Monsters of the Midway (Chicago)

Today was the 11th annual Monsters of the Midway Criterium put on by the University of Chicago Velo Club and Team Tati. It is held at the beautiful campus of the University of Chicago, on a very elongated 1.1 mile rectangle blocked out of the boulevard called the "Midway Plaisance". So imagine 1 km straights with 25 meter ends, sort of like racing up and down the Champs-Elysées. 

It was a cloudy and cool day but that did not dampen the spirits of the riders. Early races included the Jr 10-14 won by Jacob Zionts (Alberto's), Jr 15-18 won by Sam Gabuzzi (Smart Cycling), Women 3/4 won by Stacy Appelwick (Bouledogue Tout Noir), Masters 40+ taken by Christopher Mosora (Verizon Wireless), Masters 30+ won by Patrick Fasse (Bicycle Heaven) that had 56 starters, and 50+ taken by Andrew Kerr (Villiage Cyclesport) which had 37 starters!.

The Men's Cat 3 race began with 55 starters but not that many finished. The pace ebbed and flowed as would be expected when you race up and down a boulevard and with the ringing of the bell for the last lap, it looked like we were in for a field sprint showdown. One of the big advantages of this type of course is that you can see the field almost the whole way around, and just as the 3's had a half lap to go, there was a crash. It wasn't a huge crash, only a handful or so riders went down, but bikes and bodies were flying!

Those who made it through that carnage charged to the line, with Henry Loud (ReCycling) taking it on the line proudly over Joel Friedman (Bicycle Heaven) and 17 year old Chazz Martin (IS Corp).

Regarding that ugly looking crash, the medical personnel was there on the spot and nobody was seriously hurt.

Next up on the list was the Women's Open race with Illinois Cycling Cup series leader Kristen Meshberg (Flatlandia) looking like a likely favorite for this sprinter's course. However, Madison's Holly Mathews didn't think much of those odds and put the favorite behind her as Mathews took the field sprint over Meshberg and speedster Stacy Applewich (Bouledogue Tout Noir).

Then came the Pro 1/2/3 race. Normally left for the last race of the day, remember that this is bike racing Chicago Style, so the Pro's went early. The 86 man field was constantly strung into a single file as the talent pool was deep today. Verizon U25, XXX, ReCyling all had plenty of fire power so it would take a magic combination of riders to escape today. Not surprisingly, nobody did, and it came down to a blistering field sprint. Perhaps with some sort of prophecy, by wearing race number "1" Andrew Bates of Olympia Orthopaedic overcame Mike Sherer (Verizon U25), and Chazz Martin (IS Corp) for the first place prize. Fourth was Tomasz Boba (WDT - Allvoi) and fifth was Bryan McVey of ReCycling.

Okay, remember now since this is Chicago, where Cat. 4's are King, NOW came the top races of the day! Seventy two (72) riders lined up for the Cat. 4 event. Mind you that this race did not draw a lot of racers from surrounding areas, this is mostly a city event. The popularity of this sport is so tremendous in this city that they even had 71 rider Cat. 4/5 race after this, followed by a 50 rider Cat. 5 race! Anyway, this is a tough course to escape on so it was fully expected that this would come down to a field sprint, which it did. I suppose, fully expected of this category would be that they would have the biggest crash of the day which they did as well. With just two laps to go, a loud noise could be heard from the back straight as a large number of riders went down hard. It was hard to tell just how many were involved, but only half the field ultimately came around to take the bell for the final lap. Western Michigan University's Justin Lyons got the nod over a quickly advancing Ian Murray of XXX racing. Drew Kushnick (Spidermonkey) was third.

Full results for Monsters of the Midway are available as well as the Illinois Cup overall point standings ,including the Monsters of the Midway results, found here.

Of worthy note also, is that the results for the road race in Wisconsin, LaRue-Denzer-LaRue are also available tonight already. Props to the ICA and the WCA for providing speedy results for their respective races!