There’s a technical term for a sunny, warm day which follows two rainy days. It’s called Monday. – Unknown

<insert “wah wah waaaaaahhh” here>

Despite the rainy weather, folks have been able to get to Illinois’ largest state park, Wisconsin, to race the Subaru Cup which is the Midwest’s largest and only Pro XCT race in the area. This gave many racers and fans alike to view the national big dogs come out and duke it out on the various courses provided by Mt. Morris. Short Track, Super-D, and Cross Country challenges gave a little something to everyone to participate in. On the line was the title for the Midwest Champion of the Cup Series. The Bonebell tolls for “Holly Klug” who wrangled in a top 5 finish in the Womens Cat 1 field! Peruse some pretty awesome photos of the event by Chicago dirtbag photographer extraordinaire, Amy Dykema, here.

CAMBr Needs You!
With all the rain that has besieged our poor trails – the need for volunteers is greatly appreciated for Trail Work Days. Downed trees, mudded trails, lost paths, and debris are all things the trail crews have to contend with to make the trails smooth for riding when they become dry. Consider a weekend or two or three to contribute some time to and of course make new friends in the dirtbag community. Trail Work Days can be found on our calendar here and directly from CAMBr here. While you’re at it – consider becoming a member as your dollars go a long way to help buy tools and resources to keep the maintenance going strong!

Pump It Up!
Ever try a pump track? Curious about what it is? Well – for all the old school BMXers out there, here is a great opportunity to test your skills against other riders in an actual race format within the city limits! Join CAMBr West for a full day of activities to highlight ‘The Garden‘. Spectating is FREE of charge – so come on by and check out the city’s only dirt bike park on July 31st. Registered entries will receive a T-Shirt commemorating the event – snazzy too!

CX Clinic for Women
Half Acre Cycling has Cyclocross Clinic being led by Kristin Wentworth, pro CX racer! This event is limited to 50 participants, so consider registering early to ensure your spot despite it being way out in September – we’ll gladly remind you fine dirtbags about it.

Millee-Wok-Kay
So who’s up for going to Ray’s in Milwaukee this fall? Oh expect some winter madness to bound in again, Illinois largest state park capital. {Sorry Cheddar heads, can’t resist – but thanks for Ray’s man!}

Hendrix – get us through this rainy weather…

Speaking of Dirt Riding
This Saturday is the Women’s Trail Ride brought to you by Julia Daher and Half Acre Cycling. CAMBr will be providing energy bars and drinks for those who attend as well! The meet up will be at 10:00AM at the Wolf Roads Parking Lot at Palos Forest Preserve.

Gravel Metric Century
The gravel road ride/race is on this Sunday, May 30th in DeKalb at 9:00AM. Are you ready for some gravely fun? You should be – riders of all backgrounds and bikes are encouraged to participate – everyone is A WINNER at this event. You have a cross bike, bring it (duh!), got an MTB, bring it, got a road bike, bring it, got a cruiser, bring it. It’s self supported, the route will be marked, but if you have a GPS unit, you’ll be even more set for the day.

Follow Me Premiere
A huge thanks for CAMBr for showing the ‘Follow Me’ movie at the Cobra Lounge this past Sunday. A great time was had by all watching some of Ted Blanco’s slick pre-movie features from ‘The Garden’, ‘Plainfield Bike Park’, and ‘Marquette Park’ – and then of course the feature film showing what MTB has progressed into the past few years. It used to be that 30 foot gap jumps and 15 foot ramps were considered monstrous for mountain bikers. It seems with the new technology, lighterweight materials, and bigger gumption have made the sport accept 120 foot gap jumps, and 80 foot ramps as the new norm for serious dirt baggers. Watching the film quickly reminded everyone how awesome it is to truly be free on the dirt and push your limits in a gravity assisted way.

Special thank you for the following Bike Shops that contributed to this event with free merchandise and services for the raffle after the movie:

Rapid Transit Cycleshop
Johnny Sprockets
Get A Grip Cycles

Please continue the support for CAMBr and become a member! With your membership, the organization can continue to bring you great things on the trail and in Chicago. A great example is the ‘The Garden’ who will have a ‘Kona Demo Day’ coming on June 5th from 12-6PM. You can come test ride fly test bikes on a real pump and dirt track. Also you get a chance to see the local talent show you how its done.

Doping in Cycling
Who knew?

In addition to the cool movie premiere – its a fundraiser for CAMBr to keep them keeping on and giving us what we crave – bigger, better, and sweeter maintained trails for Chicago. They and we are encouraging you to come catch the film and perhaps get lucky in the raffles we have going on that night.

Prizes for the raffle will be donated by Johnny Sprockets, Get A Grip Cycles, CAMBr, and one small prize from us! So come on down – have a brew, watch a great flick with a bunch of dirtbags and enter the raffle to win some great prizes and schwag from the MTB community!

Here’s the preview for this fine movie:

Hey There’s Racing Going On!
Don’t forget that Illinois has a Homegrown Racing Series and some strong Chicagoans have been represented very well in the Elite/Expert Class! The Bonebell is tolling for John Gatto and Tim Yuska who gave the IHRS a 1,2 punch in the Elite Category at Black Partridge. If you want to give a strong performance at the Palos Meltdown – then practice makes perfect, select some of the Illinois Series to do some racing and hone your skills and learn some new trails in the process. Stiggity was happy to have attended and may post up some of his experience soon.

Don’t Forget Trail Work Days!
If you want a slot at the Palos Meltdown for preferred call-up at the line – then get in as many trail work days as you can! The calendar is here – get out there and get on it. We’ll soon be hitting the trail work days as well and documenting exactly what it takes to participate in preserving trails the CAMBr and IMBA way.

Hooky Wednesdays Are On!
Every Wednesday, starting next week, if you want to hang on for a long endurance ride at Palos or one of the other trail systems (weather permitting of course) then hook up on Facebook and become a fan of our page! We’ll post up meet times and will generally be playing hooky every Wednesday from next week through June between 2:00PM-6:00PM for endurance riding in the vein of good tempo with minimal stops – so its a good pace but not destructive pace as the aim is for good endurance riding. Join us if you have time on the trails.

Chicago Athlete
Spectrum Magazine

Dave has also been raising as much awareness as he can for the Climate Cycles organization so that Chicago Public Schools can install solar panels to produce as much clean energy as possible while educating students on the benefits of solar power. Its a win/win for both educators, students, and the environment. If you’d like to assist Nevada Dave in reaching his monetary goal of providing a solar benefit to the public school system – simply visit his page and give what you can. In addition, to the fundraising, Nevada Dave will be riding from the Indiana Dunes to Chicago on May 15th with his crazy team from Trader Joe’s who will be donning pirate costumes for the entire route.

Dave has been riding his heart out in search of friendship from all walks of life from all over this country – if you’ve ever met him you’d know that he is genuinely concerned not only of the environment, bicycle racing, or saving the trails – he’s concerned about everyone not having as much fun as they should and making a difference while they can – on their bikes if possible. Dave Norton – thanks for inspiring us.

Here’s the Climate Cycle video from Dave’s team last year – this year will surely be a great time.

I chose the monster.

There are those days, and they come only seldom, where the bike is brand new. The maiden voyage on a new bicycle is as close as you will ever get to that feeling we had so long ago, that first ride without the training wheels. Do we even remember it? I feel like I do but who knows what that feeling really is. It’s just a longing to know what that first time really felt like. We want so badly to go back to that day, yet riding with the abilities that we have now we wouldn’t trade for a second. Such is the first ride on that new bike. The grips feel a little funny. The shifters, while they work flawlessly, are unfamiliar in their sound and action. Subtle differences from bikes you have become accustomed to, manifest themselves as ghosts of the bike now a memory. The new bike feels awkward yet grows more at ease with every pedal stroke.

With a small window for riding I set out Sunday morning for ‘the’ ride. Short of my riding buddies not showing up in the morning it was a brilliant ride. Sure enough the awkward first glances were there, I stepped on her feet a couple of times during the first song. Those songs were generally a little slower tempo than usual, I had to see first hand how the dance was going to go. But by the end of the ride I was in tune and the trail began to feel familiar again. The switch to the big wheels is a little confusing at first. Traction is as good as they say it is. But, the Scott Scale 29er is no rickety wagon wheel bike. Short chainstays, a stout front end, and a bottom bracket close to two inches lower than I was used to make this a far more agile bike than I had expected. It’s not superlight, but the bike is noticably lighter than the Implant it replaces. Thanks to Get A Grip, the sizing is feeling right, it’s only one ride in, but so far I love the bike. Level 17 Derka. This is my first “race” bike in almost a decade. Ohhh I can’t wait to toe the line with it.

Now, if only I could get El Maya and Nevada to answer the alarm clock, maybe this video will help.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Saturday, April 3rd, Waterfall Glen, 9:30AM
Getting to Waterfall Glen is very easy by car (not much less difficult by bike). It is 1.5 hour steady ride from most parts of the city if that is your fancy – use the new fancy Google maps bike route to assist your route making. Driving is a straight shot down I-55 South to Cass Ave. exit south for not even a 1/4 mile and you’ll see the entrance on your right hand side.

This is the first of what will be many ride opportunities presented to you by teams, The Bonebell, CAMBr, or all three to get everyone enthused about getting off-road. Its easier than you think, its fun, its challenging, and it is indeed possible.

This weekend’s Ladie’s Ride will have CAMBr available after the event to provide refreshments to the ladies who participate in the off-road excursion. This is a great opportunity to find out what CAMBr does to help keep our trails maintained, accessible, and how you can get involved if you instantly fall in love with this activity. Thank You CAMBr, Half Acre, and Julia Daher for bringing the city this spring opportunity!

Buy A Jersey!
Time is ticking – don’t forget to visit our store to score yourself a jersey and matching shorts. Store closes on April 13th and these limited edition sets will no longer be available for order. Don’t get left out and know that you’d be supporting the cause for all dirtbags for future promotions.

Sponsorship
It’s official we are a sponsor for the Chicago Cross Cup! We are incredibly proud of this endeavor as we see cyclocross as a veritable off-road cycling activity that takes city and suburban parks into a whole new realm of fall and winter fun for cycling. There will be more to come on this as we steer through to the season.

Donate to the Cause!
Speaking of cyclocross – there was a CX Race in Carpentersville last year. It had a nice little homegrown dirt pump section on pavement on the course. Everyone loved it and reminisced on how it reminded them of their ‘glory BMX days’ or how back in the day they used to ‘pump’ through the woods and what not. Well – Carpentersville was given the go ahead to include a bonafide, and true to its name, Pump Track for their fine township. However, to get it completed, CAMBr and Carpentersville need to raise money to make it a reality this summer. There will be more information and drives to get this momentum going to make this happen – after all a dirt pump track that is supported by a city and a community has a greater chance of growing and becoming a permanent part of the community. Imagine, summer short track, dirt pump and jump events through the summer, and maybe CX events in the fall.

Think about it and as you drool over the possibilities, know that its not possible with your kind support – donate here to the cause and we’ll highlight more efforts as we help drive more promotions to meet this and other CAMBr goals. Happy dirt parks means win win for dirtbags everywhere!

Derka Derka!

Why Buy?
Buy purchasing a jersey or both jersey and shorts – you are helping us provide some sweet returns for the dirtbag community. The more we can sell, the better obviously, and though it may seem like a mad money making profit scheme, the reality of it is – well, it’s not. The jersey and shorts are well priced quality pieces of gear from Verge Sports that should provide you hours of comfort in the saddle these coming late spring, summer, and fall months of Chicago. Proceeds from this and other sales will help ‘The Bonebell’ create opportunities to give back to organizations such as CAMBr and the Chicago Cross Cup. You would truly be supporting the dirtbag community. Show us your love and support and we promise to keep The Bonebell tollin’ for all things off-road and keep the information keepin’ on flowing through the web to keep you informed about dirty shenanigans in Chicago.

Spread the word – buy a jersey, or a full kit, it’ll make you look like the coolest kid on the block. We most likely won’t reproduce this kit again – so get it while it’s available for order! We’ll be spreading the word, and we hope you spread it with us!

New Contributor

Julia Daher is our new dirtbag contributor for ‘The Bonebell’! She is local phenom on the dirt and the entire Bonebell Crew have been most happy to have gotten to know her and have her travel with us on various off-road excursions across the midwest. She is incredibly enthused about preaching the off-road cycling news to not just her teammates, but to all women who are interested in knowing, learning, and trying off-road cycling out for the first time. Us men in the crew, try as we might, can’t always deliver the best perspective that is best served undoubtedly by a gracious dirt bag-ette. We’re not sold on the ‘bagette’ part – but we’ll leave that up to Julia to conform a new word to the dirtbag lexicon that means awesome woman dirt bagger. Expect upcoming articles from her very soon!

Beautiful conditions greeted the racers for what was set to be one of the great Midwestern dirt races of the year. Dubbed “the Killer Gravel Road Race’, it is an 80% gravel road race. These roads are littered with short steep climbs to numerous to count, and seemingly no flat ground. It is a killer and it was a flippin’ awesome day on the bike. With around 300 riders last year, this year it more than doubled with just over 700. I hyped this race up all year long, to anyone who would listen. The Bonebell and xXx toed the line with 10 riders in the various categories, both male and female. Most of the crew lodged at the Parker House about 20 minutes from the course. My parents were so excited to host the team that they posted an article from the Grand Rapids Press about the race on the front door. They also brought their camping trailer along so we had the PRO setup that day. A place to get warm, dressed, and fed is a huge help in the race prep. The day was gorgeous, mostly sunny and high of almost 60.   The start was lead out by the local Sheriff’s Posse. It was all 700 riders, most of which seemed unaccustomed to riding in a large group, rolling out in one gigantic peleton that stretched for what must have been half a mile. When we hit the first stretch of dirt road the dust became a smoke screen thick as a west coast fog. It was carnage, the pace was immediately lifted to something that can only be described as self-immolation. The high pace was due to the Elite riders on the front, and the need to cull the field for the approach to Sager Road.

Sager Road is a much dreaded two track littered with rocks, and sand,generally unmaintained by the county. It is the ‘Forest of Arenberg’ for this race. The race is not won there, but a bad line through the sand or a rider going down in front of you can effectively end your shot a getting to the front and being factor in the race. The race was detonated in spectacular fashion when we made the treacherous transition to the sand, rocks and an immediate steep pitch that had riders scrambling for a line through the madness. The terrain and hills took their toll immediately. The field strung out and the elite riders drifted away while the experts were left to fight and claw their way past each other. After Sager, the course and the racers relaxed for a short spell, enough to just catch your breath for a brief spell. Then small groups of 10 and 20, 6 and 3 began to form and work together trying to advance themselves back to the front. With the race starting with so many different categories at once it was impossible to know who you were riding with, Expert, or Elite. It was cloudy as to where the front of the race was, were we it, or was it two minutes in front of us? So we all raced like the winners were in front of us. Working desperately for almost two hours to reel in the leaders. Seegs and I grouped together and worked with a group of about 10 that swelled to 20. The second hardest hill of the day reeked havoc on our group, and we fell off the pace. This left us working desperately to get back onto the group for about five miles.

My fellow dirtbags are great bike riders, but generally we don’t know how to work together in a dedicated group. For Seegs and I, it was like herding cats, constant unwarranted accelerations, gaps growing to separations, rotations not rotating. The group in front, which contained Nevada Dave, and Brandon Leach dangled in front of us for what felt like hours, at just 20 seconds ahead. We knew we had the horsepower to catch, but the group would not, could not cooperate to make the bridge. Finally the bridge was crossed with a final monster pull that I made, only for me to be dropped by the first acceleration the group made. I was crushed, I gave up for a second and was able to open the suitcase and pull out just enough courage to continue. Fortunately, my bridge got Seegs back onto the group and that gave me minor consolation. The group drifted away from me and I began to loose hope, they put what must have been minutes on me in only a few minutes. As we traveled on another group caught my solo attempts to maintain a respectable pace. This lifted my spirits as I now had another cause to pedal for, and our guy Michael Young was in the group too. It was on, and I was able to race again. Rejuvenated by a teammate who was obviously strong and almost bullying the group of 15. The two of us put serious wheel to road and worked together trying to shred the riders we were with. The group that I had lost earlier had fallen apart and we began to pickup other riders as we went along and our group grew. We caught a solo Seegs as we neared the longest climb of the day, a 1.5 mile slog up a thankfully paved road. Michael Young went to the front and lifted the pace to all the way not fun. He was heartbroken at the top when very few of the riders had dropped off the pace, as was I.  Seegs, Young, Nevada, and I now had numbers in the group, we were the largest team in the group and we put the draught horses in the yokes on front and drove the pace all the way to cookoo town. It got to be so much work that I was worried for the three of us and our chance in the finale, about 2 miles away.

With about a mile away, Michael Young jumped as we reentered the State Park where the race finished. His jump, which left a trail on the road similar to Marty and the Delorean traveling through time, was followed almost instantly by me a fraction of a second later. The two of us lit the fuse and the field was shattered for the sprint. The result was a group of seven, including three xXx’ers. Great odds. As we neared the finish line Seegs initiated a jump just to my right and I immediately heard the awful skidding sound of a front tire washing out on pavement. As I looked over to him, time slowed down and it seemed to take ten seconds for him to go down, even though it was over in an instant. He took down another rider in our group. As soon as I saw what had happened I jumped with everything that I had. The finish line was just under a ¼ mile away and I came through the final chicane as two other riders passed me to win the sprint in our small group. I felt awful, my main thought as I charged to the line was honoring my fallen teammate, and I had come up short. He rolled across the line under his own power very shortly afterwards. I felt much better, knowing that he was not seriously hurt. The results were up immediately and my third place sprint was a victory in my age group, followed closely by Michael Young for second place. That put me on the top step and a teammate on second. It was a great feeling from a race that I had targeted since this time last year. There was some fantastic work done by the three of us in the final 5 miles. I could not have made it to the front without them, thanks guys. We rocked!

Things to look for that are warm to ‘The Bonebell’ heart – one shot of Manuel Tenorio warming up on the rollers, while ‘El Maya’s’ nephew watches in amazement, to this day, he believes what he witnessed was ‘awesome!’. Second great shot of ‘Stiggity’s’ son, Henry, clanging the intro to the cowbell mayhem with our namesake ‘bonebell’. We love these shots not just because its our family – but because it did exemplify to us and our familes to all those involved with this sport that that cyclocross is indeed a family event.

Thank you Heather Jurewicz for creating this gem. I’m sure everyone has seen it on the googles – and we’re just passing it along here as well!

2009 Chicago Cyclocross Cup from Heather Jurewicz on Vimeo.