Guest Spidermonkey of the Week - Andy Daley!

Andy Daley!

Hi. My name is Andy Daley. Thanks to a long, boring criterium, my domination of 127th position in said long, boring criterium, a slightly rhyming name, and a crew of Goose Island beverage imbibed SpiderMonkeys, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of me.

The powers that be were kind enough to let me fill the Spidermonkey blogosphere with a little about me. My story starts a few years back when while on a group ride, Dean was lamenting how he was constantly made fun of at races for getting drunk and yelling out Air Supply lyrics. At the same time, I was complaining about always being mistaken for ChiCrossCup Titan Jason Knauff. It was then we worked out a solution. He’d substitute Air Supply lyrics for chanting my name, and I’d bury Mr. Knauff in obscurity. (One out of two ain’t bad).

Dean, drunk serenading Matt Smith, again:
“Girl you’re every woman in the world to me.
You’re my fantasy, you’re my reality”

If I’ve done my math right, this is my 9th year of racing bicycles. I didn’t race in college or anything like that, so when I started up in 2004 as a Cat 5 newbie, I was straight up terrible. Got dropped on the first lap of Monsters of the Midway. Dropped on the first lap of the State Road race. Dropped at Downers Grove. Dropped Dropped Dropped.

Eventually, though, I reduced my effective entry entry fee down from $25 per lap and got good enough to move past the 4’s into the 3’s and then squeak by into the Category 2’s. As a Cat 2, typically my race ‘strategy’ was move up as many spots as I could when I heard the chase motorcycle tail gunning the back of the pack. Still, good, good times. I’ll never forget working myself into a deep, deep hole just to finish once the opener of Superweek, the Beverly Cycling Classic.

I’ve since downgraded to a Cat 3. I told the USAC officials I needed to downgrade due to having a newborn to take care of, but in reality it was all part of my evil genius plan to race in the same category as a certain venison jerky maker.

Shake and Bake race strategy in action at Evanston last year:
“Brandon, I’m bonking. More deer jerky, please!”

Tasty venison snacks aside, I’m looking very forward to racing with the Cat 3 Spidermonkeys and helping out the Cat 4’s and Cat 5’s avoid some of the many mistakes I made when I was just starting out. You’ll be hearing more soon about us Burnham veterans offering to tell war stories and give some race advice. Just nod and pretend to be interested during the war story retelling and I promise you’ll eek out at least a few racing nuggets of info. Hopefully.

Cheers! Andy