Monsters of The What? Ride of Silence

I am back, for now. Between the rain and all, have been doing some racing, and some training. Probably no where what I should be doing, but I've been busy. Coach Stan-O gave me "the lecture" a couple of weeks ago. Something to the effect of: " Steve-O, if you are not going to follow your training plan, don't blame me come the end of the season." You know what, he's right, and I told him that, so I am going to do it, little to no excuse.

Two Saturday's ago, raced the O'Fallon Gold Cup in Missouri. A FAST circuit/criterium, with three "power-hills" in it, which of course I hate, because I am 5'5" and weigh 162 lbs. Do the math, and it does NOT translate into going up hills fast, let alone 76 times in an hour and 5 minutes. I raced, raced well, there was a break, I finished with the field, and all was good. G & I headed to Quincy, IL. that afternoon to see my Mother-in-Law for Mother's Day, and see my Father-in-Law, Big D.

So, here we go again. The infamous Monsters of the Midway Criterium in Chicago. I went up to see my Dad the night before, with Uncle Gary, so we got to spend a little time together. Pretty amazing how cool your P's get, the older you get? I entered the Masters 30+ (also known as the Pro, I, II and a couple of Cat III's) There was a huge delay because some poor girl in the women's race crashed, and had to be carted off to the hospital in an ambulance. I said a prayer for her & her family. My teammate & buddy for years, J-LO and I hanging at the line for the cat III race.

The race was FAST, there was a break of all the usual suspects, some guy won, who deserved it. There were stupid crashes, which spooked me after the Vernon Hills crash two weeks ago, and I finished with the field. The wind was 30+ mph down the front stretch, and 30+ headwind on the back stretch. We still managed a 26.2 mph avg, at 262 watts!

The Cat 3 race later in the afternoon was delayed, again, due to a major crash on the back stretch of the Cat 4 race. Ambulances were summoned, people left on stretchers, and people were obviously hurt, bad. I hope everyone is doing OK, and I shall say a prayer for them as well. The race was fast as well, there were crashes, including the final lap, first turn of the final lap when some guy's seatpost broke off, OUCH! Bad race karma so far. I finished with the field, did not crash, and all is well so far.


Jonathon "Chip" Gray took these photos, right after he did really well in the 30+ race. He's been really busy with school, so his racing has not been as often as he'd like. Chip, good job! On the education part, as well as the photo's.

Remember: Tomorrow, Wednesday May 20th is the Worldwide Ride of Silence, 7 PM. Please show your support for our fellow cyclists who have been killed, injured & maimed while on their bikes. I of course have personal & extensive knowledge of this fight, and we need to show our support. got to www.rideofsilence.org for a location near you.