No more until next year!

Tonight was the last night of racing for the year at the Washington Bowl. A night of Danishes, Snowballs (we really needed some snowballs tonight....), and a Madison and a Points race, with lots of good racing. There were, surprisingly, more spectators on the hill than I think we've had all year. The Danishes were, of course won by all of the big sprinters (John Fraley in the Pro/1/2, Brandon Gavic and Kyle Jacobson were 1 and 2 in the Cat. 3's, Brandon Krawczyk in the Cat. 4's). The Madison was won by Andy Crater and Cole House. Rob Springer and Monique Hanley in Second, Kurt Otter and Jeff Thompson in Third, Eric Meier and Mitch Gantz in Fourth, Kyle Jacobson and Nicholas Holbus in Fifth, Damon Rinard and Bruce Bock in Sixth, and John Fraley and David Engwis in Seventh. The Snowballs were a special Kenosha Creation; on the first lap, there was one point, on the second, two and one, on the third, three and two, etc. So in the Pro/1/2 Snowball, the last lap was worth ten and nine points. Really, I think I might like it better that way... Easier to score, I think. Until the next bit of excitement, Bye!

Another day, more races...

Today was Tuesday, so we, of course, had racing at the Washington Bowl. We actually made it through the night. It didn't rain at all, nor did it ever appear close to doing so. Most of the races were fairly short, though. Two poles of lights were out (we believe that the fuses failed due to contact with water, because they turned on initially, but went out right away) but they're supposed to be fixed by next week, which will be the last week of racing there this year. As last week, I drove home from the track in dad's lovely white-and-false-wood-paneling Buick wagon. I did much better today than last week. No one tailgated me, and I managed to stay mostly on the road (just one little spot where I was a little too friendly with the white line), and even with the flooding covering one entire lane on W, just before it turns onto 50 heading toward the turn-offs for Burlington and Wilmot it wasn't too bad. The flooding is so bad from the rain that we got Saturday, Sunday, and early this morning that, at one point between Wilmot and Paddock Lake, one lane each direction is closed. More flooding than even several years ago when all of the roads surrounding Burlington were flooded in at least one point each, and some of them had flooding over a foot deep. County highways, flooded over a foot. That flooding lasted almost all summer (it kept raining all the time!!!). Marcie and I loved it.

Until the next race!

A sign of the coming Apocalypse?

This weekend were the Downer's Grove races. For the first time since I can remember, it rained at Downer's Grove. Not only did it rain, but it was absolutely frigid all weekend. It was like cyclocross weather. So we were cold, wet, and miserable all weekend. Saturday started out sunny and a little bit warmer than was comfortable. Soon it turned to pouring rain. It then continued raining until about ten on Sunday. The sun came out for maybe an hour, but then it started raining again. The racing this weekend was very good. Quite a few people crashed, as always, but maybe a few more because of the rain. The rain did have one good effect; even though more people crashed, a smaller percentage of those riders suffered painful injuries because they were able to slide on the wet pavement. We had the usual broken collarbones and road rash, but not much more than that. The Pro race was surprisingly large, considering the conditions, and quite a few of them finished. Other than the rain, though, Downer's Grove weekend was, as usual, the yearly social gathering of mid-western icons and race-government members. At least, that's what I call them... Haha. Until I have something remotely interesting to write, bye!

*sigh* long day

So I survived an evil doctor's appointment at evil St Catherine's and suchlike. It was pretty awful. I hate hospitals and the like. After that, though, we ate lunch at Quizno's in Gurnee and got milkshakes at Steak 'n' Shake. Then we stopped at the little music shop I noticed in Deerfield. I spent a long time there. And I got four new music books there (a clarinet method book (huge) and a jazz violin book and a vocal songs and arias book and a book full of double-stop exercises for violin) and then, after I left, I realized that they had chromatic pitch-pipes, and they were shiny, and I really wanted one, but we were already almost to the track, so that project is saved for another day. Chromatic pitch-pipe. Then I'll only need one pitch pipe for everything, and I'll have it.

At the track, there wasn't too much of interest, except that it was the first night that actually got cold. I was freezing by the end. In the Pro/1/2 field, however, we had five UCI riders (Chris Mesora (Delta Faucet), Dan Holloway (VMG), Emile Abraham (Priority Health), Adam Bergman (Colavita), and Todd Yezefsky(Nerac)) and they certainly spiced the racing action a bit. However, they did have some competition amongst the local 1's and 2's. Good racing tonight. No one fell down tonight, which is a rarity at Northbrook. It was a good night though, except for the cold.

So

Last night at the Washington Bowl, we had some real Pro's come out to race. Emile Abraham (Priority Health) and Adam Bergman (I can't remember what team) raced, with Abraham winning the main event points race and the Pro/1/2 Miss and Out, Bergman won the other Pro/1/2 race of the night. Two riders from Team Type 1 came out. One, a Cat. 4 male by the name of Nathon Bartells, did quite well in his races. The other was a Cat. 1/2 female, Monique Hanley, who rode only the men's Pro/1/2 races, and didn't ride with the women at all. Other than that, I don't think that there was much else of note. I drove home at the end of the night, though. Didn't hit anything, and I managed to drive at the speed limit the entire time. Haha.

Well then....

Today was Day One of the Second Annual Tour of Elk Grove. The Pro's raced two stages today; a 4.5 mile TT and an 80k race. Someone won the TT, etc, etc, all over and done with. Then we had the usual mundane, everyday races. The Cat 1/2 was a pretty good race and not too boring to watch. In the Pro race, no one managed to make a breakaway stick. As I was walking back to the start line, I saw the sprint, and it was brutal. It looked more like a sprint for a Keirin rather than the finish for a road-race-slash-criterium. I got to sit in the pit all day and "score." Not much scoring to be done from the pit; "So-and-so got/was denied a free lap and was pushed back into such-and-such group." In far fewer words, of course.... Lol. I get to sit in the pit all day tomorrow too.... Umm... I'm so excited I don't know what to do with myself? Haha. I found myself falling asleep near the end of the Pro race today. Well, home again tomorrow night, thankfully. Hopefully tomorrow's racing will go as well as today's did. I believe the only transport was a rider who broke his wrist in a crash. I think our local WI riders did quite well today, as well. On that note, I believe I will end this missive.

Em

Cool..... ?

So we survived another week's worth of racing at the Kenosha velodrome. Things were a little boring, but we need a little boringness every once in a while. Pat Kelly had repeated problems with his chain and rear wheel, but I think he might have gotten things straightened out. The Pro/1/2 field seemed to have some issues with each other (one person in particular, who I will not name). Nobody crashed, for once. There were, however, as always, arguments from a certain source in regard to the Junior's aged 10-14 Miss and Out results. It wouldn't be track in Kenosha without these certain people, so I guess we'll have to live with them... Haha.

Ok. So I have no life.

Today's Wisconsin State TT went quite well. No one crashed or got friendly with vehicles, even though there was more traffic than we ever got even on the Milton course. We had a lot of sub-hour times for the people riding the 40k course. My sister nearly beat her rival (mere seconds behind her, rather than the usual two minutes). Little Sam Huang did not get lost, and didn't exactly have a slow time, either. His sister Sarah, still needs to learn how to braid her hair out of the way. All in all, a good day. Tomorrow there is a race in Elgin. I won't be going, but mother is working and Marcie will be racing.

Well then...

Tonight was the weekly racing at the Northbrook Velodrome. The main event happened to be the 10th Annual Roger Delangey Classic. Chris Mosque (sp?) won it in a breakaway of five with Matt Fox (a former champion of the race) winning the field sprint. Only one rider fell down all night. A junior knocked himself down on the neutral lap of the second or third junior race. For some reason, we run three sets of races each night at Northbrook, rather than two as we do at Kenosha. Anyway. Quite a few people came to race the Delangey, making the rest of our racing much more exciting as well. Josh Weir, a former headache-causer from Superweek, raced without incident in the Pro/1/2 and made sure to proclaim his innocence to us. Very nice person, as far as I can see, really. An announcer commonly known as Bilco raced as well in the Pro/1/2 and Delangey Classic. Just a few people of note amongst the many who attended. The Wisconsin state TT is Saturday, in a place called Kansasville, WI. I have personally never heard of it before... Sad. I've lived in Wisconsin for nearly 13 years, and I've never heard of some of the places we come up with as race sites. There is a race in Elgin, IL on Sunday. I'll go to sleep now. We have a lot of catching up to do now that Superweek is over, as far as cleaning and laundry go. Haha...

Weird. And a little bit creepy.

So yesterday I was standing near an old man who was waiting for the right time to make a few announcements when he spoke to me. Important note vital to comprehension here: this man was about 80, as far as I could tell. He asked me if I had a boyfriend (which, for some reason, old people ask me quite often), and when I said no he was incredibly surprised. Then he said, "too bad, I'd be jealous of him." Number one, this is incredibly creepy. Number two, why? And number three, why me???? But apparently, I hold some generic 1940's "beauty" since old people of around that age seem to think I'm perfectly appealing to their eyes. This is just fucking creepy. I hope it never happens again. Maybe I'll take to wearing one of my largest rings on my left ring finger so that people will assume I'm married. I mean, some people have actually thought I'm in my 20's, so maybe it will work. Hopefully. Haha. Well, hopefully no more situations of similar composition will happen for the rest of the week. Well, Sara is coming over in a little while and I need to make sure everything is clean enough.