Week Wrap Up (3/11/11-3/20/11)

Last week marked a page in Spidermonkey history. Our first annual Spring training camp in Las Vegas! A quick summary:

• 3 rides in 3 days
• Almost 10,000 feet of climbing
• 150 Miles
• Hoover Dam, Hoover Dam again & Red Rock Canyon
• Fiesta Casino All-You-Can-Eat $4.99 Buffet!!!!
• Epic!

Check out the details here 

Our last Get A Grip clinic (3 part series) was this week. Huge Success! We are so excited to have Get a Grip on board - they are proving to be a fantastic sponsor! We all learned so much and really appreciate the effort that Get A Grip put into this. Huge thanks to Geoff, Michael, and Matt for running the clinics. And thanks to the rest of the Get A Grip crew for making it happen!

Saturday rides are back...well for this week at least. 19 of us were itching to get out. It was cold but awesome. Even made our stop for hot dog's at Budacki's!  Some of the Spidermonkeys got an early start to racing too!  Here is a report from Ken (Shama-lama-ding-dong):

So the 2011 season begins.

For some reason Michael Berman, Geoff Scott and I decided to head up to a very

cold Pleasant Prairie Wisconsin for some early crit action. Also on hand was L'il V who raced earlier in the day getting a 3^rd place. Very cool!

I think the best lesson learned would be not to park next to someone play very loud, very bad techno-pop music. Lesson two during early season races bring all your warm weather gear. You will need it.

Nothing very exciting during our race round and round no breaks, although a few folks tried. Most of the group stayed together and with 3 laps to go we came around and suddenly had one to go. Michael

moves closer to the front and is the first to come through the last turn to the finish. Unfortunately he was nipped at the line but still got third place. Mr. Scott was able to come across with 6^th and I was able to make my way from the very back to sprint pass for a 14^th place.

Feeling good about the week before we all again decided to race in Joliet. A nice race that takes place on a car race track, so a smooth surface with easy turns, joy!

Other Spidermonkeys on hand were again L'il V and Steph, who I believe was doing her first race in a long time. This one was a bit a a reality check as all that winter weight (at least for me) came to a head..ouch. During our Men's 4 race we got lucky and the rain stopped and the sun made it's first real appearance of the day. Not much to say really. Round and round again, this time we became more pack fodder then anything else, but hey it's only March. Thanks to the South Chicago Wheelmen putting this one on and the Joliet Autobahn for opening their doors, indoor changing area and bar to us. We'll be back next year! 

Let's hope for drier and warmer days for the rest of the 2011 season.

Congrats to Stephanie on her 7th place finish!!!!  

Racing

What's happening this week?

• Gaper's Block Crits
• Burnham's Super Spring Criterium (co-sponsored by the Spidermonkey's). Sign up now!

Good luck to all Spidermonkey's racing!