After week 4

(pic used w/o permission, what the hell is he smiling about?)

Our team is kicking ass in the Chicago cross cup, overall standings are;
Men cat 3; Ryan "my shoe fell off" Cooper, 1st overall
John Kurts 6th
Ted Burger 18th
Women 123 Leah Sanda 9th
Men 30+ Dave Pilotto 11th
Jason "44x17 for cross" Wagner 19th
Jason Meshburg 21st
Men 50+ George Lambros 10th
Gary Whalen 13th

Also big up to Ted "Gordon Lightfoot" Burger for a 7th place at this past weekends UCI cross race in Toronto, even after getting cross-checked by a hockey-stick wielding canuck!!




We need the team to help with our Northbrook cross race November 8th. Contact me or Jason Meshburg. The race will be EPIC!!

Cyclocross is fun

Video used without permission

After 2 Chicago Cyclocross Cup races we have 3 men in the top 10 overall in Cat 3, Ryan Cooper, John Kurtz and Ted Burger.

Leah Sanda is 3rd overall in the Women's 123.

As some of up struggle to find out race-legs(me) we can rest assured that there is 2 months of races left.

This Sunday brings us to Dan Ryan woods. The course is new for CCC and I am told will feature 2 large hills.

Palos Meltdown 8-30-09

The Meltdown is a race that the Chicagoland dirt community views as its world championships. It is on trails everyone knows and uses on a regular basis, but somehow felt strange to me, was it the 249 people chasing me? Was it the 60degree temps in August?

This may have been the race with the most team members entered, sport class;
Mike Carney 10th overall 4th in age group
Mike Grimm 20th overall 2nd age group
Joe Maxwell (akascott fortman) 23rd overall
Bill Older 85th overall 11th agegroup
Peter Tirone 98th
Rom Tomondong 159th
Greg Molnar 188th
David Pilotto 202th

Expert;
We had the oldest and youngest racers in expert
Gary Whalen 42nd
Rhys Louis 75th (see pic above)

Big thanks to Mike Grimm and Rom for setting up base camp, and all the friends that came out to cheer us on!

Good luck

Good luck to everyone racing the Chicago Triathalon,and everyone racing the Palos Meltdown on Sunday.

Both events should be a challenge and equaly exciting to race or spectate.

With about 6" of rain the past few days and 48 hours to the start The Meltdown should be a muddy good time.

Dave Jagee Wins Downers

It is great to see Flatlandia kicking ass all season long. This weekend was no exception. Dave pulled a great sprint to win the Masters race on Saturday.
Thanks for putting the team on the podium again!!

thanks to Loch for the pic

Super week

Great day of racing for me ... perfect weather, great course (ok maybe the hill could have been longer) ....
raced the cat 4/5 race ... for the most part the race was uneventful. Tower, xXx, Bicycle Heaven and one other team had several riders in the race (I think Tower had 21 guys). There were several breakaway attempts during the race, but it was apparent early on that these teams were not going to let anyone get away. The pace picked up with about 1.5 laps to go, and with about 1.5 miles to go (with most of the pack still intact), the jockeying for position started. 35mph plus on the final long straight .... positioned myself at around 10th place going into the final turns .... 2 turns from the finish, the leaders crash taking down about 6~7 riders. I decided it was all or nothing ... work my way through the crash, put my head down and start to hammer, managed to get a good gap, flew into the last turn, pushed even harder, not looking back until about 50 meters to go ...
Victory for Flatlandia!



Dave Jaggi

Proctor race report

Proctor State Crit Championship. I really like this course. It's a figure eight with lots of turns, very much like Quad cities. There's a slight hill but nothing worth writing home about. The wind was pretty strong and the gusts got worse as the day went on. Temps were perfect in the morning and got a little warm in the afternoon. Enough to make me not want to warm up on the trainer for race #2.
In the morning I raced the Women's Masters 35+. Not a huge field. 10-15 riders. There were a number of strong riders in the field including Pascal, Cathy and Ginger from Project 5 so I had to pay attention to any team tactics from them. Despite being a small field it was a lively race with lots of attacks. I had my eye on a couple riders to make sure I was on anything they did. The others, I'd let someone else cover. The biggest break was when Ginger got away for a few laps. I knew no help would come from Cathy or Pascal so it fell to 3 of us at the front to keep the situation in check and gradually reel her in, which we did in the last lap. I timed my sprint just right and felt super strong and took the win. I think I channeled a little Kristin Meshberg at the end as I felt my face split into this smile/grimace/effort thing.

I had 3 hours to wait until the Cat 4 race, so after the podium I ate and chilled out. It was hard getting motivated to race again since it was hotter and I was not as fired up. I kitted up and rode around. Spotted Jeanette Rho (Bouledogue tout noir) and Molly Godlewski (Chicago Cuttin Crew) and we talked about trying to make a break after the 1st lap. I tried to go but I suck at attacking and nothing really happened except I wore myself out. After a lap, I straggled at the back, trying to recover. Just when I started feeling better, a girl touched wheels and went down right in front of me. No where to go but down. I jumped up and tried to get my chain back on but noticed my rear derailleur was jammed into my spokes. Race over. Won some fun road rash and my wrist is pretty swollen. No hard feelings though. That's racing.

Thanks to Ted and Sanda for the baby wipes to clean up my bloody leg, Cathy Frampton for offering all her bandages and Cuttin Crew for the hospitality. Turns out my bike is fine. Just needed a new RD hanger. And Ken Schiffman is looking at my wrist, which, so far, seems not to be broken. Fingers crossed.

Leah Sanda