Week Wrap Up (Sept. 10-18)

Whether it was your first century (Justeen, Brandon, Paul) or your 50th, the Harmon Hundred was a difficult day! With 1500 feet of climbing in the last 25 miles, you were guaranteed to hear some cussing, singing and laughing when we came across a sign that said "Hills".  A great ride in Wisconsin would not be complete without a stop at the Worlds Famous Legendary Brat Stop for brats and cheese curds! 


Two of our midweek gems came to a season end this week.  The Tuesday morning women's ride and the Wed. night ride both saw a HUGE increase in attendance, speed, and safety!!!!  JJPeppers will be spending the next few months stocking up inventory of High Life and rumor has it they are putting in a mirror ball dance floor in the parking lot for us. Great work to our amazing ride leaders on helping make these rides successful!

One of our favorite target rides of the year was this past Sunday, the North Shore Century from Evanston to Kenosha (and back).  48 Spidermonkeys ventured out in what looked like it might be a nasty day of rain.  Turned out only the last 40 were wet....really wet!  We enjoyed our Potato Soup in Kenosha, lots of laughs and smiles....then headed home.  10 flats later, Yes 10, we all made it!  We made lots of friends along the way. Emails from a couple of new friends: "You guys rocked and I look forward to knowing more"  "Really, really enjoyed riding with you guys.  You're mentality is much different than many of the groups I've ridden with.  Everybody rode and signaled amazingly but still seemed to have a ton of fun the whole time. We departed from your group at one of the rest stops and didn't enjoy the rest of the ride"

While many of us were riding to Kenosha, a huge group of monkeys were getting dirty in the muckity muck at Jackson Park. The Chicago Cross Cup opened up with a bang...from the Spidermonkeys!  Huge congrats to Kim on reaching the top step of the podium!  Ken, Michael Berman, Matt Daniel, Geoff Scott, Paul, Kelly, Kristi, Peter, Hayes and Trent all raced.  Can't wait to heckle you all soon.  See you at Hopkins Park on 10/2!  

Spidermonkey of the week:  Tim Driver 


About five years ago a buddy of mine was going to do a 3 day ride for Make A Wish, so I decided to join.  After that I was hooked on cycling.  Shortly after that I moved to the big city of Chicago.  During the first year or so while I lived here I spent my cycling time as a Pathlete, avoiding Mayhem up and down LSD path and getting neck strains from the gorgeous, scantily clad girls.  It got to be a little dangerous in year two, so I decided to take my talents to the streets. I found a route that went to the northern ‘burbs and soon enough felt as if I might move to Kenilworth one day.  It was on a Wednesday night early in the spring that I met up with a couple of monkeys.  Wow, was that group moving fast!  I asked if I could ride north with them and they said sure, just stay in the back.  It was a great experience and I knew that I wanted to do it again.  “When do you guys ride?” I asked.  “Wednesday.  We leave from Roscoe Village. You know where that is?”  “Sure”, I replied, having no idea if Roscoe Village was a suburb or what.  Thanks to the world wide web I figured it out.  So I started riding with the Wednesday night crew, where I had my first ever JJPeppers High Life.   Finally, after I think two seasons I asked about joining the group.  This is the first year I have officially been a Monkey and it has been better than ever.  To continue on the love fest of this past week, everyone on SMC is very supportive and  great to hang around.  I really look forward to all of our rides and events!