One great thing about ABR races is that there’s always, how shall I put it, flexibility with racing categories. One can usually race above one’s USCF category — or below it, natch — to test the waters with faster riders. Sometimes this yields a revelation, and that was the case Sunday at the Elgin Cycling Classic.

Ryan Freund (IIT) has had an auspicious season as a 4 but he raced the 3’s Sunday. In the penultimate lap, he bridged to Julian Baumgartner (Vitaminwater-Trek) and Chip Gray (Team Get a Grip Cycles), who had been off the front for 30 minutes but were fading, giving them just the juice they needed to hold off the pack. Freund then outsprinted both of them for the win. But he wasn’t done: Fruend then jumped into the P/1/2 race, where he finished an impressive 3rd in the field sprint, 5th overall. Something tells me there will be a number of squads vying for Freund’s services in 2009.

The other great thing about ABR races is that the results sheets often include commentary from all the races, so instead of trying to reconstruct the races myself I’ll just refer you to the full Elgin results and go back to enjoying my vacation.

Race reports
Courier News: “In a wild finish, Frank Dierking of Madison, Wis., caught his second wind just in time to win the men’s P/1/2 race.”

Debbie Dust (Team Kenda Tire; 40+): “I love to race with the 40+ masters men for a lot of reasons:  they’re pretty much all nice guys, they race hard, they’re aggressive, they race (mostly) smart and the majority know how to race.”

Chip Gray (Team Get a Grip Cycles; 3): “When the pack started to close in, the adrenaline rose. They came dangerously close at least twice before the wheel pit closed.”

Bryan McVey (Vision Quest; P/1/2): “I came into the corner second wheel, and my front tire lost traction and turned sideways on me, hurling me into a front flip over my handlebars, landing on my side and back.”

Jared Rogers (XXX Racing-AthletiCo; 5): “At one point I saw something up the road that I’ve personally never seen in my two seasons of racing

lapped riders!”

June Upshaw (Verdigris; W-1/2): “We all tried twice or three times to attack. It was fast and lots of change-ups. Primes and prime attacks. Really amazing with just a small pack, but a good bunch of fun. “

Photos
Jason Knauff
Julie Pusateri