Weekend Recap - June 5th and 6th (Part II)

On Sunday, the Land of Lincoln became the Land of Criteriums.

Illinois
O'Fallon Criterium - Results - Small fields were again the norm on Sunday. Will Nowak (Verizon U25) gives a great report on both days of racing, but for Sundays race he reports: "This was another frustrating day for me. After Saturday I definitely knew who the strong riders were and I planned on gaining my revenge with a “W”. The field was even smaller than Saturday, only about 20 riders. We all clipped in and as I come out of turn 1 around 15th position I see the riders who went 1-2 on Saturday already have a gap on the field. “Who would let them go?”, I wondered. By the second turn I got to the front and attacked but the field was on me before I could close what was already a significant gap. ... " Those two riders went on to lap the field and it was:

1	10	David Henderson (1 - Cat1)	Columbia, MO		54845	13	Columbia Bike Club Race Team
2	9	Zach Reed (2 - Cat1)	Edwardsville, IL		29400	12	Dogfish Racing Team
3	8	William Nowak (3 - Cat1)	Evanston, IL		258778	5	Verizon u25 Team p/b ABD
4	7	Devin Clark (1 - Cat2)	St. Louis, MO		186238	8	The Hub Cycling Team
5	6	Bryan McVey (4 - Cat1)	Arlington Heights, IL		264045	4	ReCycling Team

Jessica Prinner (ABD) made it two in a row by simply riding away from her competition in the Women's race and taking the win. Way to go!

Wonder Lake Criterium - Results -Photos The second annual edition of this popular race right on the shores of beautiful Wonder Lake wasn't highly attended in some categories, but the 4's and 5's made up for that again in spades as they have in all the Chicago area races. Rapidly rising star, Ryan Freund (ABD), seen here, took the Pro 1/2 race who will probably be joined by another rapidly rising star in the 3's, Tim Speciale (PSIMET) who got his first win of the year. He details his entire race in this blog entry where he states: "I’m not sure I’ve ever felt so unmotivated at the start of a race.  I tried 3 separate times to get a real warm-up in and it just wasn’t happening.   Then as I started making my way to the start finish, it began to rain.  Part of me wanted to just call it a day and go home and drink some beer.  I didn’t…" I'm sure he's glad now that he didn't as well as his team's sponsor who's getting lots of exposure these past few weeks. PSIMET teammate Aaron Hampton, Cat.5 summed it up so elequently: "however, watching the CAT 3 race changed that. one thing i love about cycling is the limits. the ones you know about and the ones you don't. pushing beyond them to do something one didn't think or know they could do. this is cool to see. watching a teammate do it, well that's priceless."

Wisconsin

Spring Prairie Road Race / Wisconsin State Road Championships - Results - Photos - (Peloton-Pix will have tons of photos posted once this report is finished) The Spring Prairie road course is fairly new, just brought into service the past few years. It is in an area of Wisconsin that is not new to cycling though. Two former Superweek courses are nearby: the super tough MGA Proving Grounds road race was run just 5 miles to the southeast, and the positively brutal Alpine Valley road race course is just a few miles to the north. No surprising then that this course slapped the smile off of everybody's face once the race began, and for some during the neutral roll out which added a bonus trip up the nasty 18% climb just before the finish!
The Masters 50+ started the day off with a bang, featuring many area top 'old school' riders such as John Van Susteren, Gordy Paulson, Tim Stumpf, and now back rocking the peloton like he did 'back in the day' - Charlie Holbrook (LAPT) who shows us that not only does he remember how to win a race, but he remembers how to celebrate that win as well!

In the 'not old yet' Master's 30+, Luke Seemann (XXX) gives a great version of how his race went as he used the fast approaching thunder shower as a platform for his move (seen here): "
With two laps and 12 miles to go, it started to rain. After cresting the hill, I attacked. I was soon caught. I attacked again. One rider came with, but he fell off. I had a good gap so I kept going. It started to rain harder. Thunder crackled in the distance. I was wearing my Flanders socks, so a bubble of Euro cool wicked all the water away, but it made for an unnerving descent: I couldn’t see a thing, but fortunately the road was smooth and straight, so I just stayed in a tuck and hoped for the best. I wasn’t going as fast as I might have under dry conditions, however, and the pack caught me at the corner." Mark Winston (2CC) went on to win that race with an impressive drive over the top of that 18% climb using a gear that was visually much larger than everyone else around him. 

Pro 1/2 - "No time to wait around" must have been the thoughts as Kip Spaude (IS Corp) and two other riders got down to business right away and quickly built up a 3 minute lead over the 53 rider field. (apologies for not getting the numbers of the other two riders) They worked well together while the field acted like they didn't have a worry in the world. "They'll be back" seemed to be their thoughts as they left the trio out there to bake on the hilly country roads. Well they were right, to a point. Nearing the end, the three rider break became two, and with two laps left it was down to only Spaude as he forged on. Kip, in case you don't know, has his own Facebook fan page called: "No one rides as hard as Kip Spaude", and so he did, coming across the line first with about 30 seconds advantage over IS Corp. team mates Jordan Roessingh and Tristan Schouten as their team swept the podium.

         


Spaude did give a nice post-up, but he was buried in cars at the time..



So many more stories to tell, but to just keep it short and sweet, props to everyone who tackled the nasty-tough course, some times in the rain to compete on this day. The largest field of the day, by the way, was the last one - the non-WI Cat. 4/5 filled with 67 road race loving FIBs (Fast Illinois Bikers), and that's who's photo we leave you with today.