In Urbana, Mara snagged the team it’s first ever U.S.A. Cycling women’s road victory. We love scoring new “firsts” and love it even more when it involves categories that we haven’t always competed in. Last weekend, the Illinois cup took us to the Monsters of the Midway Crit in Hyde Park. We had both Ashley and Mara in a deep W4′s field. And, well, it happened again… for Ashley. Coming out of the last turn with a decent gap and motoring across the line, Ashley won the first ever W4′s crit she’d entered. Way to go Ashley!
Other impressive results from Monsters:
Rob Kelley snagged 4th in the 1/2/3.
Andy Kerrwon the 50+.
The 1-2 punch of Dave Ross and Dave Pratt finished 2nd and 3rd respectively in the 5′s.
This week we’ll be carrying that momentum into Psimet’s Fox River Omnium in Elgin and then at the painful Fox River Grove.
…and ours are on a roll! Ashley hits the top podium spot in her first ever W4′s crit. The girls are red-hot having now won two weeks in a row. Nice job Ashley!
The Illinois Cycling Association has been recording some videos after the Illinois Cup races. Today we noticed that they’ve posted a little video of Sunday’s Women’s Cat 4 winner. Congrats again to Mara… whose future is so bright, apparently she had to wear shades!
Last weekend saw the first Illinois Cup stop outside the greater Chicago metro area. On Saturday we raced the “Tour de Champaign” on the campus of the U of I in brutal heat. Sunday saw racing in downtown Urbana on a tight, technical course.
Mara Baltabols (above) snuck away from the women’s 4′s field with a lady from the Cuttin’ Crew and the two opened a sizable gap. Leading out of the last corner, Mara was able to take her first U.S.A.C win by a narrow margin! Mara has now moved into the top 3 in Illinois Cup standings.
Andy Swims (below) also had an impressive ride. With a xXx rider 20 seconds up the road, Swims launched a furious chase with 3 laps to go. An unfortunate wreck halted the race. The race resumed with Swims starting 14 seconds behind the solo rider, only 6 seconds in front of the field, and with 2 of the most painful laps of his life to go. Both the xXx rider and Swims rode like Greg Lemond on the final TT in 89 to hold their spots ahead of a hard-charging field. Swims now leads the Illinois Cup.
Andy “Mr. Reliable” Kerr also earned another podium. Finishing second in Urbana, Kerr also leads the Illinois Cup standings for 50+. We’d love to post a podium picture of Andy. Let us know if you find one!
Remember back in November when we were excited to ride our bikes? Or, in December, when we were excited to ride the computrainers? People didn’t know why we were so excited for mundane winter training. When Patrick Fasse put on a power clinic, he knew why. When Rob Kelley gathered the team for a motivational meeting, he knew why, too. If anybody on the team didn’t know why then, they know why now.
Why?
For weekends like this:
Rob Kelley – Cobb Park 1/2/3 race WINNER
Ara Oggoian – Whitnall park 40+ race WINNER
Andy Kerr – Cobb Park 50+ WINNER
David Pratt – Cobb Park Cat 5 WINNER
Andy Swims – Cobb Park Cat 3, Second Place
Mara Baltabols – Cobb Park Women’s Cat 4, Third Place
They will get called off if the weather is too dicey. Current forecast looks like there could be rain. Keep an eye on the ABD twitter account for the final word.
Racing returned to the City of Chicago, Illinois today. Of course, we were there. Highlight of the day was Andy Swims crawling into the Cat 3 break and then driving it for nearly a half an hour. On the bell lap Swims attacked from very far out, was able to out-sprint two teammates from an opposing team, and was narrowly edged off the top spot of the podium. Great job by everybody who raced hard this weekend!
It was chilly and windy out at Leland this weekend. We had hoped for nothing less. Several members of Team Bicycle Heaven (including 3 Women teaming up in the Women’s 4′s) tackled the gravel in what has got to be the most difficult road race in the state. Attrition was high across the board, with fields shattering, and accidents and flat tires common.
There have been rumors of local teams running down to Leland to pre-ride the course. Glad we’re not the only ones looking forward to this race. The current weather forecast is for bad weather. And by “bad” we mean “good” meaning that it’s currently not supposed to be wet, cold, or brutally windy. That could change.
Seems like just yesterday people were riding computrainers talking about Hillsboro, Burnham and Leland. This weekend has not only two races in Northeastern Illinois, but also two in Wisconsin. The season isn’t starting, it’ well under way.
