Turnout was light this weekend, and I suspect several reasons. Relatively unknown races. Costs of travel and entry. Riders still pooped from Memorial Day. It’s too bad, because I’m hearing nothing but praise for the O’Fallon Grand Prix and the new Wonder Lake Lakeside Criterium: good courses, good organization. I hope we get another chance at them in 2010.

Some highlights:

• » Few of us race as week-in, week-out as the boys at Burnham Racing. This weekend two of them finally picked up what I believe are their first road wins: Julian Baumgartner wore down a break and soloed to a 3’s win in O’Fallon, and at Wonder Lake Jason Knauff took an early leave from the 3’s and crossed the line well ahead of a chasing pack (above).
• » WDT-Allvoi had a productive weekend, too. Nathan Moorehouse and Tomasz Boba went 1-2 in the P/1/2 race a Wonder Lake, and James Londono won the 5’s race. Meanwhile, Chris Gola was in Sussex, Wis., getting 2nd in the masters 3/4’s at the Sussex Criterium. The previous day, Boba won the masters 1/2/3’s and Caroline Haebig won the women’s 4’s at the Chiropractic Criterium in Brookfield, Wis., a course that featured a significant climb.
• » Other local results from downstate: Kyle Hilgendorf (Unattached) finished 2nd in the 5’s, and William Pankonin (XXX Racing-AthletiCo) made the 4’s break to finish 5th.
• » And from Wisconsin: Chris Padfield sprinted to a 2nd place in the 3’s Saturday. In Sussex, Dave Moyer (XXX Racing-AthletiCo) grabbed 3rd in the 3’s followed by Julio Jacobo (PYOC) in 4th, and Lagrange’s Cathy Frampton (Unattached) won the women’s 4’s.

Saturday results
Chiropractic Criterium
O’Fallon Grand Prix

Sunday results
Sussex Criterium
Wonder Lake

O’Fallon Grand Prix reports
Julian Baumgartner (Burnham Racing; 3): “I again called upon the magic mojo from my Zipp 404’s and bridged up to a still-solidifying break and went right to the front, put my head down and went to work.”

Colm Flannery (Proctor; 4/5): “I got in a race with 35 sprinters and 1 diesel.”

William Pankonin (XXX Racing-AthletiCo; 4): “No mercy, and we didn’t look back until we passed the field that started before us.”

Tony Rienks (Beverly Bike/Vee-Pak; 4): “Wave after wave of attacks were going on. Of course I caught all of them except for the one that stuck.”

Chiropractic Criterium reports
Danny Beissinger (Cycle Smithy; 3, P/1/2/3): “All of a sudden, I ain’ts got me no more matches.”

Chris Padfield (Team Get a Grip Cycles; 3): “They started to peel to the right with the stereotypical ‘No you do the work!’ move, which I recognized as my perfect opportunity to jump.”

Wonder Lake reports
Danny Beissinger (Cycle Smithy; 3): “I knew that Burnham and South Chicago would try to put someone into the break. I didn’t think it would happen on the second lap.”

Julian Baumgartner (Burnham Racing; 3): “Maybe he just had to blow his nose and wanted some space.”

Erik Didriksen (XXX Racing-AthletiCo; 4): “I pedaled HARD through turn one to distance myself from that lunacy.”

Kristen Meshberg (Team BH USA; W-P/1/2/3, P/1/2): “A couple times there were some hard accelerations where I blew up and thought, ‘OK, I’m dropped,’ but then I would look up and see the field slowing and think, ‘Oh $%*&, now I have to keep going.’”

Wonder Lake photos
Matt Smith

Sussex photos
John Wilke