End of Year Wrap and 2011 Sneak-Peak

This past Saturday ABD held our annual EOY Party. The host was gracious (thanks Farrell!), the food was delicious (thanks Vicki and Mary Lee!), and as Lisa Pena pointed out- true to ABD EOY party history- the weather was horrendous!

At the party we took a look back at 2010 and another successful season. Some acheivements we recognized were:
- Tom Weil's second consecutive National Championship!
- Jessi Prinner's silver medal at Nationals followed by her second consecutive trip the Junior World Championships.
- The rapid rise of Konrad Witt as a speedy Junior who took home the hometown win in the Cat 4's at Winfield.
- The racing in the Chicago Cross Cup by Jim Nowak,  Ben DeMong,  Jason Addante,  Jay Corgiat, Walter Stoops, Jessi Prinner & Andy Walker (and also Gina Kenny and Sue Semaszscuk before the injuries!)
- Curtis Bice's storm through the Time Trials this year (and now a Category 2!).
- The success of the Verizon p/b ABD team, including a 1-2-3-4 sweep at Winfield. We're happy to report that Mike Sherer will be joining ABD alumni Reid Mumford at the Kelly Benefit Strategies Pro Team next year! (We also showed off the team videos at the party and you can view them all at the team's YouTube channel).

A few off-the-bike acheivements that deserved props were:
- All of the ABD events went silky smooth thanks to the efforts of all of our volunteers, and a big highlight this past season were the Wednesday Night Races! A big thanks to the Witt's, the Redlich's, Lisa Pena, Mary Lee & Rich Johnson for all their efforts in getting this series off the ground. For anyone who hasn't made it out, we can't recommend these races enough as a fun and challenging mid-week workout.
- A huge effort by Jim Nowak to run the highest-attended ABD event of the year at the Sunrise Park Cyclocross Race- where 432 riders toed the line!
- It's always nice hearing a friendly voice- and a lot of times this year that voice was none other than our own Todd Busteed. In addition to announcing all of the ABD events Todd could be heard at the Tour of America's Dairyland, the Chicago Triathlon, the Hot Chocolate Run, the State Cyclocross Championships and many, many other events.

Last but not least, we were (and are) very proud to announce, after a 5-year hiatus, an ABD Elite Women's Team! A few of the women were able to join us and we were happy to introduce:
- Stacy Applewick, 2010 National Track Champion (from Bouledogue Tout Noir)
- Sarah Demerly, former Professional Triathlete turned roadie (from Wolverine)
- Kristen Meshberg, Category 1 rider and all-around Midwest-speedster (from Flatlandia)
- Jessi Prinner (the aforementioned- we all know her!)
- We're also hoping to add another woman or two and just need to iron out the details.

There's a lot in the works for 2011, not to mention preparations for the Indoor TT Series kicking off on Sunday, January 23rd! (Another date to mark down is the Winfield Criterium Weekend on August 13 & 14). As you might have noticed, Miss Prinner will be volunteer coordinating the event so if there's a job you're itching for please shoot her an e-mail.

We're also working on Winter Camps for our members. If any ABD'ers would like to escape winter for sunny Southern California the second week of February shoot an e-mail to the Prez. This will be a Borrego Springs Camp with riding, hiking, relaxing and EATING (since Bill Heun has agreed to attend as the unofficial chef). We're also looking at a race-prep camp at the end of March somehwere driveable and warm (Tennessee is in the front-running). Stay tuned for details on that.

Thanks to all of the ABD'ers and our participants for an amazing 2010. May you have a safe and fun Holiday season.
-Ebert