John Wilke

Took a nap (old man syndrome) - pix shortly!

John Wilke

The church at Holy Hill. There are three routes to the top - yes, they're tough, and no it's not on the race course.



My attempt at a magazine cover.



Da man.



Da sprint.





Da cat. Cool barn cat that came over to investigate all the noise in his hood.

Speedster22

Nice shots and good work John. You da man! See ya today at the Hill!

John Wilke

Sorry I missed the 4/5 race. Sounds like JF did well. Recursive held his own on the very *NON-FLAT* course. MF was in town for Garmin and looked GREAT. Although the crowd was on the thin side, it was still a great event and good to have it back on the schedule. Gotta crank out my report and then hit Evanston early tomorrow morning. Will cover the whole day. *oh Gawd!*

Speedster22

4/5s was shredded immediately. Could barely tell where the field was or what was left of it. Of the 53 startes, only 19 finished in the field. I cracked early. Woof. That's okay, gotta save some more racing left. Evanston 4s in the AM.

Psimet2001 

See you guys out there. I am heading out to watch tomorrow. Taking the day off of racing. MF is supposedly in town. I am looking forward to meeting him tomorrow if he's there.

Speedster....no worries. The 4s have been getting ripped up like that the whole time in Chicago. Not that bad but same story. 60-70 start. 30-40 finish. 20 or so in the main pack.

Lot of 4's looking to upgrade that should be there shortly. It's been fun. I feel sorry for the real 5's that have to put up with it.

With there being a 4's only race tomorrow that should be interesting.

John Wilke

Must .... get .... to .... bed.

Psimet2001 

That's awesome. That's their mom. I had no idea she was coming.

Psimet2001 

Srsly - send jf an email about that one. I am sure he definitely wants a copy. Great shot!

Scummer

Excellent pics John!

recursive

That race hurt a lot. I came very close to losing the pack about half-way through. It's nice to finish a race once in a while. I think almost half the 3 field dropped. I watched the 1/2. I think more than half that field dropped.

Brewer's Hill power data: https://tpks.ws/XNFn

Speedster22

4s today was super fast, super fun. 26.3 avg, 240 NP (FTP 235) Only bummer was was they cut our race short by about 10 laps due to a crash in the BK Stacker in the 4/5s. Pack foddered as that was hard enough! Had a good start, but then let myself fade back to about 30 deep and was never able to make it back up.

Saw some Bicycle Heaven boys out there today - who rides the BMC? Looked like he was riding well close to the front.

Only saw one crash in the 4s. Right out of turn 6. Not sure what happened, probably a touch of wheels as everyone started winding up. IS Corp rider was down and had to dodge him. Same guy that bit it in Waukesha, by himself, in a corner. errrrrrrr......

Whitnall Park on slate for the AM then two days off - massage for pappa!

Psimet2001 

That was Bikeforum's own MJH2 on the BMC. Timmyquest was on the all black pedal force. JF was the Heaven rider in the break until the very end. Watched his brother take second tonight before leaving. Nice

John Wilke

I was hoping that MF could hold that solo with 2 to go.

MTN is on something. I mean ... they've won how many?? Come on!

My feet hurt.

MJH2

Cory helped them do feed at Elgin and has befriended their mechanic. Nice guy! He was saying before the reace that their riders have been surprised at how the the teams here do not seem to be riding very much together like "teams".

He also said that they wanted to take today off but the superweek organizers told them they had to be there because there's be a big crowd. I'm guessing they're glad they came.

Meanwhile, they may be looking for host housing as they're thinking about sticking around for Elk Grove...

JPradun

Random question. Who keeps saying "hi" to me in every cat 3 race? You read my blog, but I don't know everyone's name in real life vs their forum name! I feel terrible!

James

JPradun

PS Evanstan was worse than last year with crashes. At least this year I wasn't in any of them (but I got the most points for close calls).

recursive

Ug. Glad I skipped it.

John Wilke

Huh? What are you talking about???



20 mins and I'll have my report done.

John Wilke

Report filed.

dynodan22

I rode down with my son to watch the Brewer hill race.
We watched the juniors and cat 5/4 folks. I can see why most
kids do not get into bicycle racing on road style here in the states.
The crowd for the juniors was zilch. I figured most the higher
levels would give support to these young kids when the race by cheering
them on . Then again cycling isn't a real team sport I guess after
all. The course was a good layout, but after watching that,I know
my son sure had no interest in racing or trying it, kinda sad.

Dynodan22

Mr. Scrooby

John, did a spectator really cause the Rob White crash? I didn't see it, but I was told a photographer was lying down in near the Stacker to get a different angle. (It was for him that the ambulance came.) Don't know how much effect he had in cause the crash, or if he was actually in the course.

recursive

Wait, what?

MJH2

Are you saying that on any normal saturday or sunday that recreational soccer players come out to watch kids soccer? Or that there are even usually people watching the average CAT 3/4/5 race? The poeple watching Junior cycling are the same people watching Jr. High baseball: families of the participants.

I don't get your point.

For what it's worth, I was at Evanston yesterday and watched every race.

And, if you don't think cycling is a team sport, you're wrong.

Mr. Scrooby

The lack of crowds is nowhere near the top reason junior fields are small.

In fact, having seen my share of soccer parents badgering their kids on the field, I would suggest that the lack of crowds would be a selling point to juniors.