By Luke Seemann

Can you feel the excitement in the air? All over Chicago desperate cyclists are poring over the Fall Fling overall standings, trying to figure out which permutations will benefit them in the overall. Double points in this weekend’s road race doesn’t help. Cycling is easy. Math is hard!

As for the racing, the usual suspects escaped from the men’s combined 1/2/3 field at Sunday’s criterium in Lombard. Friends, we’ve been racing for six months. Nobody should be surprised when Scott Pearson (Higher Gear) slips away. As Andy Daley (Team Clif Bar Midwest) knows well, when Pearson makes a move, it’s probably the winning move, and the only thing to do is try to grab his wheel and hang on for dear life.

It was Chris Mosola (Delta Faucet) who beat Pearson in the sprint, however, following up on teammate Mark Swartzendruber‘s thumping in Saturday’s time trial. Mosola now sits in second overall but will find his hands full next weekend: Host ABD has him flanked with Jeff Schroetlin in first and Rob Jungels in third, and Rob White (PCW) is no slouch in fourth.

Tomasz Boba (WDT) spends the week with a five-point lead in the 3’s.

I understand a crash disrupted the sprint in the 4’s race, but that’s why it sometimes pays to take a solo flier, as Alex Voitek (Turin) did for the victory. Ryan Cooper (ABD) came in second to take the yellow jersey from time trial winner Reed Oliff (WDT) and open up a nice lead in the overall.

Endure It! Racing is a new cycling/triathlon program that Jason Addante is getting off the ground. It’s off to a good start with a strong showing the citizens category, taking three of the top six spots in the time trial and two of the top six spots in the criterium.  Mike Will (Endure It! Racing) now sits in second behind Eric Christiansen (Unattached).

There’s plenty of other masters action, too, too much for me to wade through, but I’ll note that the 40+ battle between Tom Doughty (AMD/Discovery) and Randy Warren (XXX Racing-AthletiCo) should be a fun one to watch play out. Warren got in a three-man break Sunday with strongmen Andy Kerr (Redline) and Robert Kron (Team Mack) but attacked on the climb with one to go and stayed away.

Only three women showed up for Sunday’s open field. What’s up, ladies? Too busy watching the Bears lose? We’ll see if more show up next week to challenge leaders Jessi Prinner (ABD) in the open and Cecile Redoble (XXX Racing-AthletiCo) in the 4’s.

Full criterium results.

Race reports
Ron Cook (ABD; 3): “During the whole breakaway I knew the end was coming sooner or later.”

Andy Daley (Team Clif Bar Midwest; 1/2): “A simple plan: Do. Not. Get. Dropped. From. Break.  Andy suffers much.  Some pulls measure but 10 meters long.”

Seth Meyer (Get a Grip; 1/2): “I rode strongly and aggressively and was up there. Maybe next time.”

Matt Smith (Big Shark; 3): “Andy did well to stick with the break because they were gone, and the scene behind the break was ugly.”

Scott Van Maldegiam (Spin Doctor Cyclewerks; 4): “A rider got off the front and with a lot of riders attacking, most riders didn’t realize that there was a rider still off the front until after the race was over. Very impressive performance.”