7/31/2011

The Winfield Criterium Weekend: August 13 & 14

The 12th Annual Winfield Criterium Weekend- featuring two days of racing on some of Chicagoland’s hilliest courses and over $8500 in cash and prizes- is coming up on August 13th and 14th!

Registration is open and full details are posted at www.ABDcycling.com.

Saturday is the Winfield Twilight Criterium and the “King of the Hill” Party and Prizes are back! Winfield resident Tim Allen has taken it upon himself to bring the party to the top of the course and reward those riders who like the vertical gain. Saturday night also features:

  • An increased Prize List for the 1/2/3 Women
  • A FREE Kids’ Parade at 5:30 for all children who’d like to ride their bikes on the course.
  • A Kids’ Zone with moonwalks.
  • Food and refreshments served by the Winfield Knights of Columbus
  • Live music in the park immediately following the M/I Homes Men’s 1/2 Pro event.

Sunday marks the return of the ABR National Championship to downtown Winfield and the feared Summit Hill. There will be racing for all ages and abilities, and we’ve combined the Men’s championship event to include the 1/2 & 3 men so that all categories are eligible for the jersey (PLUS 3 men get their own separate prize list that is equal to years’ past. Sunday features also include:

  • An increased prize list for the Women’s 1/2/3 event.
  • Kids’ races at 1:10 p.m.
  • The Kids’ Zone courtesy of Winfield United
  • Food and refreshments from the K of C.

We are pleased to announce that $2 of every entry fee will go towards the Special Olympics.

We want to give a big shout out to all of the ABD volunteers and sponsors and partners that help make this weekend happen:

Village of Winfield
Central DuPage Hospital
M/I Homes
Prairie Path Cycles
OAD Orthaepedics
Winfield Community Bank
Winfield United
Packey Webb Ford

7/27/2011

ABR Upgrade Rules

Just a quick note to pass along from ABR. This seemed relevant ahead of the ABR National Championship Criterium on August 13-14

ABR upgrading/downgrading of race ability category
ABR will accept for review race results from any of these organizations:

1. Within USA - ABR, ACA, CBR, OBRA, FIAC, HPRA, IHPVA, NATrials, RAAM, Racers & Chasers, UMCA, UCI, USACycling, WIsport & WORS.

2. Bicycle race organizations from other countries such as Australia, Canada, Columbia, Danmark, England, France, Germany, Ghana, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, UCI, Ukraine, and many others.

Rider submits race results to ABR by email or mail for review and determination.

Bob L.
ABR

7/24/2011

West Michigan Stage Race Report

Since recovering from her illness through the Nature Valley Grand Prix and ToAD Elite Women's Team member Jeannie Kuhajek has been racing almost every weekend. She's catching up reports and has posted her story from the West Michigan Stage Race July 2nd and 3rd at http://jeanniescookies.blogspot.com/

7/18/2011

Monday Night "Back to the Roots" Ride Rules

If you are planning on riding with us on the Monday Night Ride please read below. The Monday night ride is what is informally known as a "Gentlemen's 2x2 Ride" and these rules will be strictly enforced, if you do not think you can follow these rules then please choose another ride.

This is a repost of some of the rules for the Monday Night Recovery Ride. These rules are for all of our safety, and remember that when you are wearing the ABD colors you are representing not only ABD but also Prairie Path Cycles. Let's show the rest of the world what cyclists are about and earn their respect!

One more thing, if when we are riding the pack gets wider than 2 riders the local police can hand out tickets, just ask a single cyclist from the Elmhurst Bike Club who was riding on Butterfield road in Oakbrook Terrace that received a $75.00 traffic ticket for "impeding traffic".

Now for the repost:

The following is to be observed on all Monday Night Rides and will be repeated in some form by the designated ride leader(s) before we roll out.

The Monday ride is held as a casual, social and safe ride for riders to fine tune their pack riding skills and/or recover from a tough weekend of racing.

If you are not comfortable riding side by side in approximately ONE-HALF LANE OF THE ROAD AT a 16 mph to 18 mph PACE (a little slower on the uphills/a little faster on the downhills), then please practice sitting on the back in a single file line until you are ready.

Any riders found drifting too far towards the yellow line or not respecting pace/speed restrictions will be asked to go to the back. Don't take it personally, it's just the rules.

Last but not least, competitiveness has no place on a "social spin" such as the Monday Night ride. If you are looking to get a workout or challenge other riders, please look elsewhere.

I hope to see you out there and welcoming any new road bike riders and helping them with becoming familiar with riding in a group and showing them what pack-style riding can be about.

Ken

Elena Dorr: Superweek Stage 8 Report

Sorry for the silence on this end, I've been in a bit of a rut lately with bike racing and took some time off, but I think I finally crawled my way out! Yesterday all I can think was "Wow, racing bikes is fun!" I suppose it helps having amazing teammates and a incredible team!!!

It was a hot one, 95 degrees! And with 5 of the 6 of us there we were excited!

Jeannie, Jessie, Kristen, Sarah and I raced hard yesterday attacking off the front and trying to secure 3rd in the overall for Jeannie. Unfortunately it was a fast race and a few of us were not there at the end to help Jeannie out, and had a bit of miscommunication, but it was a learning experience for all. Jeannie ended up 8th that day, 5th in the overall. 12th for the day and 12th in the overall for Kristen, 15th in the overall for Stacy, 26th for Sarah.

The highlight of my day was attacking off the front to try and break things up/hurt some legs for Jeannie, but it turned out to be on a sprint lap so I got 2nd in that sprint behind Carrie Cash. Unfortunately after that I popped, but I think i broke things up a bit and confused some girls and wow, I had so much fun!!!

I am so proud of all the awesome racing my teammates have done during Superweek, you are all incredible!

Elena

Bryan McVey Season Update

I think I would like to keep my five sentence writing limit to emails.

And so, I'm currently in the middle of Superweek, sitting at my gracious host's house in Mequon, WI, just north of Milwaukee. The season has been going fairly well and I am happy with some of my performances. Here are some quick notes about the major races I have been doing.

Joe Martin stage race at the beginning of May was exactly what I needed to bring my form around. It started with a challenging TT the first day in which I rode the same exact time as the year before. The racing after that must have been much faster than previous years, because I was in the pain cave both road days and got time cut the 2nd to last day, so was not able to compete in the final crit on Sunday. I still don't know if the racing was just faster this year, or if I was slower, or maybe a combo of both. The previous 2 years I finished the entire series, but unlike those years, the second road day was completely blown apart, which could show the difficulty of the new course and how teams rode it. I did get some great training in at least, and the whole week the weather was awesome.

The memorial day races were again good for my form, and I was consistent each day (minus the snake, which I still cannot figure out). Unfortunately I kept finishing a few places out of the money, which always stings a bit.

Tour of Galena brought some fantastic racing to hilly Illinois (I never would have thought) and I look forward to this race growing over the years. When I first rolled into town, the first thing it reminded me of was the rolling terrain of the Ardennes of southern Belgium, when I did the tour of Liege there in 2008. We also had a decent squad there both days, which was great since we were able to ride in support of Ben. After he smoked the time trial the first day, we were able to set him up well in the road race, in which he crushed and won. The final day crit saw many attacks but Ben did a great job of hanging tough and staying safe while the rest of us tried to keep everything together, and he took the overall!

The T.O.A.D. series again brought some very organized and fast racing to the Milwaukee area. This is definitely the race series of the future in the Midwest. I rode almost all the days (10 of the 11), finished in the money some and again enjoyed some fantastic weather. If they can add one or 2 more road days, this will series will be perfect.

The next 2 weeks off consisted of a trip around lake Michigan with Kim for a 4th of July vacation, which was Pure Michigan™ fun.

Now it's back to Superweek. The dynamic of the Superweek series this year has been different than in years past, with smaller field sizes and not quite as much power it seems in the field. Regardless, the racing has still been fast and it's great to be able to race so much in July, so close to home!

The first day of Superweek at Beverly I saw the winning break roll off the front, but was able to make a 1 lap bridge to make contact. After 3 more guys joined us, it was 9 total and we eventually lapped the field. It was a good thing, because I fell apart in the last 5 laps, getting dropped from the field and almost lost my lap lead. Luckily another rider helped pace me the final few laps so I retained my 9th place position and I kindly paid him for his services from my winnings.

Day 2 at the Geneva crit was another great day for ABD, as we did the ole 1-2 punch with Freund countering my solo move and lapping the field with Chad B. from Texas roadhouse. I know Ryan has been wanting that top step bad and I felt bad that I wasn't able to help lead him out more in the sprint, but my legs were fried and Texas roadhouse has some strong guys.


Richton I was 2nd at last year, so I wanted to do well again. After I missed the first break of 3 that lapped the field, I found myself in no man's land for 1.5 hrs of hard riding in a break with 2 others. It was a very hard way to take 6th place, but I managed.

The Willow Springs road race is a great course, and one that I also did well at last year. I got into an early break of 4 that put a minute into the field, but we were missing a couple key team representatives, so we got chased down. After a slurry of attacks went and got brought back, one finally stuck, but I was absent from it. I managed a 23rd overall, after the break of 10 stayed up the road with a few more hanging in the middle. Ben was with me today as well, but neither of us could manage to pick the right move.

Thursday and Friday took me up to the greater Milwaukee area for 2 races in which i took 24th in both, barely making some $$. The races so far in Wisconsin have seen double the numbers in field size, with the typical Superweek dyanmics of many attacks, and strong breaks getting away. Last night in Brookfield was especially hard, with a course that was both technical with a very long start/finish straightaway that saw very fast speeds. After the initial break of 8 got away the pace went down some, and I missed another large group off the front. Luckily the previous nights winner missed this move as well, and he put a huge bridge in, which I followed to regain contact to this massive group of about 20 riders. We stayed clear of the field, and this group broke in 2 before the finish. I finished in between both groups as I tried to make a late bridge to the first chase, but couldn't quite make the catch.

Downer ave is tonight, which is always a great venue! Oh and Voeckler is a beast.

Also, I wanted to give a huge thanks to the support this year from ABD, Prairie Path Cycles, Mike Farrell and Mike Ebert, and of course as always, my parents and my girlfriend Kim!

7/17/2011

Originally I wasn’t planning on racing any of Superweek, especially after returning from Altoona with my legs in tatters, but coach Ebert had his say and Saturday I once again found myself on the streets of Milwalkee. His most convincing argument was that Jeannie was in need of assistance as she was currently tied for 3rd overall and in 2nd for the sprint competition. Not only that but it sounded like the team was in need of fresh legs as some of the others were spent after a week straight of racing.

The team kept emphasizing how stagnant the peloton had been the past week, with teams keeping lazily on the defensive and doing little work in developing breaks. So the first order of business was to make Downer’s Avenue aggressive and fast, use our sheer numbers to get a rider off the front, and if nothing else, wear down the field. I was stoked because this gave me permission to attack and ride like a maniac which is my default racing style. I feel repressed when I have to race conservatively.




Me, attacking.

Just seven laps into the race Kristen and I lined up at the front to deliver Jeannie into the points sprint, and I being the last one to peel off had the field blow by me and got to hang off the back for the next two laps.I think




I'm leading Jeannie out or something here.

It was game on from there as ABD punched the field with attack after attack, never allowing so much as 30 seconds of rest for the peloton. I remember the annoouncer declaring at one point how "ABD was dominating the race". Multiple other spectators commeted later how it was such an entertaining race. My life, your entertainment.




Kristen's solo prime lap

Kristen soloed for an entire lap with Stacy and Jeannie blocking at the front to win a $40 prime, but it was Stacy who finally delivered the knockout punch with 6 laps to go as she rode off the front to take a victory for ABD. Meanwhile I took it upon myself in the final few laps to keep the field together as I chased down every attempt to escape. Kristen and I finally came together with one lap to go to lead out Jeannie, which was a bit rocky to say the least. From my view way off the back in the final stretch I think I saw her get top ten, but it was a difficult sprint against the Hong Kong and Taiwan riders who are primarily track riders (that’s typically how Asian riders participate in the sport of cycling). I pretty much got 2nd to last place, but it doesn’t bother me since my performance was not manifested on the results sheet, but in the success of my teammates.




Stacy, victorious.

7/15/2011

The Prinner Toona Report

While her teammates battle it out at Superweek, Jessi Prinner had the opportunity to guest ride for Team Danbury Audi at the Tour de Toona. Following is Jessi's report from The Prinner Posts

Sometimes the most entertaining part of bike racing is not even the racing itself, but the other trials one must endure in the sport. One such trial for me was trying to get to Pennsylvania, which I ended up driving the 600 miles from Chicago by myself. I departed from home at a brisk 6am and made my way along interstate 88. All was fine and dandy until 88 disappeared. Just like that the road turned into 290 and 294 and 290-something else and my trip suddenly turned into a cluster. Was I even headed the right general direction anymore? Was I even in Illinois anymore??? Was I even in the United States?????? I don’t know but I ended up going straight into downtown Chicago, right in the middle of rush hour and confusing roads splitting in a million different directions. And then I found the Skyway. Just about everyone and their cousin were jammed going into the right split and I curved left onto a gorgeous piece of pavement that one could look for miles without seeing another car. So I put the car in cruise control, sat back and cruised my way out of Illinois and through about a fortunes worth of tolls in Indiana, Ohio, and finally Pennsylvania.

When I finally got close to the house the team rented, my car’s muffler decided to stop working, which would have been bearable if it had not been for the steep, brutal climbs that lead up to the top of Blue Knob Mountain Park. I apologized to the locals ahead of time for any inconvenient noises my 1998 struggling Saab was making. It took me several tries to find the cabin atop the mountain along a gravel twisty road in the woods. After arriving I immediately went for a spin to get the juices flowing after 10 hrs in the car, and my only option was a swift descent that made me climb for about an hour to get back to the house. Like I said, easy spin.

The Tour de Toona required only 5-8 rider teams in order to race, so all during Nationals I was networking and meeting Pro Women’s Teams to see who could accept a young guest rider for this race. Luckily Danbury-Audi agreed to pick me up, directed by Greg Wolf.

After spending just a day and a half with the team I was already feeling comfortable and welcome, as everyone was exceptionally friendly and fun to be around. The team consisted of Kathleen Billington and Rebecca Wellins (who were permanent riders for the team) and guest riders Emily Collins, Alisha Welsh and Liza Rachetto.

The first race was a 3 mile prologue on Wednesday beginning at 6:50pm around a fast, exciting course that featured quick, steep hills, fast downhill turns, and a downtown crit-like finish with about 10 turns. It was more like a punchy sprint interval workout without any real consistent effort, perfect for the fast-twitch riders like Tara Whitten who ended up winning the race. And not so perfect for the not so fast twitch riders like me who came in half-way down the results sheet, only 34 seconds off the winning time.

Luckily our cabin atop a mountain happened to be about 200 feet from the finish of Stage 2, which is priceless to an exhausted cyclist that just climbed 6 km after a 70 mile race. Early on it was our goal to keep the race fast and aggressive, which called for attacks, chases and counterattacks on my part. I was quite surprised at how well I rode up the first few QOM climbs, staying in the first 20 riders on the steep Pennsylavanian hillside. Of course I can’t say the same about the last long climb, but I was quite satisfied to finish in 28th place, with teammate Alisha Welsh in 2nd for the day, all 30 lbs of her somehow taking the green sprinters jersey. Not sure how they worked that one out.

Friday was a rest day, and I was awarded the Dirtiest Bike Award for having the director take a scrub brush to my frame. I honestly cannot fathom how my bike always comes out so much filthier than everyone else’s. I would think it was a fluke if it weren’t for the fact that I also won the Dirtiest Bike Award just about every day at Nature Valley too.

We had to wake up at a painful 5:30am on Saturday for an 8:10 am start, to which I insisted we protest such a ridiculous decision on the promoters’ part and go back to bed until noon. Unfortunately no one else seemed as reluctant to wake so early as me. The stage was supposed to be 91 miles with at least three longish climbs, including a 6 km one that simply went up the opposite side of the mountain that we climbed at the end of the Thursday stage. I wasted myself early on, keeping the field together as one of our riders had gotten up the road in a break. Tibco was especially keen on getting a rider to bridge to the break as they kept hitting the field left and right with attack after counter attack. It wasn’t hard to pick up on the pattern and soon I simply began following Tibco rider wheels knowing that they would probably fly next. I made the mistake of trying to cover Tara Whitten’s wheel, who happens to be track omnium World Champion. For me it was basically the hardest 700 meter pursuit I’ve ever done in my life that ended in me hovering about 30 feet off her wheel straining every muscle in my body at a perceived effort of about 10 for about 20 seconds before physiology dictated that my VO2 max was not up to the task and I sat up only to have a half-mile long, strung out field blow by me with no mercy whatsoever. I think it took me about 5 minutes to recover to the point I could finally see straight.

And then just when I’d about pulled a muscle trying to stay on the Whitten train, the motos pulled over the entire field and informed us we had gone the wrong way. So we got turned around and began racing again when about 15 minutes later we came to another screeching halt only to be informed that we had once again gone off course and had to turn around in the middle of the road. By that point the race petty much seemed like a huge joke, and I’d have been laughing if it weren’t for the fact that our 91 mile race suddenly turned into a 99 mile race.

After getting dropped on the mid-race 6 km climb, I settled into an 8 woman group that rode steadily to the finish over another two climbs, one of which had what seemed like a 30% grade on a gravel surface. For the first time in my cycling career I actually worried I might not make it to the top of a climb without falling over from 20 rpms and blown out knees and an inability to track stand. Fortunately my fear of looking like a fool prompted me to wring out my legs and make it to the top. After what seemed like 12 hours I crossed the finish line with a stomach ache. It turned out Alisha Welsh had an unfortunate crash and lost her 2nd place in GC, while the break up the road with our teammate got caught before the end. It was a brutal day for everyone, to say the least.

The next day was a 30 mile criterium, and I was secretly hoping they might shorten it the same distance our road race was increased by. Nope. Cycling is a merciless sport. My legs were trashed and it didn’t help that it was a technical course with an uphill and a fast downhill section with turns that would string out the field.

My first failure was not getting to the front on the line, which subjected me to the miserable back of the strung out mess with all the exhausted riders that kept opening up gaps and the riders that couldn’t corner to save their lives. And then on about lap three a crash happened in one of the turns and just like that I was off the back and my race was sadly over. I only lasted about another six laps before they pulled me.

But it turned out that I wasn’t the only one who had a weirdly miserable race. The yellow jersey wearer’s group got lapped by the field, and lost her minute lead and her jersey. Three of my teammates managed to stay in the front group and despite all their obvious pain faces got a top ten finish at the end. I’m disappointed I couldn’t finish but on the other hand it’s been perhaps one of the hardest physical challenges of my life. My mind said “GO GO GO!!” but my body said “hell no”.

Thanks again to team Danbury-Audi for supporting me in this race, as well as ABD (whose socks I wore for some events) because I couldn’t have done it without that sweet Madone.

See the second rider in the photo? Yup, that's me.

7/10/2011

Meshberg Report: State Criterium Championship

Hi team!

So sorry for the delay of this report, I know you've been sitting on pins and needles awaiting it. So without further delay, here it is......

After Nature Valley, we had planned to do a couple ToAD races, and then do Glencoe on Saturday. The promoter, Jon Knouse, has always done right by the women by giving us decent prize money and race lengths, so we wanted to support the race. Plus it was the Illinois State Criterium Championships!!!

Jeannie was under the weather, Jessi was at nationals, and Elena was in search of upgrade points at the ToAD race that day. Sarah made the drive from Michigan to line up with Stacy and I, so we had a team of 3. It was a small field, but we knew it would be hard because there were a handful of Tibco and Vanderkitten pros there as well as some other big names we knew, as well as all of the locals going for the top Illinois spot. Our goal was to make sure that Stacy or I took that position. The course is fairly long with a nice little technical descent heading into a little kicker of a hill that was enough to hurt. It was critical to maintain speed in the technical downhill to be able to have momentum for the uphill. Almost immediately riders were opening gaps and if you were behind them, you were done! Sarah got stuck behind such a gap but rode hard enough for the rest of the race to still finish in the $$$.

Stacy did quite a bit of work throughout the race and tried several times to initiate a small break containing a Tibco and a Vanderkitten, which would have been the magic combination but it was immediately apparent that Tibco was confident in their chances against us in the sprint because every time they chased it down. As a result we came to the finish as a group and on the last lap I was able to be in awesome position; about 4th. Unfortunately I let a small gap open up somewhere and then had no gas for a full sprint. I got passed by a couple riders to end up 7th overall and Stacy was right behind me yelling "go for it!!" to finish 8th. I was the FIRST ILLINOIS RIDER!!! Which was super cool. I was pretty happy about getting the Illinois State Jersey for ABD, even though I would have liked us to have a higher placing in the race. Turns out Tibco made the right strategy choice as they finished first and third with Vanderkitten sneaking in for second.

In the end Stacy, Sarah and I raced well together and I'm cautiously optimistic that I might be able to see an improvement in my year!! We even got some props from Tibco's winner Emma Mackie in their post race write up listed on the GGP website: “Some of the girls from the area were doing some great attacks and definitely keeping the pace high as well..... I tried a couple times on the hill (to break) and everything stayed together so we just waited for the sprint and stuck to our plan.”

Many thanks to Steve Crane and Rich Johnson for cheering us on EVERY SINGLE LAP!! It was awesome. :)

Can't wait to hear the updates from Altoona--Go Jessi!-- and up next for Sarah, Stacy, Elena, Jeannie and I..... my all time favorite time of the year: SUPERWEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not sure what will happen in the results, but I do know this: It will be fun and it will be hot. See you all out there!!!

Regards,

Kristen