Spring has come?

The winter is slowly retreating into memory and we cyclists are emerging from our holes that we have been in over the past few months where sweat and movies, race footage etc. have played repeatedly while we pedaled away in the hopes of Spring, concrete crits and road races.

Over the past months most of us have been rolling away on the trainer and putting the time in the gym in the hopes of our own personal victories in 2010. Be it a crit, a road race, cross, tt or just winning the sprint by the temple, we're ready to roll. A few of us brave souls have ventured outdoors over the past weeks and I must say it's been glorious to be back on our old friend the pavement.

It should be an interesting year ahead of us racing for Roscoe Village this season. Stay tuned for updates, race reports and general cycling fun.

Indian Lakes

I'll let others write up race reports, as I'm still a little bitter about the assholes spectators who changed the course for the 4B's...but I did want to give a quick shout out to Debbie for swooping in and taking first place! Notice, I wasn't the only one who thought she deserved congrats. Also, an A+ for Austin, who rode a potentially-sabotaged, 20-PSI front tire the whole race and still got top 5! ... And did anyone else see Lance out there?!? I know Jim didn't, cause he was in front of him the whole time:

Hecklers Video

Check out this great video by Paul Mechna. Keep your peepers peeled at the end for our very own Alex Tweedie scoring a cash handup on an off-camber uphill! ... And Jim, I think your chain is supposed to go around your chainring, not crank arm.

Northbrook

Race #7 in the Chicago Cross Cup series brought us to the land of Northbrook. I was a bit hesitant going into this race given all the restrictions (don't ride on the grass, watch out for the shitzu, etc). That said the course was well thought out and quite fun, despite the non existent handling skills of yours truly. Our man Alex decided it was a good idea to not only ride out to Northbrook but mix it up with the Master's 30+ and then throw down in the 4A's.

Alex Tweedie, doing it man style! Gregor and Chris finished strong at 20 and 23rd in the 4A's.

The 4B's were as expected packed to the gills and full of first lap craziness. Luckily we have both 4B killers Austin and Dave who scored major placings for our little start up team finishing 1 and 2. Nice job boys, nice job! After another not so great start I managed to eek out a 22nd placing which given the wheel wash outs on the back side of the course and my 'minor' sand trap mishap on the last lap wasn't too terrible. Thankfully there was enough wide open area for me to make up some placings on folks. Both Jim and Moshe again threw down and came out looking good although the best line of the day comes from Moshe; during warm up and on a mountain bike I hear "I have gears!!!". It should be noted that Moshe has been out there all season with one gear and still killing it.

I have to give a shout out to Brian Conant of BCS coaching for taking me on and teaching me the ways of the cross force.

Matt

Northbrook Preview?

Well since the sled hill is out this year, will we see what Ryan Trebon saw in Portland last year instead...? Bubbles!?!

Muddddy Mayhem (the double-dose of d's is for double the mud)

Finally real 'cross conditions have arrived, and we survived.... And we had the most fun of the season! Bicycle Heaven created a super-tough course in St. Charles, complete with mud, $20 handups, more mud, rock gardens, several off-camber ascents/descents, Halloween costumes, and then three rivers of more mud - two you crossed over, one you went upstream.

To start the day off, Alex very narrowly missed scoring our team some points in the Masters 30+ category - not an easy feat!! Next week he surely will, and those points should count double (Jim: write a letter to USAC; make that happen). In the 4A's, we had two point-scoring top-30's, including Gregor's 14th (a 4A personal record, I believe)! I noticed in doing he passed last week's 4B's winner, Spidermonkey Jake Teitelbaum. So if I'm doing my math right, that makes you better than all the B's!

With no clouds in the sky, the sun starting to set and the course at its nastiest, the "main event" 4B's began. Unfortunately this group had the most costumed riders (and for some reason a few women racing in the men's category), so Moshe, Matt and Jim got screwed at the start line as these folks got called up in front of them. Waiting for a good start position didn't really pay off this time. But by the time four laps and 30+ minutes had transpired, all five RVBRers had passed plenty, securing 90 points for the team and popping the cherry on Jim's one-day-old Supernova.

(Thanks to Chris for the pictures. I know we had at least 3 or 4 cameras out there, so everyone else please share when you get yours up. (That's what she said.))

RVBR Ain't Just for CX!!

The RVBR boys from RVB rode 21 spectacular miles this morning at Kettle Moraine State Forest. Falling leaves (and hidden trails), forests, meadows, sand, mud, a 12-year-old with a gun - you name it, Wisconsin blessed us with it today. We scored this sweet view after climbing over 400 feet to the top. (If you find that impressive, you've been in the midwest way too long.) In 2010, expect to see RVBR not just on the cross circuit, but on the road, on the trails, and on the track.