Quick Superweek update

Jul 22
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Race reports, Superweek

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OK, fellow report dorks, I’ve populated the Evanston wrap-up with all the reports and photo galleries I’m aware of. Go crazy.

The Cat 3 crash video is proving to be an Internet sensation. Its star -- the Bikes To You rider who hits the deck, gets up and is then slammed from behind -- has raced both days since Evanston and seems to be enjoying his new celebrity.

Quick updates from up north: A long delay shaved a few laps from Cat 3 and P/1/2 road races at Holy Hill, but otherwise people seemed happy to be away from the crit courses. If ever there were a race to scout the finish, this was it, as the .4-mile, uphill finishing stretch caught both amateur and pro riders by surprise. In the pro race, a small group slipped away late. It included representatives from both Kelly Benefit Strategies and Rock Racing as well as Frank Pipp (Health Net), making his Superweek debut, but it was Ryan Roth (Team Race) who held a gap from the corner all the way to the line to take the win.

The Cedarburg course was also a welcome one: safe, hilly and fun. It even ran mostly on schedule. The 3’s were scheduled to do 35 miles but did 38 -- serving your correspondent right for only packing one energy gel. Chicago-area riders doing well included Alex Smetana (Spidermonkey Cycling), who won the 4/5’s race in a sprint, and Alex Voitik (Turin), one of this Superweek’s revelations, who halfway through the race was somehow able to form a break faster than you can say, “Dude, that’s a dangerous move.” He and fellow tough guy Matt Hebard (GS Boulder) rode two others off their wheels before Hebard took the win in the two-up sprint.