Foremost, our hearts go out to James Scott (Apache) who went down in a freak accident on Tuesday at Bensenville. Congrats on third place and a speedy recovery!
The Bad- Blue Island had a nice enough course but none of us did all that well. Tony and a Wild Card rider had about a ten lap break before Tony shut it down with three laps to go. With 2 laps left Tony got squeezed and went down. Road rash is nothing compared to what can happen going in excess of 22 mph. Clark around a turn jumped the curb and rode on the sidewalk for a while to the delight of the pack which complimented him on his mad bike skills. Results, Cat 4/5: 18th Jorge, 22nd Elvis, 23rd Sergio, 25th Joe, 27th Clark, 29th Damon, 32nd Bob Cat4/5 Masters:22nd Jim, 35th Paul, 37th Rich
The Ugly- Olympia Fields had a 45 minute delay to start with. Seeing as how everybody was going around the course before the race started we were all joking that we already did a crit before it actually started. Safety was a key issue with this course and looking back on it 45 minutes was probably even not enough time to implement all the precautions that were needed for that course. Wind in your face and uphill. One by itself is bad enough but with this course you got the double whammy. Of course you had the Xers pushing the field to it's limits from the get go. After a seven man break was out front for a couple of laps two Xers went down, with Clark able to maintain his momentum and stay out front with Tony an Xer and Get a grip now chasing. Tony's tactics in the three man chase will not be mentioned here, but his brain was seperated from his body at this point. With five laps left and clark with a good 13 second lead he goes down in turn 3. Not because of the corner itself but because of a mechanical. Note to all riders, make sure all your gear is tuned AND tightened before your races. The three man break worked well, but like I said earlier Tony's head was detached from his body and came in third. In the pack nobody wanted to help pull, so Damon and Jorge wore themselves out prematurely. Results Cat 4/5; 3rd Tony, 11th Elvis, 13th Joe, 18th Jorge, 19th Sergio, 20th Clark, 21st Damon Didn't hang around for the Masters 4/5 but heard one cyclist veered off the course before turn three unfortunately hitting a rubble pile. We hope he's doing well. Results Masters 4/5: 14th Elvis, 27th Jim, 31st Bob, 34th Paul, 39th Rich
1 comment:
Thanks for the comments and the thoughts. I am ecstatic that Tony and Elvis were out to help when I went down. I had no qualms trusting you 2 with my life. My family and I both thank you for your quick actions in controlling my bleeding and your professionalism in dealing with my worries. You both have a wheel anytime you want one... Jim
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