Burnham Racing and Vitaminwater-Trek have quickly come up with a spring criterium to replace the series we had hoped would happen in Vernon Hills.

The Spring Super Criterium will take place April 6 at the Blackhawk Farms Raceway in South Beloit, about two hours from Chicago. Discounted pre-registration is available.

“It’s a rally course,” says Eric Goodwin (Vitaminwater-Trek). “Twists and turns like Laguna Seca without the elevation. There are some false flats though.” This video of the 1.9-mile course makes the turns look as gentle as they come, and indeed it looks more like a circuit race than the criteriums we’re used to. I’m looking forward to it.

We all will miss Parkside, but this should be a good, low-key tuneup for the season ahead. I expect it will draw teams from Madison and Milwaukee. Masters racing is available for the men, so there will be no reason not to race two or even three times.

Thomas Lynch this morning pleaded not guilty to the seven felony charges related to September’s paceline incident on St. Mary’s Road. The judge set a May 12 trial date.

The six counts of aggravated battery carry sentences of two to five years. The count of failure to stop after an accident causing injuries carries a sentence of one to three years. In addition, Lynch faces $25,000 in fines.

• » The Chicagoland Bicycle Federation is looking for new bike ambasssadors.
• » VeloNews legal columnist Bob Mionske will be speaking tomorrow night at Turin, 1027 Davis St. in Evanston. A reception will be at 6:30 p.m. with a talk at 7. (Mionske’s most recent column addresses cyclists’ rights in Wisconsin.)
• » Seattle study: Caffeine is bad for cyclist.
• » A few Chicago racers headed to Tennessee last Memorial Day for the Edgar Soto Memorial Stage Race, but the event has been changed to two June criteriums. It’s a trek, but an alternative might be the Duluth Classic.

A cyclist was killed this morning after an SUV struck him during a street race.

Matt Manger-Lynch, 29, was at the front of a large group of riders competing in the Tour da Chicago, a popular alleycat series. The pack was heading southeast on Lincoln and attempted to cross Irving Park against a red light. An eastbound SUV entered from Irving Park and struck him. He died on the scene.

I do not know much about Matt, other than that he was married, and that his results had been impressing people.  He was not affiliated with a team, but he had recently acquired a license and was looking forward to sanctioned racing.

I have been in touch with riders who were both in the pack as well as some who happened to be on the sidewalk at the time. All are incredibly shaken.

Alleycats are normally outside my purview

— note that today’s race did not include checkpoints, so some would not consider it a true alleycat —

  but I’ll continue to update this post as I learn more about the incident and about Matt.

7 p.m.: The coroner is giving media the name “Matt Mager,” but I’ve spoken to more witnesses and am confident that it was indeed Matt Lynch.

2/25 10 a.m.: Media and friends are reporting his full name as Matt Manger-Lynch.

2/26 8 a.m.: The Tribune has a story about the racing aspect of Sunday’s collision, including more information about Matt. “‘He was very excited about [the racing],’ said Elizabeth Lynch, Manger-Lynch’s wife. ‘It was organized fun, and he got to be a little competitive.’” (I’m not bothering to read the comments on the story. I can only imagine how full of ugly, gleeful callousness they are.)

Here is Matt’s obituary, along with his Legacy guestbook.  Visitation will be Thursday near Milwaukee. Memorials may be made to the YMCA Camp Manito-wish, Box 246, Boulder Junction, WI 54512; or to the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, 9 W. Hubbard St., Suite 402, Chicago, IL 60610-6545.

Finally, here are pictures a friend of Matt has posted to Flickr.

2/27 11 a.m.: The Tribune editorial board responds to the tragedy by staking a position of being pro-courtesy, anti-races without port-o-potties.

Last week’s system upgrade prompted me to do a complete overhaul of the CBR look and feel. I hope you like it.

A few notes:

• » Members can now submit avatars that will show up alongside their comments.
• » The top logo features two new sprinters. Same contest as last time: A Clif Bar to the person who can correctly name both riders.
• » A wider canvas means photos will run even bigger this year.
• » IE 6 has a few issues with the site, but I don’t have a very good way to debug. If what you see is hinky, feel free to send me a screen shot — along with a 200-word essay explaining why you continue to use the Huffy of browsers.
• » Coming within a few weeks: An upgrade of the race calendar, including search and sort features.

Again, feel free to contact me with any bugs or errors you find.

Since October the Illinois Cycling Association has been working to create a spring criterium series. The idea was to provide a local alternative to the popular Parkside series in Kenosha, Wis., which has long been a welcome opportunity to shake winter out of our legs.

The ICA found a viable location at a Vernon Hills office park, and Vitaminwater-Trek stepped up to manage not just one but all three of the events. In addition, XXX Racing-AthletiCo planned to provide safety and handling workshops for new riders.

Now, however, a property owner on the route has objected to the races, and the series, originally set to begin March 30,  is in jeopardy. Vitaminwater-Trek and the ICA are still working to secure a new venue, and ICA vice president Steve Hansen (North Branch) says anyone with a lead should .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

“If it does not happen this year,” Hansen says, “the ICA will continue to work on a location for the same dates in 2009.”

As for the series formerly known as Parkside, we’re still waiting for fliers for the March 9 opener. Don Lowe (Team Mack) commented in a previous thread that the promoter is looking for a location with an indoor changing area, an important amenity at this time of the year.

• » This week’s Tour of California has a few Chicago connections. Today’s wearer of the yellow jersey, Tyler Farrar (Slipstream), won a national championship at Downers Grove in 2005. His teammate Christian Vandevelde is a native of Lemont. Riding for Jelly Belly is former ABD rider Bryce Mead, and riding for Kelly Benefit Strategies is Reid Mumford, formerly of XXX Racing-AthletiCo and ABD. Riding for Toyota-United are 2007 Elk Grove winner Ivan Dominguez and the Clarke brothers: Hilton won at Elk Grove and Downers Grove in 2006, and in 2007 Jonny raced Superweek and other local crits. Finally, winning Monday’s women’s criterium was Brooke Miller (Tibco), who recently did a short stint in the Chicago area. Kristen Meshberg (Flatlandia) was there, too, and finished 36th.
• » Rarely a week goes by that someone doesn’t ask me to cover the track. Or cyclocross. Or mountain biking. My standard reply is: “Meh. Do it yourself if it’s so bloomin’ important to you.” Happily, people are finally answering my challenge. Welcome The Bone Bell, a site devoted to mountain biking and other dirty pursuits in the Chicago area.  And welcome Midwest Time Trial, compliments of my teammate Peter Allen. That takes care of two disciplines. Who will now step up and claim chicagotrackracing.com and chicagocrossracing.com?
• » Speaking of disciplines other than the road, Lawyer Jim is getting through winter by thinking about the coming bike polo season.

Because of lingering snow and ice in Kenosha, Wis., the March 2 opener of the Kenosha Velosport Spring Training Series (nee Parkside) has been canceled. Weather permitting we’ll have crits to look forward to on March 9 and 16.

First, a thank you. Readership at Chicago Bike Racing is at an all-time high, and we’re still two three weeks away from our first outdoor race. It helps me keep doing what I do knowing there are so many of you following along.

Second, some news: I spent the weekend changing content management systems here at CBR world headquarters. Good-bye, Movable Type. Hello, Expression Engine.

Here is a new RSS feed, and here is an RSS feed of the comments.

Most changes will be invisible, but you will notice this: You must now register in order to post comments.

Why? I got tired of having to monitor comment spam. Also, a recent spate of anonymous posting made me sad. I don’t mind people being anonymous. I don’t mind people who are jerks. What I can’t abide are people who are both. You can still remain anonymous, but you must have a valid e-mail address on file in order to post.

The upside is that comments will now appear instantaneously. You can also edit your personal information so that your team appears with each comment, and you can select a Web site to include instead of your e-mail.

You may already have an account! If you commented at any time over the past year and included your e-mail address, the system has automatically created an account for you. Submit your e-mail address at this page and your password will be mailed to you.

To create a new account, go to this registration page. Accounts are automatically approved. This should not take more than a few seconds.

I have a few kinks to work out (categories did not transfer well) but please feel to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). This switch should make my job easier, and it should help introduce new features in the future. Expect a major overhaul sometime in the next few months, depending on how much training I want to cut into.

A grand jury on Wednesday indicted Thomas Lynch on six counts of aggravated battery and one count of failure to stop after an accident causing injuries in connection with September’s paceline incident on St. Mary’s Road. These are felony charges, largely in relation to just two of the 17 victims, and the state’s attorney may add additional counts to reflect the full scope of the alleged attack. (Full disclosure: I was one of the 17 riders in the paceline.)

This is a major step toward trial. Lynch will be arraigned and enter a plea at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 27, at the Lake County Courthouse.

Benga Sports this week released information for its Tour de Lafayette stage race in May. This new event — criterium, stage race and time trial — is interesting for several reasons: It’s scored by time. Its only fields are men’s 3’s and 4/5’s (save for citizen and junior fields at the criterium).  And note this warning: “For safety reasons, if one rider violates the yellow-line rule, the race will be stopped, the stage cancelled, and no prize will be given to competitors for the stage.”

Lafayette, Ind., is two hours from Chicago. Unfortunately the May 17-18 event conflicts with Monsters of the Midway, a Chicago favorite, and at 20 and 32 miles the circuit races are on the short side. Nonetheless, stage races are fun, and I’ll be curious to see how Indiana and Illinois racers receive this one.

A local promoter has asked me to quiz my readership about what qualities you’d look for at your ideal criterium. What are your dreams? What are your pet peeves? If money were no object, what would you have? Bigger purses? Smaller fees? Better marshaling? New categories? Jumbotrons, blimps and a twilight performance from the Rolling Stones?

I don’t want to set a precedent of doing other people’s market research, but I think all race organizers could benefit from this exercise. Plus, I know some of you to have strong opinions on such matters, so let’s see ‘em in the comments.

• » An angry driver attacked Mike Sherer (Pony Shop) and a training partner near Bloomington, Ind., this weekend. Nobody was injured, and police arrested the driver.
• » In Lake County, an SUV struck and killed a 25-year-old man riding at night on Highway 59 in Ingleside. Police are still searching for the driver, but he or she was kind enough to leave evidence at the scene. Let’s hope an arrest happens soon.
• » Project 5 Racing has rolled out its new Web site. The team has new uniforms as well. (Red and black appears to be the new black.)
• » How cold was it at Sunday’s Tour da Chicago alleycat? this cold. Fifty riders showed up. Last week’s interviewee Jeff Perkins (Chicago Cuttin’ Crew) won the stage but Nico West (XXX Racing-AthletiCo) retains the coveted orange sweater.
• » Last week our mayor introduced some bike-friendly legislation. As is often the case with such stories, the anti-bike reaction was dispiriting, but worth reading is Payton Chung’s rejoinder: “Cars kill more Americans than guns do. That’s why we license drivers — but not bicycles, which kill fewer Americans each year than beds do. Yes, beds.

I’m sure there are dozens if not hundreds of people disappointed at being locked out of Hillsboro-Roubaix, and many women are upset at the shorter women’s fields, but I’m extremely sympathic to the organizers for doing so much with limited resources. They’re doing the best they can to make sure what has become one of our most popular races runs smoothly and safely, and somehow they do it with admirable good humor and patience.

Rich Pierce this morning posted the following over at STLBiking, and a low-res flier is now up at Hillsbororoubaix.com.

All, I appreciate your patience and trust. Work has been very stressful this year and I have not been as organized as I like.

Why fewer fields or less miles or both?
We are trying very hard to appreciate the dangers present in road racing after a young lady was killed in a race in Illinois last year. She placed 6th at Hillsboro last year. So in the interests of safety, order, and scoring, we are reducing the numbers of fields and some distances so we can manage the race as well as it can be done.

Oops on the flyer not being published yet
I did intend to have the flyer out before pre-registration opened. But there were 2 old guys involved, me and Dave Ploch who runs http://www.2wheeltech.com We bo.th sometimes find ourselves down in the basement of our homes, wondering, “Now what did I come down here for?” So we had a miscommunication and pre-registration opened before I intended and before the flyer got out. Old guys.

No waiting lists, sorry
We don’t keep and manage a waiting list. The logistics are very difficult. It takes a lot of time to manage all the communication, who is in, who is out, and we don’t have the personnel to do it. We all work regular jobs and in a guy’s mid-50’s, losing that job is not good.

On race day, we don’t know that “no shows” are “no shows” until registration closes. Once it’s closed, we can’t open it up- there are 100 emergency details that have to run like clockwork as we wind down to start time.

I don’t get to race the race either
If you are disappointed that you won’t be able to race, I know how you feel. It’s “my” race (actually my team’s race and a few other guys helped me plan the course) and I’ve never been able to race it, because I manage it. My team says they will arrange it so I can race, but I’d be so stressed and exhausted by the time it begins, I’d have nothing, nada, and get shelled. At least I’d have an excuse, though! I’d love to feel how it is on some of those downhill chicanes, in the pack.

Thanks for your support for the Hillsboro race and I hope we or another team is able to put the race on again next year.

I knew the Hillsboro-Roubaix fields would fill quickly, but I didn’t imagine they’d fill this quickly. The 3/4’s field filled overnight, joining capacity fields in the 4/5’s and 5’s. All that remains are the women’s fields, juniors and masters fields, and the P/1/2 field.

What does this say about the demand for quality road racing in Illinois?

Let’s see who was on the ball from Chicago-area teams:

 

Cat 3/4
8 Vitaminwater-Trek
7 Team Get a Grip Cycles
7 XXX Racing-AthletiCo
5 ABD
3 Flatlandia
3 Vision Quest
2 Cuttin’ Crew
2 North Branch
1 Half Acre
1 Northwestern
1 WDT

Cat 4/5
10 XXX Racing-AthletiCo
9 Beverly Bike/Vee Pak
6 Vision Quest
5 Get a Grip Off Road
4 Half Acre
2 ABD
2 Killjoy
1 Cuttin’ Crew
1 Team Pegasus
1 Turin
1 WDT

Cat 5
9 XXX Racing-AthletiCo
6 Vision Quest
1 Team Pegasus
1 UCVC

I’ve updated the CBR calendar with the rest of what is known about the 2008 season. All that remains to be settled are the details of Superweek, which will run July 11-27 and include at least four races in the Chicago area.

I’ve also added some links to schedules for disciplines outside my purview, including the recently updated Northbrook Velodrome calendar. Racing there starts May 15.

Registration for Hillsboro Roubaix is open. I don’t see a flier yet,  but men’s 3/4’s are capped at 100, 4/5’s at 75 and 5’s at 50. I expect all three of those will fill up, starting with the 5’s, as this is one of the most popular road races in the Midwest, and deservedly so.

Congratulations to Vitaminwater-Trek for apparently winning the race before the race and being first to register. 1 P.M. UPDATE: Four hours later, the 5’s field is almost 50 percent full, the 4/5’s field is 33 percent full and the 3/4’s field is almost 25 percent full. Happily, most of these registrations are from the Chicago area. 2 P.M. UPDATE: Promoter Rich Pierce posts the following over at STLBiking: “In the interest of safety (#1!) we have made changes: “The men’s 5 race will be one lap. That’s right, 22 miles of heck-for-leather racing and then you’re done to recover and watch the pros duke it out. “The women’s 4 race will be one lap only, 22 miles instead of 44 miles. “The women’s 1,2,3 race will be 2 laps (44 miles) instead of 66 miles. “This will allow us to have these fields fields finish quicker and then we’ll have fewer fields on the road to manage. We had to do it! If we could we’d have 13 fields, 3 of them being men’s 5’s! But it’s not possible to do it and score racers and keep them safe.” 4 P.M. UPDATE: Good-bye, Roubaix Tuesday! The 5’s race is now full. Your options are either to register for the 4/5 race or to ask — politely, with sugar on top — to be put on a waiting list. By the way, how awesome are these pre-registration lists? Surely I won’t be the only one who will be spending the next 45 days sizing up my competition by seeing how they did last year and looking up their results at USA Cycling. (Tip: Googling a person’s name along with “compid” will usually return a list of their USCF results.) 7:30 P.M. UPDATE: Theres no time to lose, I heard her say; Catch your dreams before they slip away. And now the 4/5’s race has filled. Now a Cat 5’s best shot of participating is to work the feed zone. Cat 4’s, there’s still room the 66-mile 3/4’s race.

Crashing is a fact of cycling but often can be avoided if you have good habits and good handling skills. It’s no coincidence that experienced cyclists tend to crash less than beginners. After years of racing they’ve developed instincts for avoiding danger.

One important habit is monitoring your front wheel so that it rarely overlaps the rear wheel ahead of you. If your wheels overlap and the other rider makes a sudden move

— to pull out of the paceline, to attack, to avoid a pothole —

your wheels will strike and it’s going to be you who pays the price.

That said, should the paceline slow, there’s no need to slam on the brakes in order to avoid the overlap. Rather than panic and cause trouble, coast and hold your line until you can get back behind that wheel.

Another good habit: Monitor your “outs.” At any given time, you need to know what you’d do should there be a crash ahead of you. Can you escape onto the shoulder? Is there a curb or a driveway you can ride onto? Are you completely boxed in? Then you might want to find another spot to be.

• » I didn’t think Bike Snob NYC had a sentimental bone in his body, but Sheldon Brown always did bring out the good in people. Naz Hamid (Half Acre) has a graphical tribute on his blog, one of thousands of tributes available on the Web, most along the lines of “I owe my bike to Sheldon Brown.”
• » The Rivendell Reader had a long interview with Brown in 2001. Interesting fact: His wife’s first words to him were, “Oh, you’re riding fixed-gear!”* And here is Brown’s last post to Bike Forums, one of 2,302 he made over the past six years, in which within 30 minutes of it being asked he answers a question about threading an obscure freewheel. Cycling this week lost a giant.
• » Looking for new trainer fodder? Netflix not keeping up with your insane base mileage? Cyclofile has cyclocross DVDs on sale. (Thanks, Keith.)
• » This summer’s Bike the Drive will be a part of the American Diabetes Asosciation’s Tour de Cure, and Geneva will host a fundraising ride on June 7.
• » Oh, Magnus!
• » Blush. (Some people will say anything for a link.)

* Uninteresting fact: My first words to my girlfriend were, “Are those carbon wheels?”

Ah, the bicycle messenger. Bane to cabbie and security guard. Savior to architect, lawyer and anyone in urgent need of a sandwich. While you’re sitting in your warm cubicle, whining about insufficient foam in your latte, someone out there is risking his neck — or her neck, natch — through rain, sleet and inattentive drivers so that your closing documents arrive before deadline.

With 22 years having passed since “Quicksilver,” they don’t do it for the glory, and God knows they don’t do it for the money. They do it because they love being on a bike all day, and they love going fast.

One such cog in the downtown machine is Jeff Perkins, 24, a new member of 4 Star Courier, the messenger collective you may remember from its 2006 cover story in the Reader. He has a strong racing background, having run the 400m and 800m at DePaul, and has become a well-known

— and feared —

figure on the local alleycat scene. He’s 9th after two stages of the Tour da Chicago, and after an overnight drive to Minneapolis this weekend he won the prize for 1st out-of-town finisher in the Stupor Bowl, finishing 8th out of 360 registrants. Perkins spent 2007 with XXX Racing-AthletiCo, but now he’s looking to tackle sanctioned road, track and cyclocross racing with the Chicago Cuttin’ Crew, a team he helped found with fellow messengers.

This week I caught up with Perkins to discuss alleycats, messengering during winter and a certain set of leopard prints. (Note: CBR’s official stance on alleycats is that they are illegal, dangerous and irresponsible. Also, that they are extremely fun and fascinating.)

Read more ...

The Chicago Cyclocross Cup will celebrate its season with a buffet banquet this Sunday, Feb. 10, at 4 p.m. at E.J.‘s Place, 10027 Skokie Blvd. in Skokie. All participants are welcome. RSVP requested.

The Wisconsin Cycling Schedule has posted its 2008 road schedule. It’s very similar to past editions, although I’m chagrined to see the Leland Grand Prix scheduled for the same day as Monsters of the Midway (whose 2008 flier has been posted, BTW).