Wednesday notebook
Mar 3
2010
2010
- » The O’Fallon Grand Prix is billing itself as our state road race. Illinois Cycling Association president Steve Hansen says the ICA will announce its full slate of state championships soon. I’ve not done O’Fallon, but its 2009 course featured 1,000 feet of elevation and nearly that many turns in each of its 22-mile laps. This will make for a busy weekend: The next day Wisconsin holds its own state championships with the popular Spring Prairie Road Race. (Tower Racing, which did excellent work organizing our state road races for the past two years, tells me it will not be putting on a race this year.)
» The 2009 ICA Awards banquet is scheduled for Saturday, March 13, at Indian Lakes Resort in Bloomingdale. USA Cycling CEO Steve Johnson and former national road champion Tom Schuler of Tour of America’s Dairyland are scheduled to appear.
» The South Chicago Wheelmen’s Tuesday Criterium Series in Matteson is a local institution, and for more than 15 years a cornerstone of that institution has been official Mark Dorinson. (Mike Kelly (South Chicago Wheelmen) notes that Dorinson is “the one that drove the beat up grey Omni, the one that often forgot his whistle and started a race by saying ‘Tweet.’”) Dorinson is retiring from his Matteson duties, and he will be missed.
» The Giro d’Grafton joins the USA Crit series this year. That should attract extra firepower to the Tour of America’s Dairyland, and I hope that means both men and women.
» This month’s Gapers Block Crit Series sold out both men’s heats. Ten spots in each race, however, are reserved for day-of registrations. First come, first served.
» Val Brostrom (Bouledogue Tout Noir) is programming races at the Northbrook Velodrome this season and tells me she’s looking at Aug. 21-22 for a weekend of state championships, rather than spreading events over several weeks.
» Cyclocross in the winter Olympics?
» This year’s masters national championships in Louisville, Ky., may be your last chance to take part in a nearby championship for a few years: Bend, Ore., gobbled them up, too.
» A Chicago Web developer has designed a fantasy cycling game.
Mar 3
2010
2:30 pm
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Its a long way from Chicago, but well worth the drive to race O’Fallon!