Week Wrap-up (2/19-2/27)

I wanna go fast!

With winter coming to an end soon (we hope!), several Spidermonkeys were anxious to get outside.  12 of us rolled out of Roscoe Village Bikes last Saturday for our first outdoor group ride of 2011.  Start time called for 9:00am by John Castro, who showed up late of course! (guess he hit snooze button on all three of his alarm clocks)  The coffee shop in Highland Park was excited to see us back for another season! Hot coffee and Orange muffins warmed our hearts while we warmed our toes.  Lots of new potholes on the route but only 1 flat! Dean showed off his flat changing skills that he learned while riding in Alaska. "Can't take longer than 3 minutes or you get frost bite" he said.  Clearly everyone has been working hard over the winter months to stay in shape.  Look for Stephanie Levin to have a great race at the Spring Super Crit...she looks in good early season form!

This week is the start of the Spidermonkey "taste of" Vision Quest third and final session of this season.  Our performance test this past Thursday night proved what we all expected....Nate Iden is a beast!  Look for him to dominate the early spring races, including our co-sponsored race with Burnham Racing, the Spring Super Criterium.  Everyone of us, 20 in all, improved from our last performance test.  Thanks to Dave "Frank the Tank" Noda of VQ.  Seems the Spidermonkeys not only like to socialize together, we also like to suffer through training together.  Thanks for making the winter months fly by!

4 years and we keep getting better (looking)!!!  With 69 of us wearing the 2011 kits, we are sure to brighten up the streets of Chicago.  Look (out) for Ken Mitchell sporting his skinsuit.  A huge thank you to the 312/Goose Island designers for their help with this years design.  Look for our new 312/Spidermonkey tent at upcoming races too!

A HUGE welcome to our new sponsors for 2011.  Get A Grip Cycles and Bike MS!!!!  Already both new sponsors have shown us what a great partnership this is going to be.  Our goal is to raise at least $10,000 for MS this year.  Already 15 Spidermonkeys have committed to riding the Tour de Farms Bike MS ride in June!!!  We hope many more of you will join us for this amazing experience.  2 days of beautiful roads.  Beer pouring for 312 at the finish of day 1.  We quickly become everyones best friends!!!! You won't believe how well organized this ride is.  Don't miss out, sign up today!!!

A Huge thanks to Get A Grip Cycles for putting together a series of Spidermonkey Clinics.   Last weeks Basic Clinic was a huge success!  Only one tube exploded!!!  Ken showed off his dust removal technique. Kim found out that even Ken can't get some bikes clean Next week maybe he will show us how he keeps his bar tape so clean.  This Wednesday, March 2nd at 6:30, will be the second in the series.  Intermediate Bike Maintenance Clinic. Hope you can make it.

Spring Super Criterium!  25 Spidermonkeys have volunteered to help us make this the best race of the season!  Already 8 Spidermonkeys are planning on racing too!!!!  This is a great race to get your feet wet if you are new to racing.  Wide course, no potholes and sweeping turns.  If you have racing questions, please let us know and we will put you in touch with our "I wanna go fast!" group of race leaders who include Vanessa "Lil V" Buccella, Brandon Diffenderfer, Geoff Scott and Ken Mitchell.  We encourage everyone to give it a try.  Racing is not for everyone...but who knows, you might be the next Cat nothing at all to a Cat 1 racer.  Boogety, Boogety, Boogety, Lets Go Racin!


In the coming months look for "Spidermonkey of the week", "Sponsor of the Month" and several new Spidermonkey Blog contributors.    If you are interested in writing the weekly wrap-up, please let us know.  So far we have 5 volunteers that will alternate.