Cycling Wed Sep 03 2008
Online registration is closed for this Sunday's Palos Meltdown. Seems that it may be possible to register in person for $40, so if you have the day free, consider a trip down with your off-road machine because there isn't much mountain bike racing closer. Last year, local shops and bike manufacturers such as SRAM and Specialized were on hand demoing products and loaning out $6,000 bikes, so if you're in the market for something new, you could try out a race bike and watch cyclists race. Nifty.
This past weekend saw all sorts of working messengers, non-messengers and those that aspire to be messengers descend upon Chicago for the North American Cycle Courier Championships. Check out the Flickr photo group here for some choice shots of the action. And here are the results. First Chicago messenger in fourth place overall was Andrew "Candles" Nordyke of the Chicago Cuttin' Crew. Local boy Simon Lach won the skid contest, crushing the competition. Oh, and speaking of crushing, seems livers everywhere were knocked out of commission in after-hours partying.
- Zach Thomas |
Cycling Thu Aug 28 2008
Register now for the Chicago 'Cross Cup's cyclocross skills clinic, on Saturday September 13, hosted by Ben Turner of Cycle-Smart, a CX racer who has raced in Europe, doing well in a racing environment that many Americans seem to not do so well in. The race flyer with more information on it is here.
And if you pre-register for the clinic, you get in line to receive a free copy of Cycle-Smart's "Solutions for Cyclo-Cross" DVD and other schwag. Everyone likes free stuff and when you couple free stuff with coaching and advice from a real expert, well, the deal's made even better.
Last night and this morning, I was out practicing my CX skills in anticipation for a busy autumn of racing and the point that technique and skill matters just as much as a set of strong legs and lungs was really hammered home. Yeah, you can pedal hard on the flats and up the hills, but if you can't dismount and remount without coming to a complete stop or crashing, well, you're gonna need some help. And judging from my bruised shoulder and posterior earned after tripping over the barriers and flying over my handlebars, it might not be a bad idea for me to register for this clinic, too.
- Zach Thomas |
The Illinois State Road Race Championships, aka The Tour of Oak Brook, was held this past Saturday. Official results aren't yet up, and here they are. The grapevine's come around with news of the race, and while numerous crashes and registration issues marred the good times a bit, by and large, the race went off well.
Chris Padfield's already made a big name for himself in the 3's, earning big props for a huge solo effort that while didn't earn him the win, at least let him earn a bit of an reputation.
Check out this link to CBR for additional race reports.
And as a reminder, coming up this weekend is the North American Cycle Courier Championships. A messenger prom, bike polo, and gratuitous and impressive displays of package handling will be the main attractions. Oh, and BBQ. It ain't a party unless someone's grilling something, and if bike action's not enough to get you out of your house, maybe the vague promise of grilled eats will. And yes, all events are open to "civvies."
- Zach Thomas |
Cycling Mon Aug 18 2008
While summer's heat still rages, the regional criterium racing is starting to wind down. Superweek was a blast, same with Elk Grove, and the Chicago Criterium, and now cyclists are setting-up their cyclocross bikes, ordering their cowbells, and practicing their dismounts for the upcoming Chicago 'Cross Cup. However, 'cross season's not here yet - there's still plenty of road and crit racing to be had.
This past weekend saw a whole lot of race action in Downers Grove, in which Rahsaan Bahati of Rock Racing earned the stars and bars and became the National Criterium Champ, by coming in ahead of Alex Candelario of Kelly Benefit Strategies and Mark Hekman of Toshiba Santo.
In the men's 3/4 race, Ryan Freund, a member of the IIT/Cycle Smithy squad, took first, leaving second and third place to Julian Baumgartner of Burnham Racing and Ricardo Otero of Team Mack, respectively. Local cycling talent in the Women's 1/2/3 race was shut out from the top places, but in the 3/4 race Catherine Burnham of Bartlett came in third place.
Looking ahead, the Tour of Oak Brook on August 23, which also serves as the Illinois road race state championship seems to be the biggest highlight. The course, a winding 3.2 miler (nearly the minimum distance for a road race, and not much longer than a crit) should break up the field with two hills, or whatever passes for hills in Chicagoland.
Registration's filling-up fast, so if you want to earn the right to sport the Illinois Champ's jersey for next year, better head on over.
- Zach Thomas |
News Thu Aug 14 2008
- It may not make it to the side of a milk carton, but the Chicago Fire fan club Section 8 is missing their banner.
- Some people might have an opinion about who they are, but a new book of photos entitled "We Are Cubs Fans" seeks to define the loyalists visually. The obligatory Ronnie Woo Woo photo is included.
- Speaking of the Cubs, Sports Illustrated joins the rest of the country in being amazed that they AND the White Sox are both in first place and may make the playoffs in the same season for the first time since 1906.
- And speaking of the Sox, Fox Sports calls the acquisition of Carlos Quinten the steal of the century. OK, they call it the steal of the season. It just LOOKS like the steal of the century.
- The Bears are set to unveil a major advertising blitz. Too bad they can advertise for a quarterback.
- Tickets for the National Pro Fastpitch softball championships go on sale this Saturday at Judson Sports Complex in Elgin, home of the Chicago Bandits. The Bandits are one of the four teams who will be participating.
- Now that the Blackhawks are enjoying a resurgence in popularity, new fans might want to read about one of the team's legends featured in a story from the Sports Illustrated vaults.
- Mark them on your calendar: The Human Race, the cycling National Championships in Downers Grove, Chicago Gems women's baseball, Windy City Rollers action and gay rodeo.
- Ken Green |
Cycling Wed Aug 13 2008
Elsewhere on GB, Chris Brunn's described the new initiative by the Chicagoland Bike Federation, the Logan Square Neighborhood Association, Garfield Park Conservatory Alliance, and others to close 10 miles of Chicago streets on the Northwest and West sides to car traffic October 5th and 26th so that local residents can bike, run or walk without worry of cars.
Continue reading this entry»
- Zach Thomas |
News Thu Aug 07 2008
- Rex, Kyle...or even Chad Pennington. What difference does it make without an O line?
- ..but at least we have a first-rate stadium.
- He was much more than the guy who had the ball go between his legs in the 1984 NL Championship Series. The Indianapolis Star catches up with Cubs legend Leon Durham.
- If you've been reading Tailgate's own Zach Thomas, you know that bike racing is booming in the Chicago area. The Chicago Tribune plays catch-up.
- A South Side group is getting kids as young as eight into the challenging sport of triathlons...
- ...while elsewhere on the South Side, another group is bringing the sport of rowing to a new, younger crowd.
- The Urbanathalon is coming! Yes, it sounds like some B-movie monster, but actually it's a moderately strenuous 10-mile race, obstacle course thingy. Not too late to enter
- Bring the pain: The UFC is coming to the Allstate Arena October 25. Top bout on the card is Anderson "The Spider" Silva vs. Patrick "The Predator" Cote. Anyone in UFC nicknamed "The Fluffy Bunny"?
- Start saving your betting bucks now. The Arlington Million is this Saturday.
- Twenty-five years ago, they installed lights in Wrigley Field. Purists howled. The world survived.
- Ken Green |
Cycling Mon Aug 04 2008
This weekend saw some big names in professional cycling come through and lay waste to suburban Elk Grove and Schaumburg in the Tour of Elk Grove, and lest we forget, amateurs from Cat. 5 to 1 did their fair share, too.
Friday night belonged to those guys who get paid to ride their bikes, with a 4.5 mile time-trial, with a $15,000 purse. Tom Zirbel of the Bissell Pro Cycling Team came in with a time of 8:36.37 minutes, and local pro Reid Mumford of Kelly Benefits Strategies/Medifast came in 6th with a time of 8:49.07.
Continue reading this entry»
- Zach Thomas |
Cycling Tue Jul 29 2008
In Grant Park this past Sunday, the first-ever Chicago Criterium saw a few surprises climb to the top of the podium. Adam Bergman of the Texas Roadhouse squad, an amateur rider, albeit one with a solid racing resume, won handily in a field full of some of cycling's biggest guns, including Chris Horner of Team Astana, and Freddie Rodriguez of Rock Racing.
Working in a five-man breakaway near the end of the 80km race, Bergman, the winner of the 2007 running of the Evanston Grand Prix, outsprinted Dominique Rollin of Toyota United and David Veilleux of Kelly Benefit Strategies to take home a $5,000 grand prize.
The women's Pro/1/2 race was won by Amber Rais of Team TIBCO, with a brave solo effort 20 minutes to go. Wisconsinite Sam Schneider of Mesa Cycles took second, and Rais' teammate, Brook Miller, came home in third.
But perhaps the greater glory should go to all those brave Chicagoans who came out to represent their city. Chris Padfield of Team Pegasus continued his Superweek streak and came in first place in the 4's; in the men's master's 4/5 race Nate Iden of Spidermonkey Racing rolled in ahead of Newt Cole of XXX Racing-Athletico and Ed Ekstrom of Tower Racing. XXX Racing-Athletico also dominated both heats of the men's 5 race, bringing in Tom Briner and Dave Moyer for the win in each race.
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- Zach Thomas |
News Thu Jul 24 2008
- In case you’ve forgotten, the Chicago Force are going for the IWFL title this Saturday at North Park University’s Holmgren Athletic Complex. Cheer them on.
- The White Sox’ Juan Uribe to the Red Sox? It might make a lot of people happy.
- Cook County Commissioner Mike Quinn got a lot of Detroit Red Wings fans ticked off when he managed to skewer the team in his resolution celebrating the outdoor game against the Blackhawks at Wrigley Field...
- ...But here’s guessing he’ll have an easier time getting tickets to the game than you do.
- A half-game lead (as of Thursday afternoon)? Are the Cubs done for? One writer seems to think so (though he admits he’s a Sox fan but insists that has nothing to do with it… right.)...
- ...But never fear Cubs fans, there are enough pro-Cubby blogs to ease the pain. In fact, there’s a whole army.
- The need for (man-powered) speed: The Chicago Criterium is this weekend.
- A Chicago hospital offers a free women’s sports injury prevention pamphlet…
- ...Which you might need if you attend tryouts for the Grand All Star League (GALS, get it?) women’s basketball tryouts for females 50 and over.
- Ken Green |
Cycling Tue Jul 22 2008
The lycra-clad hordes descend this Sunday upon Grant Park for the first ever Chicago Criterium. Look for national pros from Rock Racing and Jittery Joe's, but remember that racing in the amateur categories can often be just as, if not more so, exciting. The racing's more disorganized and chaotic, but the faces are familiar. Everyone loves to root for the hometown effort, anyway.
Speaking of hometown crushers, Christian Vande Velde of Team Garmin-Chipotle has a fighting chance to podium in this year's Tour de France. Looks like his training regimen of cranking into Chicago's killer headwinds has helped out more than some of us thought. Wind's never scared me off from a training ride, but maybe now I'll relish the experience rather than curse it as is my custom.
Oh, the BK Stacker took more than its fair share of souls and skin at last Sunday's Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Grand Prix of Cycling criterium I got up to Evanston just in time to catch the start of the Pro/1/2 race and within 10 laps, a large portion of the field had laid their bikes and bodies down. That time everyone got back up, but later on, a rider was taken away by ambulance to the hospital with injuries, temporarily neutralizing the race. Seems most other races throughout the day experienced large amounts of crashes, too. Maybe next year a course revision could be in order.
And if you're more interested in rolling around in the dirt, the Alterra Coffee Bean Classic mountain bike race is happening this Sunday, July 27, in Franklin, Wisconsin. According to the WORS website, "Alterra Coffee Roasters will once again have its coffee bar open to pour the free, locally roasted coffee, whether your preference is hot or cold. Also, our other sponsor, Lakefront Brewery, will have ice-cold beers on tap."
Sounds good enough for me.
- Zach Thomas |
Cycling Tue Jul 15 2008
Mark your calendars, as the annual touring Bicycle Film Festival is coming through Chicago, from August 6th to the 10th. The annual party is a celebration of all aspect of cycling, from commuters making the lonely trek through the morning fog on their way to work, to racers training for hours in the sometimes-futile pursuit of glory
Continue reading this entry»
- Zach Thomas |
Cycling Thu Jul 10 2008
It's hard being a mountain biker in the city. If you're unwilling to risk the wrath of the Chicago Park District by training on the sly in the parks, you've got to either train on the road or make the drive to Palos Forest Preserve in Willow Springs in the southwestern side of Chicagoland in order to get in quality time in the dirt. Racing's another matter entirely – most races are a considerable drive away, with our neighbor to the north, Wisconsin, home to regional competitions.
Continue reading this entry»
- Zach Thomas |
Cycling Tue Jul 01 2008
This past Sunday, downtown Peoria was the site of the Illinois State Criterium Championships, and accordingly, Chicagoland was well-represented on the podiums, with a whole gaggle of local cyclists taking home the champion's jersey. Some familiar names top the results, including Devon Haskell of Team Get a Grip Cycles, who won the Pro 1-2 Female category, and Chris Padfield of Team Pegasus who steamrolled for a solo win in the Cat. 4 Men. Chicago Bike Racing has an excellent wrap-up of the day, check it out here.
- Zach Thomas |
Cycling Fri Jun 27 2008
About two weeks from now, the Point Premium Root Beer – Super Week – International Cycling Classic, or just Super Week to those in the know, is due to start with a bang, down here in Chicago. July 11th, the neighborhood of Beverly Hills, down in the South Side, will find its streets aswarm with cyclists, neck to neck at speed, fighting for the finish in the Beverly Hills Cycling Classic presented by Vee Pak/Beverly Bike & Ski. July 12th is the St. Francis Hospital Blue Island ProAm.
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- Zach Thomas |
Cycling Thu Jun 19 2008
Today's New York Times Style section has on its front page, an article on competitive cycling, featuring Christian Vande Velde, a Chicagoland professional cyclist with Team Garmin-Chipotle Presented by H30, who I mentioned in a post several weeks ago. It's interesting to see cycling mentioned in a paper such as the Times, beyond the small sporadically-appearing box score on the last page of the sports section. I'm not sure if coverage such as this will serve to help professional cycling earn a spot on the front pages again in the Post-Lance era, but it certainly can't hurt.
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- Zach Thomas |
Cycling Wed Jun 18 2008
Lots of stuff has happened this past week in the Chicago cycling scene, some good, some bad.
First off, think about heading over to a site set-up by the family of KC Haywood. KC, a mechanic at Rapid Transit bike shop in Wicker Park, fell four stories from a building over the weekend. He's in a coma, but word is that he's responding to stimuli. While he does have insurance, consider donating a few bucks toward his (likely expensive) medical treatment if you're able with the handy PayPal button.
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- Zach Thomas |
Cycling Wed Jun 11 2008
The Sherman Park Criterium, organized by xXx Racing-Athletico, is this Saturday, and while it's a bit too late to register for the Cat. 5 men's division, there are still plenty of slots open in the other races. Few bike races are held within the city limits and with gas prices the way they are, it can be awfully nice to race within riding distance of one's home.
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- Zach Thomas |
Cycling Thu Jun 05 2008
Now just a couple days after the finish of the Giro d'Italia, it's clear that general classification winner Albert Contador, who reportedly was on the beach sunning himself prior to entry as opposed to training, was the biggest surprise. His team, Astana, a sort of amalgamation of the disbanded Discovery and the controversial Astana of '07, is banned from this year's Tour de France for the sins of last year.
But besides all that (which has been fodder for all manner of armchair cyclists on the Internet), there was another success story: Christian Vande Velde, of the Slipstream/Chipotle H30 team, and originally of Lemont, Illinois, was the first American to wear the pink Maglia Rosa since Andy Hampsten won with it in the 1988 iteration of the Giro.
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- Zach Thomas |
Cycling Sat May 31 2008
If you're free the weekend of June 14 and 15, and you like elite mountain bike racing, feel free to head up north to the land of cheese curds, and volunteer to help run the WORS 2008 Subaru Cup. Help's needed to time the individual events, set-up and take down the course markers, assist the kid's race, and so on. You'll get fed and get clothed in a limited-edition race t-shirt, but the big reward is being up close to some pretty awesome racing.
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- Zach Thomas |
Cycling Fri May 23 2008
For all you bike racers with a few wrinkles around the eyes, Athletes by Design is sponsoring a three-day weekend of masters' 30+ criterium racing in the village of Wood Dale on Saturday and Sunday, and in Batavia on Monday. Click here for the flyer. Akin to an 'adult swim' for bike racers, this is a chance for the veterans to get out and hammer hard, without being upstaged by an 18 year-old phenom in his first year of cycling.
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- Zach Thomas |
Cycling Fri May 23 2008
The Chicago Tribune yesterday published a piece on ghost bikes, those roadside memorials to cyclists who've died while riding. Sad specters they may be, those ghost bikes are a reminder to all of us, both driver and cyclist alike, that riding a bike has its own risks. The past year has been especially rough for the Chicago cyclist community, with four riders killed in accidents with cars, and likely dozens of others hurt by being doored, bumped, or hit while riding across an intersection.
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- Zach Thomas |
Cycling Mon May 19 2008
Tired of driving out to the far reaches of Chicagoland in order to get your bike racing fix in? Well, register to race in the Chicago Criterium on July 37, 2008 and you won't have to go farther than Grant Park in downtown Chicago. With the start and finish line on Columbus Drive by Buckingham Fountain, the flat and fast 1.1 mile race course looks to offer enough challenges in the form of sharp corners and straightaways long enough to let the peloton get a fair amount of steam. Register now, because the fields are filling up fast, and only a handful of slots in the Men's Category 5, with two heats of 50 racers apiece, remain.
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- Zach Thomas |
