the next couple of days I'll post the ride on the calendar and will announce it by e-mail. After that, only on the calendar. After ten days or so we'll see what we think.

By the way, I gave a little botox to the club's website--just the main page. It looks neater. We will have a brand new website by the end of the summer. We can't neglect this, it's the face of the club in the world.

Today's article in the Maroon

2008-04-29T06:25:00.002-05:00

And here's our article in the Maroon:

Newly competitive velo club qualifies for D-II Nationals
By Sheridan Lardner

In what has proven to be a breakout year, the University of Chicago Velo Club has raced out of obscurity, ahead of the competition, and into the top tiers of the nation.

Comprised of members from across the University community, the “Velo,” or cycling, club enjoyed its first big year in the spotlight. Taking first place in the 2008 Division II Midwest Conference, the team ended years of dominance by its archrival DePauw University. With the gold fresh in hand, the club has now set its sights higher, sending three of its top racers to the D-II National Championships May 9 to 11. In only a few weeks, these elite athletes will head out to Colorado to continue the group’s push for glory.

Broken down into two parts, the club’s season sees cyclists training for both road and off-road events. Before classes even begin, the group hits the trails from August to October. Taking a short break for the winter, cycling then picks up its competition schedule in February. During both seasons, the club takes on the Midwest Collegiate Cycling Conference (MWCCC), a collection of colleges vastly different from the normal UAA fare. With races held everywhre from the University of Wisconsin to the University of Missouri, the team faces a number of Big Ten schools including Michigan and Ohio State.

Leading off the competition is DePauw University, a fast club with an impressive record on the roads. Last year, DePauw took first in the 2006–2007 MWCCC Championships, beating out Chicago yet again to keep up a five-year running tradition. The team went on to take third place in the nation, with cyclists placing in the top ten across the board.

Despite its past dominance, DePauw was seeing different colors during this year’s finals, facing a decisive defeat that gave Chicago the title. This upset was mostly due to the performances by three Chicago racers, economics graduate students Devon Haskell and Aspen Gorry and anthropology student Carly Schuster. All three of these racers were integral to the victory over DePauw and will be representing the school at Nationals.

“I think the most important factor in beating DePauw were the improvements in Devon’s racing, who won every race she took part in,” club president Francisco Torralba said. “A teammate of mine once described her performance at one particular race as ‘like something out of a cartoon.’”

Always a strong racer, Haskell has leapt ahead of the pack this season. Back in 2005, former graduate student Todd Yezefski won the criterium race at Nationals, the first University cyclist to attain such an honor. Graduating at the end of that year, Yezefski went on to become a professional cyclist, leaving Chicago without any top notch athletes of its own to replicate his achievements. This was not to last. Beginning in 2007, Haskell filled in Yezefski’s spot. In one year, she went from being a simple competitor in the B category to dominating her opponents in the A. With her performances this year exceeding even those of last, it would be no surprise for her to grow out of Yezefksi’s shoes.

“This year Devon has been a racing machine. The races where she participated became boring, because there was no contest. It is likely that she makes the top three at Nationals. It would not be surprising at all if she wins,” Torralba said.

Joining Haskell at Nationals will be teammates Gorry and Schuster. These racers too have blasted out of their old categories, taking their races from the B to the A level in one short year. No matter how they do at Nationals, all three athletes will have another full year at Chicago to improve even more.

Team development has been a main theme this year, with the club growing substantially larger than in previous seasons. One of the team-building strategies has been its training program, a grueling 15-mile route from 57th Street down to 72nd. Practicing through the frigid Chicago winter has definitely helped the group improve, and its performance against DePauw showed this.

“We recruited a lot of new members in the fall, and we stuck together through the cold. Many of the guys are relatively new to cycling, but we hope they’ll stick around and grow as racers,” Torralba said.

Once Nationals are in the bag, Velo will be right back in the races at the Monsters of the Midway Criterium. Organized by the club since the early 1990s, the race sends cyclists on a 1.25-mile circuit around the Midway. Depending on the event and bracket, the competitors will race for anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes, with the first person across the finish line winning it all. The race attracts in excess of 400 participants of all levels from the Chicago area. In the past, the club has not placed well in its own event, although given the new heights Velo has reached, perhaps this will be its year.

No matter how Velo performs at Nationals or in the Monsters Criterium, this will certainly be a landmark year for cycling. With records set and expectations broken, the Velo Club has raised the bar for years to come. Given the group’s current path, no one will be surprised if it’s raised even more.

Article in the Maroon

2008-04-28T20:03:00.002-05:00

I got us an article in the Chicago Maroon tomorrow.

I had a loooong e-mail "interview" with the writer (a questionnaire, actually). I told the writer about the "internal debate" we're having and gave him a copy of our "club conversation," complete with names. I thought it would make the article a lot more interesting. (Just kiddin', people, just kiddin'...)

They promised us another article in a couple of weeks, when Devon wins Nationals. I'm not sure if they'll write about Monsters this week or after Nationals.

Moving Up

2008-04-27T15:15:00.002-05:00

I have neglected writing race reports at the end of the season so I thought I would post a recap. To race in the road race at nationals, the rules require racing in the A race for the regionals weekend and at one other road race during the season. I was able to move up just in time to race in the A field at the Purdue road race. As Carly detailed in her report the weather was perfect for race day. When I moved from category C to B last year, I proceeded to get dropped in each of my B races for the rest of the year. I was nervous about making the jump as the gap between the B field and A field is even more significant. Going into the race my big goal was to just finish with the field. With this strategy I found a spot in the middle of the field and hung on for the first 3 times up the hill as the pace was fast. After the first few laps a large break went off the front with nearly all of the strongest riders. After this the pace settled down and we just rode out the rest of the race with no big changes of pace. Once the break went, the race was almost boring and I found that I wished to be in the move working harder. The biggest difference in the A race was that the moves off the front went fast. I learned that to be a factor in the race I would have to be near the front when the move went off. In this field I was no longer strong enough to make up for bad position.

With a few lessons learned, my goal for the 80 mile regionals road race was to see if I could position myself to make it into a break. Since I was the only person on the team, I planned to try to mark the moves of the few riders who had been most successful during the early season road races that I had seen. During the first few laps I kept at the front of the pack and watched as the attacks went. Unfortunately, nothing that I went with stuck and a group of 4 went off the front during the first lap. I thought that it would eventually come back so I tried to stay near the front and hoped that my legs would be ready for a counter move if they were reeled in. They never came back. The pace for the race was much faster than I expected and I was again happy to make it to the finish with the field after only 3 hours and 22 minutes in the saddle. Major props to those in the break who were able to stay away with such a high pace.

Sunday was another story. The hard winter took a large toll on the roads in downtown Madison and the seams in the middle of the road were deep pits. As the criterium started at a torrid clip, I found myself in bad position near the back and heard the loud bangs of tires popping as racers couldn't avoid the potholes in the turns. I quickly lost the mental discipline to move up through the pack and was shed from the race. Overall, the weekend gave me a good insight into how much I have progressed as a racer and showed me the things that I still need to work on. Racing in the faster races showed that I have the strength to keep up during the long races, but still have a ways to go in my jumps out of corners and technical skills in fast cornering situations in the pack. I am excited to develop these skills during the summer racing season.

The final race of the collegiate season will be Collegiate Road Nationals in Fort Collins, CO in two weeks. During the summer, Devon and I will be racing for Team Get A Grip Cycles. Rumor also has it that many of the the collegiate riders will be racing for the new team in the neighborhood. Look for Orange on the path in the near future!

Conference Champions!!

2008-04-27T14:46:00.004-05:00

Conference championships are determined from points scored by doing well at the collegiate races throughout the season. While we had a lot of point scorers this year, many others contributed to the UCVCs successful season. From our enthusiastic "newbies" to our wise veterans, the club's supportive "old guys" (sorry :)), the new shop in town, and all our sponsors. Congrats to all!!

A conversation about the club

2008-04-27T14:39:00.004-05:00

lalalalala... we are such a happy club... lalalalalala... we all like our club... lalalalalalala...

Monsters is out there

2008-04-24T12:15:00.004-05:00

For future reference, these are the links that provide the most visits to our Monsters 2008 webpage:

1. Chicago Bike Racing

2.True Sport

3. ABR

I also got us listed on Velo News, Chicago Athlete
and Time Out Chicago (this last one I don't know for sure).

We're working on having a piece written about us on the Chicago Maroon and the Hyde Park Herald.

Regionals Recap #1

2008-04-21T20:20:00.004-05:00

Its hard living in Chicago when you really love riding your bike over hills. This weekend, Carly and I escaped the flatness and headed to WI for some hilly fun with the UCVC crew.

The women's A road race was 5 loops around a hilly 10-mile circuit with a steep uphill finish. The pack stayed together for the first loop and despite this being Carly's 2nd A's race, she showed her racing smarts by positioning herself right near the front of the pack (but not in the wind!). On the second lap, we approached a series of hills on the backstretch and Carly and I were leading the pack. I was eager to hammer on the hills and pushed hard up them. I managed to get a gap on the field and a Michigan rider bridged with and IU rider close behind. We quickly started to work together and continued to open our gap, while Carly remained strong in the main pack. Soon the IU rider slowed her pace and the Michigan rider and I were left to finish 3 more laps on our own. We worked well together for most of the three laps, pushing hard up the hills and keeping a good pace on the flats. With a couple miles to go, we eased up a bit and rode side by side knowing that the race would come down to an uphill sprint. Michigan rider turned to me and said "you are going to take the sprint"... I wasn't sure if she was really feeling tired or if this was some sort of secret psychological tactic :) Either way, I was ready for an all-out uphill sprint. The finish came and it was clear that my cheering section was vastly superior to the Michigan crew - this gave me enough of a burst to get a UCVC win - thanks guys!

Shortly after, Carly "Seahorse" Schuster arrived with a shredded main pack. She didn't have the turbo boost that she hoped for on the last uphill. But she finished her 2nd A's race and longest race ever in the top half of the field!

The next day our crew headed out early for a team time trial on some more hills (yay!). Carly and I were the last of the UCVC to set out on the 10 mile out and back (and out and back) course. We set a good pace and worked together really well. It was fun to see our guys D-team and women's B-team crushing it on the course as we crossed paths with them. Carly and I managed to pass the 2-person team ahead of us, but just got caught by the strong 4-woman IU crew right before the finish line and couldn't quite beat the time of our guys (next time!!).

The crit was later in the day on a course that circled the capital building in downtown Madison. It would have been a super fun course if we didn't have a maze of potholes to navigate around. Our race started off pretty fast and furious. Unfortunately a cramp took Carly out early (better than getting taken out by a pothole!!). But she wasn't out of the race - she joined the superior UCVC cheering section on the backside of the course. I worked a lot at the front of the race and was pretty successful on the prime laps - ended up taking 3rd in the sprint. All in all, a good day.

We had a lot of memorable performances this weekend: from Paige carrying on Carly's tradition of setting her own course at the regionals road race, Zac's styling argyle socks, Araba becoming a Crit-racing machine, Aspen's epic road race, Jesse crushing the prime sprint (and Bernard crushing the laps right before the primes), Ari's spectacular finish... and much much more... hopefully their stories are to come!

UCVC jersey circa 1990

2008-04-17T11:22:00.011-05:00

Craig Gartland bought this jersey from Ed DesJardins (then the UCVC president) in 1990. He had just arrived to Chicago from UC Santa Barbara where he had taken up cycling after failing as a rower. At that time, collegiate cycling was just starting in the Western states and may not have even spread to the Midwest.

When asked by Ed what category he was, Craig replied:
"I am a 2."
"You raced in California?"
"Yes."
"Then you are a REAL 2."

Craig ended up winning the Monsters of the Midway making him one of only two UCVCers known to me to have won our home race (photo #2).

Craig also won the huge Chicago International Cycling Challenge on 9/25/1993 (now defunct, sort of revived this year) after a late solo attack in the rain (photo 3).

"I was racing Cat. 3 in the early '90s for UCVC and this was a big win for me (I think I took home over $300). It was right downtown around Buckingham Fountain. Like the Monsters of the Midway Race of '91, I soloed, this time with 2 laps to go. In the rain. Lots of crashes that day."

The pros race later in the day featured Laurent Fignon and Gianni Bugno, whose Gatorade team must have been paid huge appearance fees.

"In the "team" photo (next) with me are: Scott Anderson (left) and Paul Sklena. Scott was from Vancouver and had raced track and road up there since he was a kid. A strong rider. Paul is now a pediatrician in Ohio. Paul's claim to fame on the UCVC was as a track sprinter. In '93 (I believe) he qualified for and competed in the USCF National Track Championships (Minn., MN). Note the next evolution of the UCVC kit on the middle guy (and note the early incarnation of the UCVC logo). That is your '93 jersey. Also note the down tube shifters."

"This is important stuff! I have great memories of it all. I have even found a couple of Maroon articles about the MoM race from '91 and '93. In the '91 article they said my victory "saved the day" for the UCVC. Too much."

The Jerseys of the UCVC: A Retrospective and Critique

2008-04-15T10:35:00.084-05:00

In a previous post Devon provided a picture of a UCVC jersey from the late 1980s and early 1990s. I thought that I would give a retrospective of the years that followed.

The UCVC Rises Again (c. 1995-1999).

In the mid-1990s, Greg Munson (formerly a student in Assyriology, but who eventually graduated from the College of Medicine) and two other students discovered that the University of Chicago used to have a cycling club (the University of Chicago Velo Club=UCVC). They decided to reactivate the club and gather up former members (Craig Gartland, Tim Belton) of the defunct UCVC of previous years. Munson also reintroduces the Monsters of the Midway Criterium on the University of Chicago's Midway Plaisance. A long and solid partnership is established when American Bicycle Racing provides a generous grant to get the race off the ground. During this period, Monster's draws some of the biggest names in Midwestern cycling, including the Trek women's regional team, and members of the US Postal Service, and features as the Illinois State Championship.

Munson and company were fans of Laurent Jalabert and had Voler create a jersey based on the ONCE team uniforms. They incorporate ONCE's yellow and black color scheme, and create a UCVC logo to imitate the ONCE logo. The jersey includes the University's of Chicago's phoenix and crest, but the choice of yellow instead of maroon starts a debate for years to come.

Most riders are new to the sport and poor. Their base layers consist of cotton waffle-knit long johns. Emory Creel rides in the liner of a hockey helmet.

Team leaders: Greg Munson, some Asian dude, Emory Creel.

The Biemme Debacle (2000-2004).

With the increased team membership and Craig Gartland's interest in getting a skinsuit, the team switches jersey manufacturers from Voler to Biemme. The decision to use Biemme as a manufacturer was a mistake that the team management regrets for several years. Biemme misses production and shipping deadlines by several months and cannot maintain basic quality. They promise to color match the jerseys from previous years, but cannot even come close. Some jerseys have strange red spots in them.

Towards the end of this period, Biemme ships an order that is beyond horrible. The color from previous years is of a completely different shade of yellow, the logos have been shrunk by 50%, and the design elements do not reflect the final approved proofs. The fabric also has a strange metallic sheen. Some jerseys arrive without finished pockets (i.e., instead of three separate rear pockets there is just one enormous pocket). Biemme claims that they "mixed their colors wrong" and will give the UCVC a discount on their next order, but eventually stops answering calls and e-mails.

The Monsters of the Midway race experiences two years of tough weather that impacts its financial well being. During one particular year riders face 30-40 mph wind gusts and rain that push riders into the ditch and blow race barriers all over the course. Despite the difficult times, the UCVC leadership manages to squirrel away funds for a rainy day. Team racers are still required to pay their own expenses.

Racing highlights:
1. The team enters into its first MWCCC race
2. Gold medal state time trial championship
3. Victory in Superweek's Lakefront road race.
4. The team finally has enough members to order shorts.
5. The first female racers start riding for the team: Jen Robinson (alumnus) and Debbie MacDougall (grad-anthropology) from Erie, PA.
6. 9th place Collegiate Ironman National Championships.
7. Riders are finally capable of achieving 25 mph on the lakefront path.

Team leaders: Greg Munson, Eric Norstrom, Jon Tenney, Kent, Jean-Jacques Cabou, Sam Yount, Craig Gartland.

Critique:
Stay away from Biemme. Any company that takes full payment for a product, sight unseen, produces a beyond inferior product, and then refuses to remedy the problem is extremely unethical and should not be allowed to conduct business. They are a bad, bad, bad manufacturer. Several riders complained that you could see people's butts through the back panel of the shorts when they sweat. My response would be that everyone has a butt and that butts sweat when you exercise, regardless of the color of lycra used to cover them. Newbies liked the big, cushy pad in the shorts, but they cause mad saddle sores after 33 miles.

On a positive note, Biemme was one of the only companies at the time that would make some of the more exotic clothing items (like tights), and their ATEX winter coat was beyond warm. I also really liked their European sizing, which fits thinner and taller people better.

A NCCA National Championship Victory (2004-05).

The UCVC returns to Voler to manufacture their jerseys, beginning nearly five years of ordering bliss. Voler never misses a single deadline, has consistent colors and never, ever makes a mistake.

The team also acquires its first product sponsorships, Orbea, Reynolds, Look, Rudy Project, and Sidi.

The University tightens its control over club funds and makes it nearly impossible to pay for vendors and services for the team and the Monsters of the Midway. In the first year after this policy change, Patrick Meyers is forced to put the entire up-front cost of the race on his credit card. On a positive note, Student Government increases Sports Club funds and the team leadership is allocated a few hundred dollars to cover race expenses.

Monsters has a few years of nice weather. ABR is rewarded for its safety record and is able to reduce the per rider insurance costs for its promoters. Monsters is able to stay on stable financial ground. USCF continues to increase its fees.

A small core of racers circulate e-mails amongst themselves to keep slower riders and one poisonous ex-girlfriend from showing up on their rides.

Team Leaders: Todd Yezefski, Jon Tenney, Eric Nortstrom, Joel Roth, Tim Belton, Craid Gartland, Megan Myrick, Andrew Nicholson, Patrick Meyers.

Racing highlights:
1. NCCA National Criterium Championship Victory
2. 2nd place National Collegiate Ironman Triathlon Championships

Critique:
The design is still yellow and black, done mostly to appease members who already owned clothing from the previous year. It is not a terribly inventive design, and is basically the same as that used in 1997. Riders still complain about the back panel of the shorts.

The Last Yellow Jersey (2006).

2006 was the last gasp of the yellow jersey. Essentially a continuation of previous years with more prominent display of some sponsors, including Get A Grip Cycles and Orbea.

2006 marked a significant split in the activities of the team. The club splits among 2 parties: the collegiate racing team and recreational riders (mostly U of C staff and faculty who ride sweet bikes) who start their own 60-mile ride to northern Indiana. Faculty and staff generally take over the running of Monsters (Joel Roth, Tim Belton, Patrick Meyers), while the collegiate team just sucks up funds and races on Monsters weekend. Things come full circle when the recreational riders start their own e-mail list to keep the racers from disrupting their ride.

The team finally reveals its rainy day fund to the Sports Club Office.

Team leaders: Jon Tenney, Todd Yezefski, Megan Myrick, Franciso Torralba, Joel Roth, Tim Belton, Kevin Covey.

Highlights:
1. 2nd place NCCA National Championship Road Race
2. The start of the Schererville ride.
3. Joel Roth starts racing cyclocross.
4. Monsters features the largest Category 4 field ever seen.
5. The team no longer has any triathlete members, marking the UCVC as a true road racing team,

Critique:
It is still yellow. The design at this point is beyond boring.

A Good Team Kit is Like A Good Essay (2007).

After years of battling with the powers of conservatism, the UCVC management manages to change the basic color scheme of the jersey. Significant changes bring the jersey more in line with the themes and mentality of the University of Chicago, including replacing the UCVC logo of the 1990s with the Maroon "C", and lettering that reflects the University's own design.

Notable is the back panel of the jersey, prominently displaying the team's association with the biological science division.

The color change is made in relative secret by just a few student members from the collegiate racing team. A portion of the club feels hoodwinked and betrayed.

New leadership spends all of the money saved by the previous membership in a single year. The riders who were involved in saving the money (Norstrom, Roth, Munson, etc...) never get to enjoy it.

Highlights:
1. First MWCCC victory in women's field
2. Schererville ride grows in popularity.

Team leaders: Francisco Torralba, Joel Roth, etc.

Critique:
This kit reflects the high standards of quality that the University tries to instill in its students. It also argues that the same qualities that go into a good essay are the same as should be used to design a cycling uniform. These qualities are: 1) all of the components must form a comprehensive unit; 2) simpler is always better; 3) fonts should be consistent; 4) contrast, contrast, contrast; and 5) proofread. Drafts, as my mentor told me long ago, should be proof read by crusty old men with high standards who examine things with a hard nose and a jaundiced eye. Commentary such as "I like it, "its good," "wow," make a person feel good but ultimately reinforce the mediocrity of early drafts.

This design also managed to use simple colors in a manner that made for a very striking image. Most notably is the very simple rendition of the university phoenix in white (on the shorts and long sleeves, not really shown here). It was pretty dope. Plus, the entire kit was distinct in both the regional (MWCCC) and National Championships, which is something that the previous design failed to achieve. Nobody ever complemented our jerseys until we came out with this one, but it happened a lot last year. For example, during the NCCA National Championship Criterium, an entire family picked me out from the 100+ racers and adopted me strictly for my team kit and silver shorts, screams of "Go, Chicago!" encouraging me lap after lap (I guess they could read the font). In fact, the son asked me to sign and give him my race numbers after the race was over. It didn't matter to him that I only lasted for 50 minutes of the race, and that it was still going on while I was signing the numbers.

Notable negatives include the fact that the maroon color is really red (everyone thought that we were getting maroon based on the proofs, but this could have easily been altered in the next batch), some of the black type does not standout on the gray background, and that the silver lycra of the shorts shows sweat (once again the butt obsession comes to the fore). However, cycling is cool because you get to wear the super hero outfits that you never could sport in the office. Nothing screams superhero (or prostitute) like silver pants.

Finally Maroon (2008).

In 2008, club leadership decided to change manufacturers to Champ-sys because it is slightly cheaper than its competitors. It is a relative newcomer to the cycling clothing field, has a very limited in-house design team, and its production is done in China.

A real cycling shop enters the Hyde Park neighborhood. Tati brings a much needed influx of Keirin/Retro/Portland style to the UCVC.

Highlights:
More victories in the MWCCC than we can count.

Team leaders: Francisco Torralba, Devon Haskell, Carly Schuster, Dan Houle, Aspen Gorry.

Critique:

Champ-Sys used a very heavy lycra and a double layer of fabric on the back panel of its shorts, which hopefully will eliminate the decade-long butt sweat debate. They also incorporate a nice cell phone/i-pod pocket into the shoulder straps of its bib shorts. The pad is acceptable, but some complained of saddle sores. In terms of construction, it is a good value, but they screwed up the arm warmers and failed to make some items.

The triumph of this jersey is that it finally includes maroon (but not as the primary color). From a design standpoint, however, it has problems. It has an inconsistent design between the jersey and the shorts, the weird use of red and yellow next to maroon, way too many logos (including two different bike shops), and a manufacturer that can't provide the crisp lines as its competitors. The image of the white phoenix doesn't work , the font colors on the side of the jersey do not match the same lettering as on the shorts (black vs. white), the logos on the shoulder panel are odd, and the rear pockets are just a solid block of black which looks really bad on jackets and vests without pockets. It is not up to the standards of the University of Chicago, and I feel like I am wearing bad grammar when I ride in it. The biggest negative, however, is that the entire package is invisible in the MWCCC peloton.

A better move would have been to stick with the compositionally excellent Voler design from the previous year and just swap out the accidental red color with a true maroon and turn some of the U of C font from black to white (since the official U of C colors are maroon and white).

What are the themes of the second incarnation of the UCVC? The first is that constitutionally, the students hold the reigns of power and have consumed more and more resources as their racing has grown in strength and success. The non-racing component shoulders the greatest burden of the team, the Monsters of the Midway, but they have little voice in the direction of the entire club. These two components have different reasons for riding their bikes, and they started to grow further apart sometime after the Biemme years. The saving grace seems to be the cyclocross season wherein elements of both sides can come together. Other themes include the battle between the team and the Sports Club bureaucracy, the difficulty in introducing and maintaining the club's female membership, that there is a weird obsession with fannies, and that designing a good cycling jersey is a difficult task. Lastly, the great nemesis is really the Chicago weather.

MONSTERS, MONSTERS, MONSTERS, MONSTERS

2008-04-12T17:06:00.006-05:00

Monsters are coming to the Midway... on May 17!!! Save the date!

UCVC will need tons of people to set up the race, tear it down, and keep it running. Based on previous years, we need a minimum of 15 people for setup, and 10-12 people at any point in time during the race to keep it running smoothly. The club will reward all volunteers with lunch and a UCVC T-shirt.

I have created a public schedule so that people can sign up as volunteers for Monsters. Anyone in the UCVC e-mail list can sign up for a task in the available time slots. Signing up is important because the race organizers need to make sure that we have enough people at any point in time during the race. If you are racing and helping with the race, don't forget to allocate enough time for warm-up, cool-down, etc.

Old School

2008-04-12T16:58:00.004-05:00

Here is what our jersey looked like back in the early '90's (92 or 93 perhaps). Notice the Monsters of the Midway Logo on the left - pretty neat! Anybody else out there have pics of jerseys from back in the day??

Jesse's Minor Repair

2008-04-07T21:18:00.002-05:00

Marian crit/Purdue road race--Women's race report

2008-04-07T14:51:00.002-05:00

Sunshine!!! Spring!!! We were all pretty excited at the prospect of taking advantage of the warm weather, riding outdoors, and getting to work on those lovely bike-short tan lines that have nearly faded from last year.

The Marian criterium was held on the campus of Marian college--a very cycling-centric school (they have their own Honda Element team car...swanky!), which promised much enthusiasm and a big crowd for the race. We decided to drive down to Indianapolis the morning of the race rather than stay in the area (an 11am start time made this seem like a good plan at the time)...but we were all a bit sleepy as we piled bikes and gear into cars at 5:15am. The super-technical crit course was enough to shake the sleep out of us, though--the course wound downhill through a series of pathways on campus towards two sharp right-hand turns, ending with two windy slightly-uphill straightaways on the way to the start/finish. For the women's team, Araba was up first. The Women's B field almost immediately was strung out through the turns as riders grouped together in small clumps of 2-5. Araba found a Marian rider to work with through the race, and they finished midway in a big and competitive field.

I was up next for the Women's A race (saying goodbye to teammates Paige and Araba in Women's B is hard!), and I was a bit nervous about the quicker and more experienced field of riders. The group at the start line was HUGE--and dominated by 8 Indiana University riders, 5 Marian riders, and at least another 5 Wisconsin riders. Having these big teams in the field meant that they would almost certainly determine just about every aspect of the race, so I was hoping to just sit in and see how things shook out. But no dice! The field soon split into a front group of about 10 riders and a larger chase pack behind. The front group sure didn't want to let me just sit in the pack, so I found myself at the back and sprinting hard out of each turn in order to catch back on. One gap too many and I dropped back about 10 ft and found myself with a few other solo riders in no-mans-land between the front group and the chase. It's so hard to see that wheel a mere 5ft in front of you...but...just...can't...get...there...ouweeee! I decided that I would try to catch back on with the front pack--I was making up ground through the corners so, pedaling hard, I thought that pushing it through the technical downhill would give me a chance to bridge the gap and catch the leaders. Well...it seemed to be a good idea at the time--until I started pedaling through the sharpest turn too early, caught my pedal and my bike slid out from under me. A DNF (did not finish), some good road rash and a bent dérailleur hanger to show for my foolish heroics.

Both Araba and I were looking forward to the Purdue road race, though Araba was a bit nervous about a steep climb that race coordinators affectionately dubbed "the wall." The course began with a sharp descent that turned into a gentle rolling climb. Crossing a bridge, the road suddenly appears to go straight up...Up...UP in front of you (and all you can think is "mayday!!! downshift!!!"). After struggling up the wall, the road continues for another mile or two of flat country roads bisected by murderous cross-winds, and finally back towards the descent, with the finish line being at the top of the wall. Despite her nerves, Araba did a fantastic job! Spectators reported that nearly half of the Women's B field dismounted their bikes and pushed them up the hill, but Araba said that her pride wouldn't stand for it and spun up the grade on each of the 4 laps. She found a Milwaukee rider to work with and they finished the race tired but still firmly in the saddle (no cleats harmed trudging up the hill!).

My race started off at a comfortable pace but I was having a really hard time finding a good place in the large group. Riders continually moved around in the pack, trying to move towards the front, find teammates, and position themselves well for when the attacks would inevitably come. I kept thinking to myself that I should move up, but easier said than done as riders jostle their way up the sides and elbow in to the pack. Sure enough, on the second lap up the wall some riders went in an all out sprint. I was way too far back in the group to catch them and ended up again in between the smaller breakaway group and ahead of the chase pack (groan!). Luckily, another rider was right behind me and we worked together well in the flat sections. Unfortunately, the larger chase group (not climbers, but strong in the pummeling cross-winds) caught our little breakaway each time on the descent. After the third trip up the hill (and caught on the backside), we decided that we shouldn't try to stay away and save our energy for the 6th and final hill sprint--or maybe we were happy to have some help pulling into the wind! This was the right move since I finished strong in the chase group in the final grueling effort up the wall--I definitely don't have the physique of a sprinter...unless the sprint is up a 20% grade!

It was great to have such a large crew at the race--it made pulling the corgis apart when they got into tug-o-war fights over their bungee leashes much easier! We of course missed Devon (who was leading UCVC to national fame and glory in a stage race at Redlands CA). Again, I'll let the boys narrate the story of their own triumphs, but congratulations especially to our newer racers for their outstanding results!

Get ready to get dirty!

2008-03-30T17:03:00.005-05:00

(or, how to ride cyclocross on 23c tires, courtesy of Women's B).

Araba and I rolled up to the the start/finish of what promised to be a rowdy road race (ooh, alliteration!). This was going to be Araba's first race and a quarter of the course wasn't even paved! I remember this being my first race last season and hating the mile of muck, so I was nervous enough for both of us rolling up to the line.

The conditions of the muddy patch weren't too bad since we were the first race of the day but the pot-holes certainly were punishing on the rear end! Araba sure was spunky but lost the pack while navigating the golf-ball sized gravel on the road. Down to about half the field, we took a moderately paced first lap to scope out the course. I came around to take a pull at the start/finish and headed into the mud-pit at full speed. Kept thinking 'pedal pedal pedal pedal pedal!' on the unpaved mile--looked back when we rounded the corner back onto the road and was surprised to find that there were only 6 other girls behind me! We rotated through the paceline and increased our break, taking turns pulling into the wind. I was a bit nervous heading into the pack sprint--I don't really have the guns to be a sprinter! I moved up towards the front of the group and jumped when I saw one of the strongest girls punch the sprint. I caught her wheel and hung on tight until we were nearly on the line and came around pedaling hard. I won the sprint by a nose. And then Araba and I got to scrape a pound of mud off our bikes--she finished slightly behind the pack and in good spirits (considering the morning's adventures).

Day two dawned gray and cold (this we know because we were on our trainers as the sun peeked over the horizon, getting ready for an 8am start...the poor boys had already warmed up and gotten to the line for a 7:30am race--ouch!). Both Araba and I were still feeling a bit crunchy from the hard race on Saturday--I keep trying to remember that everybody is hurting on day two! The crit course was around a 1.9 mile loop with two early climbs and then a long and blustery descent through the exposed back side of the course, ending with a slightly downhill straight shot to the start/finish (with a tailwind it promised to be a speedy sprint to the line!). Araba seemed much happier about having pavement under her wheels for the whole race and I was looking forward to testing my legs on the hills. Well, I couldn't contain my exuberance (or maybe it was the chilly conditions--gotta get warmed up!) and crushed it up the two climbs. This effort separated the field down to 5 and I was happy to sit in and keep my nose out of the wind for the tough descent on the way down. Then we became 4 when a rider crossed wheels and went down--really unlucky, but definitely something to remember when following a wheel (overlap means bad news if the rider in front of you slows or moves over). And then we were 3 when we shed another rider on the climbs--me, a strong Purdue and Marian rider cycled through a quick series of 30 second pulls, setting a crushing pace and opening up a big gap on the field--yay for finding some other riders to work with!

When we got to the last lap I wasn't sure whether I should kill myself up the hills to try to ride away in front of the break or settle in and save my legs for the sprint. I decided on a compromise, following Purdue up the first climb and then pulling around her to punch it hard up the second climb to the top. Looking back I saw Marian a short distance behind me and Purdue flagging on the hill. I thought that some help in the wind on the way down would be great, so I sat up and pulled in behind the Marian girl. Working together with short and quick pulls, we soon opened up a good lead on the third rider. My heart sank when I realized that I was in front as we rounded the turn to the start finish, and in a smart move the Marian rider was perched on my wheel, waiting to come around. I slowed up, anticipating her sprint but she backed off and came around fast...and I was overgeared to match her acceleration. A good learning experience--next time downshift and don't slow as much so that I've got some jump to match her speed.

Araba came across the line and promptly sat up (no hands!) like a pro, finishing a bit behind the main chase pack. She said that she learned a lot from working with another rider throughout the race, finishing strong and a novice no longer!

As always, thanks to my teammates who made this a highly enjoyable weekend! I will let them narrate the story of their glories, but suffice it to say (as a teaser) that they had quite excellent performances in both the road race and the crit. Yay!

PEEPS: Happy Easter from Pittsburgh

2008-03-24T14:28:00.007-05:00

This weekend was an adventure for the tiny UCVC crew of Carly, Aspen, and me. Carly had to red-ink her way through piles of papers, drive through blizzard-like conditions, and risk running out of gas in the middle of nowhere with no credit cards to help (bad thieves!). We met up in Ohio Friday night and headed off to Pittsburgh bright and early for the road race on Saturday. weather.com promised wintery mixes and the weather channel predicted "no race". But after a long long long winter, we were ready to brave any conditions to be able to ride our bikes outside!!!

I hear there were some pretty awesome snowdrifts on the boring lakefront path back in Chicago... luckily for us, we had clear, well-paved, beautiful roads to ride on with excellent topography. After living in Chicago for too long, I don't have the vocabulary to describe the extent of hills we saw in Pittsburgh, but Carly suggests the term "soul-crushing".

Carly and Apsen were the first to embark on the hilly adventure. As I was huddling in the car with the corgis, I did not see much of the race as it zoomed by the start/finish, but they both arrived back to the car with impressive results!! Carly broke away from the field in a group of 4 after the first set of "soul-crushing" hills. They rode a lap together and established their gap on the rest of the riders. On the second lap, the break split apart but Carly held on strong for a 3rd place finish ahead of all the midwest riders (apparently they are used to hills on the east coast). Unfortunately Carly's Garmin decided that the hills were too much and scampered off her handle bars after the first climb (it was too much elevation for the Garmin to handle... luckily it came back with the race car) Aspen's field dwindled away throughout the race, but remained a big group out in front. He had several attempts to break things up, including a solo effort up the steepest of the monster hills, but the group held tight together and wouldn't let a break get away. It ended up in a big field sprint... and despite not pedaling through the finish line, Aspen finished well in the top 10.

I headed out next with a shortened race (4 laps to 3) due to the threat of hazardous weather conditions coming our way. Similar to Carly's strategy, I stayed in front on the first hill and managed to stick with a break of 4... which turned into a break of 3 on the next hill... and then a break of 2 by the final hill. I worked with the girl from Columbia for a lap and a half and we stayed away from any chasers. Then on the last lap, I went hard up the hills trying to break away and was able to open a gap. At this point the follow van was right behind me so I couldn't see anything down the road and I had no idea where the Columbia girl was.... so I had to keep pedaling hard for fear that she was hiding right behind the van. In the end I managed to stay away for a win.

The next day, we headed to downtown Pittsburgh for the crit. The race went over two bridges which was pretty cool and also made for some more climbing - the little ups and downs over bridges really add up throughout a crit. I decided to join Aspen in the men's B race again. Neither of us got a great start in the race. Aspen was near the middle of the pack and I was pretty much stuck in the back (ideally we'd both be near the front). The pace was pretty furious. We would turn onto a bridge and the whole pack would sprint up to the top and then slow into the turn... then on to the next bridge for another sprint to the top. I was struggling just to hang on to the back of the pack. I thought the pace would ease at some point, but the continuous sprints up the bridges never seemed to fade. I managed to hang on and finish with the main pack (at the very back) and Aspen strategically moved himself up into a good finishing position to get another top 10 for the team!

I was pretty beat after the race, but the women's race was on the line... and I had signed up... so I decided to hop in. I managed to hang on to the front pack, but had no gas left in my tank. I didn't have much of a sprint at the end, but finished with the field somewhere in the top 10.

Carly started out strong in her race although the Garmin decided to boycott once again (perhaps it had enough hills for the weekend). A break went early in the race and Carly was in perfect position right behind the leader of the breakaway. Aspen and I awaited eagerly for the break to come around on the next lap, but as the racers came through, there was no Carly :( Unfortunately her hamstrings had enough climbing and one decided to curl up into a big knot (ouch!!). Cramping and a bit bummed, Carly pulled out of the race. She will eat more bananas before her next crit!

Aspen, having had a bit of a rest and a super long coooool down... then waaaaaarm up, also raced the USCF mens cat 4/5 race in the afternoon. He raced the first half of the crit with air slowly seeping out of his back tire. As Carly and I cheered him on, he yelled something that sounded like "neeed... a... wheel..." so we went running off to the car (ouch!) to fetch our wheels. We had the wheels ready to go, but it took Aspen a few laps to convince himself that his wheel was truly flat enough to warrant a free lap. Finally he veered off the course and changed his wheel and got back into the race. A couple of laps later, a PEEPS Prime was announced... meaning the first person through on the next lap would win PEEPS!!! (truly a worthy prize to sprint for). As Carly and I wondered if anyone would actually sprint for sugar covered marshmallow chicks, we saw Aspen barreling down the hill going all out towards the start/finish line. He didn't raise his arms in PEEP-winning victory, but we did see a small smile on his face as the announcer declared him the PEEP winner. The finish was only a few laps later... still full of adrenaline from his PEEP win, Aspen placed himself in a great position for the finish. However, the $75 cash prize did not have quite the same appeal as the PEEPS and Apsen was not able to come around the front guy for the win, but had a dominant second place finish on the field - quite a good day!

Overall, a great weekend for the UCVC, but we were sad that we had such a small crew to help consume all the PEEP winnings.

(wo)Men's B

2008-03-10T07:44:00.009-05:00

Aspen and I both raced (wo)Men's B this weekend. It was fun to have a teammate in the race and fun for me to race in a bigger field. Saturday's course was a long (11.5) and hilly loop... hills way bigger than the 47th street overpass! And we had winds similar to the ones that will blow you over on the lake front path.

Aspen started off in a good position (front 10 people) and I found myself a bit further back in the pack. As we began to hit the hills, the field thinned a bit and I worked my way up in the pack... We hit hill after hill and after a several ups and downs, I was pretty close to the front where I saw a big, strong guy hammering in the lead with Aspen right on his wheel. I worked my way up to Aspen's wheel and then pedaled hard to hang on. Soon I looked back and saw that we had a break of 5 people! Our break stuck and we opened up a gap so wide that we could no longer see the field behind us. We were moving at a pretty good pace and it wasn't easy hanging on to the group.

We had gone about a lap when we hit the series of hills that caused the initial break. Again, the big, strong guy started putting the hammer down and I was suffering to hang on to the back. As we approached the last peak, I could no longer hang on and was shed off the back (so sad). But Aspen kept going strong in the break (go Aspen!). I was in no-man's land with a fast break ahead of me and a roaring pack somewhere behind me and I still had 24 miles to go... I decided to keep pedaling hard and hope that I could stay away from the pack. After half a lap, I had company with another guy that was shed from the breakaway. We worked together for a while until he started to tire and I was on my own again. By the last lap, I had lost all sense of the distance to the finish line, I started to fear I might topple over with each successive hill, and I kept peering over my shoulder, fearing that I would see a large pack ready to swallow me up at any moment... but then I saw the joyous orange cones in the distance marking the finish line and still no sight of the pack - i just had to make it up o-n-e... m-o-r-e... HILL! I finished 4th and Aspen was standing there looking as tired as I felt - he ended up staying with the break and finishing 3rd. A good day for both of us!

The next morning we awoke super early for the Lindenwood Crit. The course that promised to be "mostly flat" on the flyer also had climbs that dwarfed the 47th street overpass (they obviously haven't been to Chicago to see what flat is). I'm afraid that our race wasn't nearly as exciting and eventful as the Men's D and Women's B races. The pack stayed together as a big group for most of the race with some people shedding off the back. Aspen and I both stayed with the main group and Aspen was in a good position for most of the race, feeling ready for a strong finish. Unfortunately, he lost his place in the pack right before the final descent into the finish and ended up 10th (still not too shabby). I also did not have a stellar position for the finish, but finished with the main field, somewhere around 15th.

After the men's race, I took a cool down lap and then decided to double my fun for the day and got right back on the start line for the Women's A race. I was starting to feel a little tired at this point... I tried to push the pace a few times and could feel the build up of hill climbing in my legs. We did manage to widdle the pack down to about 6 riders but the finish was going to come down to a sprint. As we rounded the last corner, I found a little bit of juice left in my legs and sprinted for the win. A double women's victory for the day!

Mizzou! Women's B

2008-03-09T23:03:00.003-05:00

Photos are up at: http://www.flickr.com/gp/24311744@N03/200248

Paige and I headed down to Mizzou for the road race and crit. With a long drive and questionable weather (forecast for Saturday at race-time was 22˚F/"feels like 16˚F" with wind chill...yikes!) we were both a bit nervous about the race, especially after the large and competitive field that turned up for Women's B at the DePauw races. It promised to be a long and chilly weekend!

The Mizzou road course was held on residential country roads around a 11.5ish mile loop. The race flier said that there would be some climbs but even the elevation information that they gave us didn't prepare us for the hills on this course--there were some monster grades (for the midwest, of course!). Also, we found out that the race had been lengthened by a lap--we'd now be racing a course just over 33 miles, which promised to test our endurance (and destroy the hamstrings!). Needless to say, we were jittery as we warmed up (or was that the frigid temps?)

Lining up, we noticed that there were many fewer riders than last week. Apparently the
combination of spring break and inconvenient location (read, Missouri) meant many riders sat this one out. We had just under 20 in the field, compared to 45 the week before! Off the line the pace was painfully slow--nobody wanted to do much work and it seemed as though everybody was a bit daunted by the upcoming hills and the long course. As we approached some gentle rollers, Paige and I got up front to take a pull and pushed the pack a bit to see if they'd wake up. At this point I lost Paige--it turned out that she repeatedly threw her chain (any time she applied any torque on the hills it would come right off the front chainring--oh no!), so she pulled out due to mechanicals. Trooper that she is, she coasted/pushed her bike all the way back and still had energy to cheer me on for the rest of the road race. Thanks for the hearty encouragement!!!

As soon as we hit the hills it became clear that this course favored the climbers among us (and shrimp that I am, this felt like my calling). I was shoulder-to-shoulder with a girl from Lindsey Wilson College up the first big climbs and by the end of the first lap we had established a pretty good gap, shedding a third Purdue rider in the final meters of the climb towards the start/finish. Contemplating a long 2 laps to go, we decided to trade pulls and try to widen our break, punching it especially hard in the hills where we felt we could make big gains for time and recovering on the flats and downhills. It felt really good to work hard with another rider, and though we kept looking over our shoulder, the pack never came into sight. The LWC rider and I were fairly evenly matched on the grades but she had better legs for the hill sprint to the start/finish so I had to settle for 2nd place. Once again I felt like I had underperformed in the sprint finish but was sure happy to come away with my first podium finish of the year. It must be the crushing headwinds on the Lakepath that prepared me for the climbs--who says that we get no hill practice in Chicago?!

Day 2: the Lindenwood crit and a very very early morning (between early races/daylight savings/and a 4o min. drive from the hotel). As I nursed a bottle of Accelerade and watched the sun creep over the misty hills, I worried about the technical course, the fact that I hadn't had enough coffee yet, and the daunting climbs in a course advertised as "mostly flat with one minor hill every lap"--yeah right!! The whole course was one big climb and descent!

As Paige and I watched the Men's D race unfold we noticed that the field, though big, had gotten lined out pretty quickly, and much of the field had been shattered on the hills. The course had several tight turns, notably into a narrow bottleneck on the first big climb, around a corner to the big descent and at the bottom of the downhill section towards the start-finish. However, the hills made up for the slowing in corners, and it seemed as though selections in the field were made based on those with legs for the climbs (which boded well for me and Paige!). We were both tired and sore from the road race (my riding and Paige's heroic pushing/running), but hoped that the rest of the field was also feeling a bit beat by Saturday's effort.

Once again we rolled out slowly and took two laps around the course at an easy pace. Frustrated, I moved to the front and punched it on the hills and took an aggressive line on the descent, trying to gauge who really wanted to race today! A two lap effort strung the field out and I was happy to cede my position at the helm to the Lindsey Wilson College and Purdue riders that had been the strongest climbers on Saturday. After they took a pull the pack slowed down again to catch its breath and I figured that keeping the intensity high would work to my benefit since I still had a bit of gas left in the tank. Right as I was about to fade back into the pack I was delighted to see Paige charging up on my left and pushing hard at the effort that I had started--yay for having teammates in the race! With 5 laps to go, she set a blistering pace on the hills and I was happy to sit right on her wheel. Figuring that in all fairness UCVC didn't have to do all the work, we pulled in behind the Purdue rider with two laps to go. During the final climb of the last lap I decided to make my move and punched it hard (legs, don't fail me now!!!) and tore around the turn for the last descent. Down in my drops I prayed that my tinny little bike would be nimble enough to carry my momentum through the bottom turn and that my legs would respond when I asked for the power up the hill. Thank goodness both were the case, and I finished 1st with Paige close behind in 6th as we sprinted across the line. Way to go teamwork, and a solid finish for UofC women!

I feel like I learned so much this weekend about working with other riders--strategic cooperation, more than anything, makes or breaks an attack effort. It felt so great to have another teammate in the race--I can't wait for our next chance to race together, Paige!

And thanks also to a fabulous group that made the long trek down to Missouri! Men's D--you were fantastic support (and Bernard was a brilliant photographer!) through the whole race, and I really appreciate the great attitude that everybody had to racing. If it weren't fun, why would we do it, after all?

The rest of the race reports should be up soon.
yay!
~Carly