Despite the crappy weather, we were busy riding our bikes all over Chicago!
Wednesday night
Goose Island Dock Party: Goose Island Brewery +Spidermonkey's =
insane amounts of fun! Thanks Goose Island, you really know how to throw a great party and we had a great time!
Wednesday night ride: After seeing red on the radar to the North, the four of us decided to alter the plans and head south on the Lakefront Trail. Excellent idea! We stayed dry and had a nice ride along Chicago's lakefront. On our way back home, we knew some serious weather was coming. Unfortunately, we couldn't make it to cover in time and a few of us were hung out in the rain and hail. This Wednesday we will extend the route up to Highland Park.
Friday Girl’s Bonus Ride! 7 of us showed up and had a blast enjoying the warm weather which was in the 70’s! Hardly seems real now!
Saturday Ride: Despite the crappy forecast, a bunch of the monkey’s showed up and rode up to HP and back. Luckily, they missed all the bad weather!
What a windy and cold day! Congratulations to Spidermonkey’s who raced – Tim, Peter Monko, Brandon, and Lil V! Special congratulations to newest Spidermonkey Derick who came out to race his first criterium and finished strong. The boy’s at
Get a Grip rock! Thanks for coming out to the race and helping out.
Congratulations again to all Spidermonkey’s who raced! Thanks to Rob Curtis of Psimet to resurrect this race. It is one of the most unique criteriums around, very similar to Snake Alley. After the race Brandon stopped to thank Rob for sponsoring the race saying, "I'm pretty sure this is the closest I've ever been to puking during a race." His reply "Then you did it right."
Tuesday morning girl’s ride: Super cold morning but that didn’t stop 9 of us from showing up. Even if you show up late, it’s ok, we’re glad you made it Liz! :) And congrats to Stewart for making it out on her first girl ride of the season!
Coming up this week:
Spidermonkey of the week: Kristi Hanson
I guess you could say I have been athletic my entire life but it took me a while to fall into the world of cycling. Until the 7th grade I would have been classified as a classical ballerina but then a little thing called a growth spurt occurred (aka 7 inches in one summer) and I was basically forced to take a year off to regain control of my limbs. With my newfound height and lack of flexibility, I started playing volleyball and played year round until college when I made the tough decision of giving up something I loved for a normal college experience at the University of Wisconsin.
At Madison I was introduced to the world of cycling through my college boyfriend and it has kind of spiraled out of control from there. I started out racing on the road and then had a little accident that caused me to move away from road racing for many years. During that time, I took up mountain biking and rock climbing to do some adventure racing and then got into the world of triathlon with a goal of learning to swim and completing an Ironman before the age of 30. Success occurred in 2009 when I completed the Ironman Wisconsin.
While training up in Madison, I realized how much I missed the road and I started to get the itch to road race again. It just so happened that right around this time Katie and I met and she asked me to come along to girls (aka sexist) ride where my Spidermonkey journey began. I could not have asked for a better group of people to become apart of. Since joining you crazy kids, I have completed my first cyclocross season (yes I will learn to mount my bike this year), regained my confidence of riding in a pack, started to hang on with the fast kids at least for a few miles, and learned how to drink a few beers and still navigate my fancy bike home from JJ Pepper. Not so bad for a year and a half. You guys rock!!
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