Week Wrap Up (11/1/10-11/7/10)

Hot Chocolate 15k/5k: What a showing by the Spider monkey's! There were so many of us, I lost track. It was cold but most of us had a good run. Congrats to Paul Decker who ran the 5k in 20:02 which got him 3rd in his division. Way to go Paul!

VQ class started this week and was complete hell...although most of us apparently enjoy hell. Two 20 minute all out tests made for 20 of us almost needing the throw up bucket. The good news...Stewart improved by over 20 watts!

Sunday Woodstock cross race: Crazy but true: after a late, fun night of partying, some of us made it to the race...and did well! Congrats to Bryan Witry for placing second in the men's cat 4b's!

Spidermonkey End of Year Bash III

WOW! I think it's safe to say that everybody had a fantastic time. Thanks to Get a Grip for hosting and DJ Ryan for being such an awesome DJ! Also, Dean and Vanessa want to thank everybody for such an unexpected, thoughtful gift - we are looking forward to eating out at our favorite restaurant, Carnivale. You guys are the best!

Awards this year went to:

Volunteer of the year: Joe Hausfeld (two years in a row!)

First time century riders: Stewart, Anna, Grace, Stephanie, Paul D, Paul S, and Paul W

First time marathoners: Judith and Trent

IronMan's: Amy's first! Brianna's second!

Wednesday night rides best girl attendance: Katie

Wednesday night rides best overall attendance: Brandon Diffenderfer

Tuesday girl rides best attendance and best recruiter: Katie

Prince of Fashion: Ken (duh)

Best Domestique: Josh

Most creative editor extroardinaire: Lil V

Exceptional enthusiasm: Trent

Crazier than Trent: Fred

Most likely to arrive late to the ride: John Castro

Most likely to pull a rookie move, forget to clip out, and fall at a stoplight: Kim

Most likely to be at JJ Peppers with a High Life: Nate Iden and Matt Smith

Most likely to get married in 2010: Sam and Meghan Winn. Rebecca and Mike Meyers.

Most improved: Stewart

Most improved racer - "cat nothing to a cat 4": Matt Riezman

And last but not least, The Ricky Bobby Award went to: John Castro!

The qualities for the Ricky Bobby Award are shows initiative, encouraging, involved, supportive, the rock of Spidermonkey who wakes up and pisses excellence! We all think John Castro has showed these qualities from day one and are so excited he's a Spidermonkey!

We had such a great year and are so happy to be able to donate to the World Bicycle Relief Fund. We're also donating the tips we earned from pouring beer at Northwestern games to the MS Society. Thanks to everybody involved!

Thanks to all our current and future sponsors: Turner, Abt, Roscoe Village Bikes, Enzo's Buttonhole, Zym, Think Big, Goose Island, MS Society, Get a Grip Cycles, Universal Sole

And thanks to all Spidermonkey's for making it such a great year! Can you believe that 2011 will be even better??? Check out highlights from the party: http://picasaweb.google.com/Spidermonkey312/EndOfYearBashIII#

And Spidermonkey's End of Year video (Thank you Lil V, fantastic job!) here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CukQK42ZCU

Coming up this week:

Thursday VQ class

Saturday - last Northwestern game. Stop by the Goose Island tent to say hi!

Saturday and Sunday - Cross race at Hilton Indian Lakes Resort. Stop by to cheer on the Spidermonkey's!!

Spidermonkey of the week: John Castro

I caught the biking bug back in 1999 during an internship in Atlanta, a friend and I took our bikes (he had a Kmart bike, I had a hybrid) out on some singletrack trails near the Chattahoochee. There we were, those guys, no helmets, on some super gnarly trails on shit bikes. We couldn’t stop smiling all day afterwards. It wasn’t until I had an internship out in Seattle the following year that I really started to ride for real. Mountain biking out there was AWESOME. There’s few experiences like flying through the trees on smooth, buff, flowy singletrack. Since I was still a beginner, I was always lucky to have more experienced riders helping me along, teaching me how to climb, corner, ride catwalks and teeter totters, etc. Back at Purdue, I joined the cycling club and rode road on my cousin’s Schwinn with down tube shifters. Even there, more experienced cyclists taught me about nutrition, drafting, pace lining, etc.

After college I lived out east in CT for 4 years, I got to ride or run almost every day. Mountain biking and road riding were great, the trails, roads and hills were awesome and plentiful. Again, I always had more experienced people helping me along. On my first 100 miler, my friends encouraged me the whole way and even pushed me up some of the hills. The group I rode with was filled with characters. Our Sunday ride was essentially just an excuse to hang out with your friends, we just happened to be riding our bike for 65 miles, instead of drinking at a bar (which we did a lot too). Also, we stopped around the halfway point of the ride and ate breakfast, not just a muffin or banana, real breakfast (Ken Mitchell style). We rode hard, but had a whole lot of fun too.

I moved back to Chicago in 2006 to go back to grad school for architecture. Unfortunately, grad school and free time don’t mix well and cycling took a back seat for a while. I rode with the Chicago Cycling Club on Monday and Wednesday nights when I could, but even that was few and far between. Towards the end of grad school, as I started to have more free time, I started to think how I missed having that group of friends out riding on the roads.

On one fateful evening at the 2008 Bicycle Film Festival I happened to sit next to a random guy (Keith Seiz). We started talking and he mentioned he rode with a group called the Spidermonkeys on the weekends. Well, it took me a couple of weeks to make it to a ride, but after the first one I went on, the infamous “Nate Iden Chamois Cream Ride,” I knew the Spidermonkeys were my kind of people.

What I appreciate about the Spidermonkeys is the fact that we’re a diverse group; age, ability, experience, racers, non-racers, groupies, etc. I have as much fun riding with each and every one of you jokers as I do having a High Life (or non-alcoholic beverage with Little V) with you. I appreciate that we are accepting of new riders; we all started somewhere (well, except for Ken Mitchell who came out of the womb in a skinsuit and on a custom Seven) and we’ve all been helped along the way to get where we are today. In general, the Spidermonkeys stress having fun on the bike and whatever “fun on the bike” means to each of you, we support it!!

Congratulations John aka "2010 Ricky Bobby Award Recipient"!