You Know Its The St. Patricks Day Parade When...

On your your morning ride a car pulls along side of you, rolls down its window, and the passenger offers you a can of beer at 8:45 in the morning! You gotta love St. Patricks Day on the South Side!

Matteson "The Helpful Place"

The Tuesday Night Race series will resume on April 8th and run through Sept 23rd. There is no other place in Chicagoland where you have a better environment to learn how to go fast and turn right that at Matteson. You owe it to yourself to make as many Tuesdays as possible. You are almost guaranteed to be a better racer because of it. Besides, it is in our own backyard. If you have to just tell the wife that you will be "working late at the office" all summer. It is true, you just didn't specify what kind of work, and which office.

Words Of Wisdom

"If you have the chance to take a win, you can't let it slip away"-Phillipe Gilbert

If you want to know what it takes to be a "hardman" take a look at Saturdays Omloops Het Volk in Belgium. Gilbert was the definition of a hardman on Saturday after he launched an attack with 60kms to go on the Eikenberg. Gilbert joined Eddy Merckx and Johan Musseuw as only the only rider to win the race twice. He also made a move that would make the Cannibal proud, launching himself with more than 37 miles to the finish. Apparently no one else thought it would work either! Gilbert managed a blistering 31mph average over the last several sections of pave' to hold on for the solo win. Glory through suffering...you better believe it!

More Than A Team

While Matt's death has come as a shock to Chicago, it has revealed something to me about my team. By 10:00am today I had heard from no less than 5 of my teammates regarding this unfortunate accident. We all wanted to make sure each other were safe and promised not to do anything stupid on our bikes that would endanger our safety. It seems that we are transitioning from just a team to something more. The thought that a fellow cyclists wife had to take a phone call about the death of her husband put things into perspective for me. Now imagine your wife getting that call because you decided to do something stupid or risky. Hearing from my teammates this morning made me realize that we do hold a responsibility for one anothers safety each time we ride together. It also made me realize how tight we are becoming as friends and more.

Ultimately everyone is responsible for their own actions, but everytime I go out on a group ride I feel a responsibility for those around me. Hopefully those people feel the same and wouldn't do anything to put themselves and others in the group at risk. Also keep in mind that we as cyclists are ambassadors for our sport whether we like it or not. Everytime we are riding in traffic we are making an impression upon those drivers around us. And if we do something stupid it may not have repercussions then, but that driver that we just cut off may take it out on the next cyclist he comes across.

So as a team lets try and make the right decisions when we ride together. Because the decisions we make on our bikes could have a lasting effect on everyone around us.

Beverly Bike-Vee Pak to host CTTS Stage

I learned a long time ago that if you want to see change, you must be change. So with that philosophy in mind Beverly Bike-Vee Pak, Inc. Racing Team has signed on to host the Willow Springs Stage of the Chicago Time Trial Series on June 15th. As a team we will be responsible for course set up, corner marshalling, timing, as well as registration and scoring.

The Chicago Time Trail Series is an exciting new series for the 2008 season put together by Steve Hansen from North Branch Cycling. The series will consist of 6 30k individual TT's throughout the Chicago area. Riders will be scored in each race based on their finishing times, and an overall series winner will be announced at the culmination of the series in August. The CTTS is currently working on sponsors for the series to help pay for the prize purses as well as merchandise sponsors.

The goals of the series are to increase the exposure of perhaps the most difficult cycling discipline in a new and unique way. The CTTS hopes to build a start house with a ramp such as seen in big European stage races. Also, because the series will be a USAC sanctioned series, valuable upgrade points will also be available.

If you have never done an individual TT then 2008 is year for you! The CTTS will have races every month from April through August. For info check out www.chicagott.com