The Bonebell

Dirty Tuesday News

By The Bonebell Tuesday August 31, 2010

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Ouch. That is how I feel right now as muscles I haven’t felt in a while twinge with a slight ache and soreness brought on by the fun madness that is cyclocross. I believe I was decently prepared for the dismounts, the short runups, and the agony of pedaling hard and furious for minutes at a time – but the chaos of relay team tagging had me finding bruises and cuts that I haven’t an idea how I got. Guess it was super fun if I didn’t remember where I got it right?

Chicago Cross Cup
We are proud to be a small sponsor of this great series this year. It is near and dear to our hearts and the abundance of races, spectating opportunities, and media galore makes it easier for us to showcase how awesome it is to get your knobbies down in a park in Chicago. Check out our practices page as we’ll keep it updated with CX practices that are hosted throughout the city. Please note that as exciting as it is for us to rip a grassy field happily, the public parks are exactly that, public, and our behavior and treatment of the parks reflects on the dirtbaggin’ crowds. In other words – don’t run over the kids or dogs and be respectful of other park dwellers.

Plan ahead and register in advance for easier number pickup before your race and for a possible call-up to the front of the row – there is no particular order to how you might called up as it will be at the discretion of the ChiCrossCup crew, but pre-registering is a definite prerequisite for this advantage.

The Bonebell Tolls!
The Bonebell is tolling loudly in this edition of news for all of Half Acre Cycling. In the past few weeks in addition the coming weeks – they have dirtbagged their way into overdrive to provide the off-road cycling community opportunities to become more engaged with the dirt. The ‘Womens Trail Ride’ though re-scheduled, is a well attended opportunity they take to heart and with CAMBr’s support they have introduced mountain biking to a new group of future trail riders with each event. The team has also sponsored the Palos Meltdown, the only and most important mountain bike race in the city. The team is also hosting a pro-CX clinic just for women hosted by Kristin Wentworth on September 11th. NOTE: Registration is capped at 50 women, there are 37 registered so far!

This past weekend, members of the HAC team participated in an awe inspiring manner as a small crew took on the Unnamed Epic MTB Race in Wisconsin on Saturday before subjecting themselves to the awesomeness of relay cyclocross on Sunday, multiple events too. By many a coach’s determination, this is plain stupid. But it’s not about what is right or wrong in the training book – it’s how about how much fun you should be having and exploring the limitations of your body while you have the ability to do so. Kudos for getting dirty doubly and keeping the smiles for miles while doing it.

Thank you Half Acre for continuing a dirtbaggin’ legacy this year and keep it up!

xXx Racing Relay Cross
As I originally stated previously – ouch. This was a 1st event of its kind, relay cyclocross and it was a smashing success to be the unofficial start of the CX season in Chicago. xXx Racing has worked hard to bring this event to Jackson Park every year and called upon their large base to put on one more race than usual and the participation and the pats on the backs were well deserved! The Bonebell Tolls for thee in this addition as well – derka derka for the hard work of setting up and breaking down an event that will be remembered all season long and giving us a preview of the heckling coming up this season!

Mox’s Bandit Cross
Saturday – September 4th – LaBagh Woods starting at 8:00AM for Women/9:00AM for Men. The only way to improve in cyclocross is to keep hurting yourself in race conditions – come out and participate in these types of events at an hour that shouldn’t disturb the park locals in this northside location which is coincidentally an old MTB trail system from the 80s. Ahh – that was a good time back in 1989. This event brought to you by Mox Multisport.

Ah Yes – The Art of the Heckle.

In Due Time.

By El Maya Friday August 27, 2010

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There was a portrait plaque that hung in my grandfather’s living room. It was of my father, and all his brothers, standing on the grassy knoll by the Montrose lakefront, all of them looking youthful and intense. They had a sort of ‘goodfellas‘ vibe going in the picture – and below the picture was a bronze plaque that read “1969 Los Mayas – Chicago”. It was their soccer club that they organized for their fellow Guatemalans back in the day. Montrose Harbor, when it actually had boats that would dock in near the hill before it was filled in, was the breaking ground for Latin Americans to get together with their families to spectate and participate in soccer events all weekend long. I grew up going to soccer Sundays at Montrose practically every weekend, all year long, for decades. It was family time and a time to witness some athletic grace of some great amateur soccer players. The tradition had grown so solid, that in the early nineties, the City of Chicago took note to keep the field protected for all year round use for soccer participants which by then extended the Latin community and involved the American Youth Soccer Organization and the Chicago Sports and Social Clubs. The love of the sport which was started as a tradition by the few, was carried on, family to family, eventually to a greater audience, and then becoming a part of everyday activity on Chicago’s lakefront.

I find myself in a similar role to the young men in that photo in 1969. Only now – I stand on the same grass with cleated cycling shoes and a knobby tired bicycle. A new affection is growing in using the city’s parks and forest preserves to keep the knobby side down. It grows every year and the accessibility to most of the dirt riding arenas is getting more and more accessible with each passing year. Clubs and racing teams are growing as shown by the level of participation in each of the respective activities of Mountain Biking and Cyclocross. The passion that drives both are exclaimed through the interwebs and the excitement to participate is showing a healthy growth every year. The Chicago Cyclocross Cup site showed some links from the way-back-machine that showed the ChiCrossCup in its infancy with a mere three races and at most 40 participants for the races. That was six years ago. The Palos Meltdown started four years ago had about 150 racers show up, and now is numbering in the 500s.

Palos Forest Preserve, then known as Palos Park, hosted the National Cyclocross Championships for 4 years starting in 1963. Montrose is now home of the Illinois State Championships. There is tradition deeply rooted in Chicago for dirtbags. The mission is ahead of us to bring that notoriety and attention in continuing making the sport accessible, fun, and worthy of recognition years from now. It’s just a few hundred locals clanging cowbells and proud of members of the CAMBr army – but what a difference it would make if it numbered in the thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands?

If a few immigrants could get together and say ‘let’s start a soccer club and play here’ and nourish that effort for years to turn it into a diehard tradition, then I sincerely have faith in the dirtbag community to do the same with off-road cycling. Worlds Master Championships will be held in the United States in Kentucky. I envision Chicago holding a National caliber MTB race and a world class caliber cyclocross park. Even better, I wish that in due time, I’ll have a photo in my home of me and friends dirtbaggin’ and my kids looking at it saying, “thanks dad”.

This Sunday – Game On.

Dirty Tuesday News

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We are tired – whew. Awesome weekend of hammering out 4 laps of beloved Palos goodness. The racing is far from over folks. Tag Team Cyclocross Many of us and hopefully you, are switching your XC legs to CX legs for this coming weekend’s Tag Team CX Race hosted by xXx Racing-AthletiCo. Register before Thursday [...]

2010 World Championships of Chicago Mountain Bike Racing

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It is the eve of the eve of the unoffiicial World Championships of Chicago Mountain Bike Racing. If you have knobs in the garage, closet, or store room, pull ‘em out, dust ‘em off, and straighten those handlebars. How fortuitous, this Meltdown. For the past four years we’ve had great weather for race day. This [...]

Dirty Tuesday News

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Nevada Dave – doing it for the everyman! {Photo Credit: Mike Campbell} This is ‘the’ news item of the day – Palos Meltdown. All year long – carpools of folks have been crossing state lines or driving 2 plus hours to get to their race destinations. WORS, WEMS, DINO, and IHMBS, have all done their [...]

Ladies’ Dirt Ride 3

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It’s that time again! Please join us for our third off-road ride of the season next Saturday, August 21st. As a reminder, this is a ride for women and transgender cyclists of all ability levels who are interested in trying out mountain biking or looking for a way to meet new folks to ride with. [...]