For us Barrington Hills Riders

While looking at the Village of Barrington Hills website i found the following information. Looks like some of our favorite roads should be safer to ride on this year.

The Cook County Board has approved the lowering of the following speed limits:
Donlea - 40 mph to 35 mph
Bateman - 45 mph to 35 mph
Otis - 40 mph to 35 mph
Brinker - 40 mph to 35 mph
Penny east of Healy - 45 mph to 40 mph
Penny west of Healy to Route 68 - 35 mph

Chicago Criterium - Old School

With there being a new race this year down in Grant Park it's made me think about the last time i raced down in the city. Also reading some peoples comments on the CBR story about it made me go digging thru my archives and i found some gems. I don't remember even saving this stuff but i have the Chicago Sun Times inserts for both the 1987 and 1988 editions.

The 1987 race was part of a 3 day series that started Friday, Sept. 11 on the Downers Grove course we all know and love. Saturday was a race in Evanston, and Sunday was the Grant Park Circuit. i attended the Downers race and got pictures of andy hampsten and an autograph. Below is the map of all 3 courses.

Above is a recap of the 1987 races from the 1988 edition of the Sun Times insert for the Illinois Criterium Championship.

I raced the 88 crit champ as a junior and as far as i can remember the course was the same as the 1987 race. I don't hardly remember racing but i do remember that day after the race a friend took my bike home and i walked up to north street beach to find my girlfriend and her family who were attending the air and water show. I don't know how i did it without a cell phone but somehow i found them.

I hate icy cross walks

So today was the first day of the year that i got to commute by bike to work. Daylight savings time is finally here and the money i save by biking to work just gets higher and higher.

Well this morning temps were in the upper 20's and since yesterday was in the 40's there were some sketchy sections. About 1.5 miles from my house in downtown algonuqin, i was on rt31 and turning right on to a side street. I had slowed way down because of the conditions, and was doing everything i could. Things like make the turn before and after the crosswalk. Well as i hit the crosswalk my wheels went right out from underneath me, tyler farrar style, just not as fast. Somehow in the fall I bopped my chin on the pavement. Nothing too bad but it looks like i got in a bar fight with a really short person. After checking my bike out i continued to work very slowly, almost coming to a stop at every corner.

I came out pretty lucky. Scraped up chin, sore thumb and the obligatory small patch of rash on the hip are all i have to show for it. The thumb is the most annoying and i don't even know how that happened since it's the left thumb but i fell to my right.

And now my smiling mug.

Unbelievable

I entered today's ABD indoor time trial not knowing what to expect. I haven't really turned the pedals in anger yet this year and while i've had a good winter of training I haven't gotten as much bike time as i would have liked. I have never done one of these indoor time trials so i wasn't sure how i would do. Looking at the results of previous tt's i was hoping to get somewhere in the 15min range based on the times of the winners.

Well...i did better. 16 riders go at once in 2 groups of eight. as we started i jumped out to an early lead and just tried to keep my cadence up. it was the rolling course so on every hill i would try to keep the power up and as i got over, i would downshift right away and try not relax too much.

About half way thru the 6.0something mile course the pa announcer started paying attention. by this time i had quite a lead over the other seven riders and in my head i was waiting for one or more of them to start to turn it on and hoping i wouldn't fade too much.

As i got towards the last 2 climbs i knew i would probably win the heat but didn't know how well things were going until i heard things like, "these power numbers are usually what we see from guys like mumford..." Hearing stuff like that drove me on. As i got to the last climb i let it all go and actually cracked 600 watts. I finished with a time of 14:35.8

So the final stats as best as i can remember are...
Time: 14:35.8
Avg Watts: 401 or 402
Max Watts: 600+
Avg HR: 183
Max HR: 193

Not only was this time fast enough to win the cat 3, i set the fastest time for the whole day. What a start to the season. I'm still shaking my head.

I have to thank tim henry for bailing me out of mechanical issues this week. without his help i wouldn't have raced today.

PROJECT 5 ROCKS BABY!!!!!

Sleeping with a smile on my face tonight,

ron