• » In case you didn’t see it in person or when it aired on Comcast SportsNet, here’s the sprinting clinic that Project 5 Racing put on at the 2008 Tour of Elk Grove.
• » The Kansas City Pitch has a long profile of Steve Tilford (HRRC/Trek Stores), a legend we’re privileged to have race with us a few times each year.
• » Universal Sports will be televising Sunday’s world cyclocross championships. Watch on TV or online.
• » Jim Saplis (Apache) is teaching some Park Tool School classes at Cycles N Sports in Worth.  Three levels of classes are available from three to eight hours long, starting at $100 with two instructors and no more than five students. For more information call (708) 361-0440.
• » The Cycle Studio, a spin facility on North Harlem, is having hourlong indoor races in February.

 

Mark Swartzendruber (Scarletfire Racing) says the previously mentioned Sunday criterium in Champaign on July 12 is on. It will follow this route, close to the I Hotel, which Swartzendruber says will be offering a race discount.

• » If Chicago gets the Olympics, cycling may take place in Wisconsin. “The proposed Wisconsin road course would have an uphill finish and more elevation gain in each of its loops than any Olympic course other than Beijing. Each 22-mile loop has about 1.3 miles of climbs at lung-and-leg bursting 10 to 14 percent grades.”
• » Adjust your alarm clocks: Hillsboro-Roubaix registration is now a day sooner: Saturday, Feb. 14.
• » The Wisconsin Cycling Association 2009 schedule is out. It’s similar to previous years, although I’m sorry to see that the Whitnall Park Criterium, a personal favorite, is now a question mark, and the Spring Prairie Road Race conflicts with the Fox River Grove Cycling Classic, another climber’s delight, as well as the Winfield Criterium, ABR’s national championships. Speaking of the local races, the Illinois Cycling Association has published a Google calendar that includes most of the Illinois USCF schedule.
• » Chicago Cycling Forums is off to a good start. Check it out.
• » Check those wrappers: Clif Bar issues voluntary recall for some products.
• » The cyclocross season isn’t quite over yet. Team Mack invites you to New Salem State Park for the Tour de Groundhog on Sunday, Feb. 15.

I’ve started to populate the 2009 race calendar. There are still dozens more to add, but this gets us started. Please note the new Web address. Also note that there is now an RSS feed if you would like to be notified of additions.

Various other improvements should follow, including the ability to filter by discipline and proximity. Reasonable suggestions welcome.

• » FLASH! Hillsboro-Roubaix registration opens Feb. 15 Feb. 14 at 7 a.m.
• » Steve Hansen (North Branch), our Illinois Cycling Association president, has an important update on various endeavors. Also note that ICA races will be a hair more expensive to reflect increased USAC fees as well as charges associated with online pre-registration, which will now be absorbed by promoters and standardized.
• » Many times have people asked me to start a Chicago Bike Racing forum. Many times have I said, “Thanks, but no thanks.” Finally someone has decided to run with the idea on their own. Meet Chicago Cycling Forums, compliments of Waylon Janowiak (WDT-Allvoi).
• » I heard tales of good finds from Saturday’s bike swap in Madison. Our own Chicago Winter Bike Swap is this Saturday at Harper College.
• » CyclingNews takes a look at Tour de France revelation Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Slipstream).
• » Results from the first round of ABD’s indoor time trials are online. The series continues Feb. 1. Meanwhile, Vision Quest’s indoor series continues in Highland Park.
• » Miss summer yet? A YouTube user has posted several videos from the Chicago Criterium, just six short months away.
• » “We raised our hands in a gesture of resignation.” Oh, Mario.

Scarletfire Racing and Wild Card Cycling are bringing at least one criterium to Champaign in July.

The city has approved a flat, four-corner course for Saturday, July 11. It’s a downtown route last used in 1999 but will now be run clockwise. The event will coincide with a street festival featuring beer gardens and live music.

The teams are working to secure a criterium on that Sunday as well. It would be located near Assembly Hall and feature some elevation change, plus more live music. “Riding around the course, it feels like it’s uphill almost all the way,” says Mark Swartzendruber (Scarletfire Racing). “It’s a beautiful development and definitely not an industrial park crit.  Real curbs and stuff on the streets.”

This competes with the first weekend of Superweek, but Swartzendruber says he expects to draw riders from Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky and Downstate.  Swartzendruber also says he hopes to deliver bigger purses across the board. Depending on sponsorship, P/1/2 purses would be between $2,500 and $5,000 and Cat 3’s between $900 and $1,200. (Superweek’s 2008 purses were $2,800 and $900 respectively.)

• » Organizers have released a preliminary Hillsboro-Roubaix flier. The major change is switching from combined 3/4 and 4/5 fields to straight-up 3, 4 and 5 fields. This should make the 4’s race more competitive, and it adds a total of 45 slots to the overall capacity. Entry fees are $5 higher, but the race remains a bargain. Registration will go through Bikereg.com. (Count on me to be checking it every morning. With only 50 spots available to them, Cat 5’s will want to be especially attentive.)
• » Yojimbo’s Track Cats, a program to introduce city juniors to the track, was one of 13 programs nationwide to receive a USA Cycling Center of Excellence grant.
• » Don’t let it be said that this sport won’t demand every last drop of blood, sweat and tears. To that first point, Turin is hosting a blood drive this Tuesday.
• » Speaking of Turin, general manager Chris Dimmick has been trotting the world helping Garmin-Slipstream and Team Milram fit into their Evanston-based Lake shoes.
• » Zach Thomas (Half Acre Cycling) profiles Lou Kuhn (Pony Shop) at Gapers Block.
• » Simon May (Team Pegasus) gives an update on Chicago’s Olympic velodrome dreams.
• » Also found at Hipster Nascar: Upscale apparel maker Rapha is looking for epic rides to add to its Rapha Continental collection. Flyover country is notably absent from its past travels. What, does navigating the potholes of Sheridan Road not count as epic?

“Hey, guys. The state championship road race is this weekend. How should I train for it?”

The knucklehead asking that question in 2005 was me. It’s a question that a different rookie will ask every year. The answer, of course, was and is: “You don’t, Sparky. The training for this week’s race was done six weeks ago.”

And it’s now, as the snow is falling and we’re all desperate to wear short-finger gloves again, that you need to start planning your training and racing for the year.  Random training isn’t training at all. What will your target races be? When will your rest weeks be? When will you make the transition from base and weights to intervals and sprints?

If you’re not familiar with periodization training, do some homework until you know your mesocycle from your unicycle. (Many people find Joe Friel’s “Cyclist’s Training Bible” a good primer.) Even though this season’s schedule isn’t fleshed out, you can consult the 2008 calendar and count on most races to be on similar weekends. And don’t forget to consult your families and significant others: Plan for vacations and other life events. (And don’t freak out if life throws a curve ball. Even the best plan needs to be flexible.)

The state championship road race will be Aug. 23. How will you be training for it?

A local team recently asked me to give a presentation on the upcoming season. In doing so, I came up with a list of a top 10 races to look forward to. As we start the new year, I thought I’d share it with everyone.

For those unfamiliar with the scene and unsure how to plan their season, this is somewhere to start. These are the most fun, prestigious and competitive races you’ll find within a four-hour drive of Chicago. Naturally, this list includes some personal bias, and by no means should anyone limit themselves to this list. Indeed, the best racing plans will include a mix of high- and low-priority racing.

Are your favorites missing? Feel free to state your case in the comments. (I’ll be bringing the full 2009 calendar up to date shortly. Hold your horses.)

1. Chicago Criterium
Chicago
Sunday, July 26
Depending on the Olympic bid, this could be the last year for this amazing course. It’s downtown in beautiful Grant Park, zipping past Buckingham Fountain and careening down Michigan Avenue. It would be a great course anywhere, but the fact that it’s downtown is extra special. This year the race is on the National Racing Calendar, too, so the pro race should draw even more stars than last year.

2. Hillsboro-Roubaix
Hillsboro, Ill.
Saturday, April 4
It’s our spring classic. Registration sells out earlier and earlier each year, and for good reason. It’s a grueling, wind-swept and hilly road race

— “The Hell of Downstate,” I like to call it —

that tests your early-season mettle. Just about every race is one of attrition as fields of 100 or more get whittled to just a dozen or so. The finish isn’t exactly the pavé of Belgium and Northern France, but several blocks of uneven brick will nonetheless rattle your fillings and make you feel like Tom Boonen (Quick Step).

3. Snake Alley Criterium
Burlington, Iowa
Saturday, May 23
Along with Hillsboro-Roubaix, this is one of two road-trip races that everyone owes it to themselves to do at least once over their racing careers. The course includes a ridiculously steep switchback paved with bricks. It’s not uncommon to see people resort to running their bikes up. It’s a long way from Chicago, but I recommend making a weekend of it. Stay in Burlington the rest of the day and enjoy the atmosphere as fans on the hill get progressively rowdier, and then take in the other, highly competitive criteriums in the Quad Cities the following two days.

4. Downers Grove
Downers Grove, Ill.
Saturday-Sunday, Aug. 15-16
For the pros, this is the national championship. For the rest of us, it’s the equivalent of playing a game of two-hand touch at the Superdome the morning of the Superbowl. This is a challenging figure-eight course that will test all the skills you’ve been developing the rest of the year: climbing, cornering and sucking wheel.

5. Proctor State Criterium Championship
Peoria, Ill.
Sunday, June 28
Here’s your first chance to earn a state championship jersey. Like Downers Grove it’s also a figure-eight course with just enough elevation change to make it interesting.

6. Tour of Oak Brook
Oak Brook, Ill.
Sunday, Aug. 23
It’s a small course as far as road races go, but it’s challenging and fun. It was a hit in 2008 and I expect will be even more popular in 2009, especially now that the organizing team has an entire year to put it together.

7. Fox River Grove Cycling Challenge
Fox River Grove, Ill.
Sunday, June 21
Underrated and under-attended. I’ve done it only once but I’m a big fan. Its main feature (or bug, depending on your point of view) is a long, steep climb that takes a little bit more out of you on each lap. It’s a one-of-a-kind course that’s a welcome reprieve from the typical flat, industrial-park courses most of our criteriums are held on. Like Snake Alley, this is not a race where the pack will stay together. It’s more like a cyclocross race, where the field gets strung out and you spend the entire time killing yourself to advance. In addition, the promoter (Robert DiSilvestro of RDS Cycling) goes all out to provide a “Euro” atmosphere at his races, complete with flowers and podium girls.

8. Evanston Grand Prix
Evanston, Ill.
Sunday, July 19
Turin does a fantastic job in organizing this race, which is part of the Superweek series. Of the Chicago Superweek races, this is the most competitive and popular. However, it’s notorious for its high-speed crashes in two, surprisingly tricky corners. Personally I’m hoping the course is tweaked to address the turns that give people so much trouble each year.

9. Tour of Elk Grove
Elk Grove, Ill.
Saturday-Sunday, July 31-Aug. 2
The course itself is not much

— a long, flat L-shaped course with two 180-degree turns —

but the mayor raises an obscene amount of money for this race and a lot of it trickles down to the lower categories. (At least for the men. Women and juniors are different stories.) Purses are huge, and this also is an NRC event, so it’s another chance to catch the stars of American cycling.

10. Denzer Delight
Denzer, Wis.
Mid-May
The Wisconsin Cup has three road races within 3.5 hours of Chicago, and this is my favorite. Granted, this may be because it favors climbers: A milelong climb here is the closest the Midwest gets to a true ascent, and it will break flatlanders’ legs on every lap. Consider staying overnight: The following day’s Wheels on Willy in Madison is a fun criterium that draws hundreds of enthusiastic spectators.

Honorable mentions: Monsters of the Midway, both days of Winfield, the Sherman Park Criterium, the Glencoe Grand Prix, the Spring Prairie Road Race and the Great Downer Avenue Bike Race all have significant merits, too.

Three series to look forward to in 2009
Midwest Cycling Series: This weeklong series of races in June presents a serious rival to our other big summer series, July’s Superweek. The full schedule has not been announced, but given the organizers’ track record, expect quality.

Matteson: I’ll never quit praising our Tuesday night series in the south suburbs. Even if it means taking a day off work, I urge all beginners to attend at least one session of these practice criteriums before attempting full-blown competition.

The spring warm-ups: We’re lucky to have several weeks of tune-up races in March. They don’t offer much in the way of prizes, but the racing is low-key and collegial. They’re good opportunities to get the kinks out of the system after a long year on the trainer and to reconnect with the friends you haven’t seen in six months. Three consecutive Sundays of racing in Kenosha, Wis., start on March 15. (Weather permitting, naturally.) Then on March 29 the Spring Super Criterium returns to a motor speedway near Rockford. The course is fun and well worth the drive.