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…

After returning to Chicago, the disappointment continued when I found the following video online.  This little teaser is a preview of a DVD coming out this fall that chronicles the making of the CYCLEPASSION calendar, featuring two prominent and successful professional US racers, Heather Irmiger and Willow Koerber.  I hesitate to post the video lest more people view it, but here it is:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Now, let’s clarify that Heather Irmiger and Willow Koerber are adults and have the right to make their own choices.  But why was this the decision?? “Select group of elite women cyclists,” “Slip into something a little more comfortable”??  Please.  As a woman, I am always disappointed when I see other women choosing to objectify themselves in this way.  But the fact that these women are professional mountain bikers is even more disappointing.  What type of message does this send to amateur women mountain bikers (and other cyclists for that matter), particularly young ones?  I’ve heard the argument before that dressing like a stripper is “empowering” for women.  I must be missing something, because last time I checked this objectification of women is exactly the type of thing feminists have been fighting against since well before the women in this video (and myself) were born.  Do we see male cyclists posing in provocative calendars?  No, of course not.  Because for men, being athletic is sexy.  The two are not mutually exclusive.  How would we know that the women in these photos were professional cyclists, were it not for the token bicycle in some of the photos?  We wouldn’t.  And that is precisely why this calendar and DVD are so insulting to female cyclists.

If you aren’t convinced, please check out Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture, by Ariel Levy.  You might also consider your mothers, sisters, friends, partners and daughters who ride (or don’t) and whether or not you would support them representing themselves in this way.

Re-Scheduling
The folks at CAMBR West were bringing us the Kona Demo Day along with Rapid Transit Cycle’s assistance. This was re-scheduled due to the foul weather, we’ll give you a heads up of when the next date is being scheduled.

It should be a blast considering how awesome the Red Bull Stomping Ground event was. We unfortunately were unable to attend this event due weekends of family travels but we have heard that the event was pretty sweet and it could’ve standed to see a lot more folks come out and enjoy some rad professional stunting. Get a load of some of the action here (and dig the Chicago skyline in the back!):

Settin’ Down Roots
Speaking of kickass events – it’s happening again with the ‘Setting Down Root’s event coming up July 31st from 12:00PM-6:00PM at ‘The Garden’. Race dirt track style, test your skills against other riders, and raise money and awareness for Chicago’s one and only dirt bike park. More details on what is being given away, suredly something from us for you!

Palos Meltdown
Registration Opened up on June 1st for CAMBr members. Non-members registration will open at the end of the month. It’s Race #6 of the Illinois Homegrown Race Series and is absolutely lauded as the World Championships of Trail Racing for Chicago.

Do It In the Dirt as a couple!
The closest thing to dirty hanky panky since Porky’s was released in 1982 – Cyclocross action comes to you super EARLY this year thanks to xXx Racing-AthletiCo at Jackson Park. Only this time – you get to tag a team member in to take on your competitors WWF style. There will be a co-ed event. Who cares what colors you fly – its time to start recruiting up your teammate to put the smackdown on the other duo teams. Speaking of which – who wants to be a Bonebell pardner? We do-si-do as good as the rest of them ya’hear!

Chicago Cyclocross Cup
Of course – with races already being schedule for the CX lovers out there – you should know by now what weekends you are telling your loved ones when they have to hold the slab of bacon and mini-kegs of Pabst for you in the fall. Point them here and ask kindly and ask for forgiveness now before you bring wet smelly sandy ass back home.

Damn – we got a lot going on. We’ll be posting some lengthy articles coming up during a well deserved break to highlight some stuff we’ve been meaning to tell ya about and keep you motivated to keep them knobbies dirty and delighted. Remember we love you when you ride knobbies.

After regrouping with everyone 2 hours later, our crew enjoyed a nice picnic lunch and some conversation to get to know each other better.  On the whole a great day.    A few snapshots of our event below.  If you couldn’t make it out for this ride, we hope to see you on the next one!

But you know what? I don’t care.

Recent events in Guatemala have definitely mellowed any spirit of enthusiasm over my eagerness to trail ride and hit the dirt – I love it so, but am humbled by the powerful forces that control the ebb and flow of our planet. Those natural forces will always be well timed and in tune to their own melody that will drown out any silly call for fun, when in nature, fun is strictly limited to time and space available within the eon slot given to us daily. I want to ride the trails badly, mostly for fun, and to ensure that I get my skills up to par for the upcoming Lumberjack 100. But the riding on the road and gravel concoctions have definitely kept me focused and on target and grateful that I have the ability to pedal my bike to begin with.

I spoke with various members of my family in the course of the past week and of course, thanks to the artificial force of the internet, was able to see pictures, audio, video in real time of what a truly torrential downpour is. The ones of ash that cover a city and suffocate the little drainage that existed in a 3rd world infrastructure. The ones of rains that push that heavy soot down streets that turn into raging rivers, and move with such a petulent force that five ton vehicles are merely floaty toys in its wake. The ones of such liquifying magnitude that decades of sediment and rotten engineering give way to what appeared to the twitterati and news crews of the world – a portal into the underworld.

I had given my best effort on Sunday, May 30th at the Half Acre and North Central Cyclery – Gravel Metric Century. I had a great sentiment inside of me thinking of family conversations over how volcanic ash and heavy rain caused some serious misery across the homeland. I wasn’t too pensive about the misery, but definitely said a little prayer to myself and as I always do quietly before the start of any race I do, I dedicated the effort to something personal. On this day, it just so happened to be for all of Guatemala. I think of how easy it was to drive out to DeKalb, enjoy the beautiful day with friends, and ride my silly bike fast. The comparison of what my cousins were doing – not being able to ride their bikes for what will be many weeks before anything is considered safe to ride on because the ground or water may simply sweep them away into oblivion. When the race was over, and the celebrations had passed among many deserved toasts of ale and friendships, I was in the car with Soupy and Nevada Dave when I got a call from my dad. He said a nearby river had grown tremendously and picked up great speed in what seemed like a few hours – and in its rapid rage, took down two bridges that lead to the family village. The first bridge that went down was just constructed one and half years ago – and it had been of itself, fifteen years in the making. The second bridge, was the original bridge that had been condemned for the past 20 years, yet, still stood and was still used by the locals – was destroyed by the remnants of the first bridge by what seemed a comical injustice to the 3rd world. My father was sad to relay the news to me knowing full well, despite whatever political might and saavy he had – to rebuild those bridges, would take another five years, at least.

I was quiet for a few days (hence no Dirty Tuesday News) reflecting on the enormity of the desperation felt back with my family. It was great to hear laughter over the phone talking about the close calls, the crazy scenes, and the jokes over the fact that they actually found the culprit to the sinkhole. I am lucky, as we are all lucky to be in Chicago and face silly thunderstorms that leave us with nothing but greener pastures, mosquitoes, and days of trail-riding limitations.

I wish all my friends well that they may find great happiness in their own friends and families and ability to see them when they can – it’s not a jungle out there. The jungle is down there.

The following sinkhole is no more than four blocks away from my aunt’s house in ‘la Zona 2′ en Guatemala, City. A house she has owned for over 45 years – and despite its new grim looking portal – she isn’t considering moving anytime soon. Tia Rosaura – cuidate y te quiero!

By 8:00AM with the help of my neighbor and my impeccable little girl who repeatedly told me ‘Papi, I help find your wallet’ – I was in a state of unbelievable calm and well impressed that my daughter, cared about this stupid piece of leather its contents, only because she saw it was important to me. The first phase of children’s selfless acts to help someone had me in a wonderful frame of mind. At 8:30AM I received an e-mail from the gentlemen who found my wallet and phone – so the day started looking up and karma had begun its revolution. I figured it called for a celebration – and I looked at my 3′2″ sidekick and asked if she wanted to go riding with papi since taking her to daycare after faithfully searching an hour with me was reason enough to stay the day with her – her answer was ‘YES!’. I had thought of hitting up Tati Cycles yesterday evening as well, so I figured, I’d make that the lunch hour destination around 2PM to meet ‘J’ and pick-up some fly colored skewers that I had seen he had in stock. So the girl and I stocked up the Burly trailer, hitched it up to my bike and the journey to 53rd street from 5100 N. began. The weather was absolutely perfect for riding.

We hit up the trusty lakefront bike path – which at noon – is not so bad of a predicament with people on the path, and I’m pulling a trailer with a super cute kid, so I mostly feared the gals on roller blades who would coo over how cute my girl looked in her helmet while almost riding off into the sand or the rear of a jogger ahead of them. I had a couple of pathletes who found the urge to challenge me and my trailer and work their way dangerously and stupidly around me by playing chicken with the commuters and joggers in the wrong lane. My girl enjoyed the show and as she saw people ride past – she wasn’t having any of it and proudly exclaimed ‘Papi, go faster! Go faster!’ – I guess she doesn’t like it when people passed us. So when I found a few wide berths which aren’t many on the path before downtown, I drilled a good hard pace powered by my Led Zeppelin T-Shirt flapping in the breeze and getting heavier with sweat by the minute. By mile 14 – the girl fell asleep in the trailer with a cool breeze blowing about her and her cuddling her favorite green elephant, coincidentally donated to her by a cyclist’s friend’s daughter. I arrived to 53rd street and wind my way through the tree covered historical grounds that is Hyde Park and found the shop easily. I pulled onto the sidewalk and a funny thing happens – the wheel falls of the trailer!

‘J’ is a soft spoken guy with a love of bicycles and all things orange. He has gleaming blue eyes that reveal a very young spirit and even bigger persona as you talk to him in person. His immediate reaction when saw me pull up on the sidewalk was as astounded as I was that a wheel just fell off my trailer and with my daughter still in it no less. Good thing he owns a bike shop! We worked through the problem and thankfully it was resolved if temporary, but we both were confident he fixed it. During the fixing of the wheel, my daughter helped herself to several apples, carbon wheels, and even assisted one of his customers showing her how to use a bike pump. I had been meaning to get to J’s shop for a while now and moreso meet the man behind the ‘Tatitos’. It was great to talk bikes, and life, and realize that we had a lot more in common than just our love of bikes and the cyclocross scene. Karma turned yet another wonderful revolution as he didn’t charge me for the bike fix and I gladly picked up the actual skewers I was looking for and played host to my daughters curious nature about all his colorful inventory in his shop. A friend now known in person and a great visit to the shop that brings us the wooled wonders from Hyde Park. Off I scooted with my newly fixed trailer, and daughter waving goodbye to Hyde Park and its beautiful denizens in great cheer for the happy sun.

I made it past the Aquarium back north when another rider stopped me to tell me that my rear skewer looked loose on the trailer – I looked back and investigated and it turned out the skewer cap was coming loose but the tire was held on tight still. Befuddled, I had no choice but to chance it as I had 11 more miles to home and the daughter is looking weary in the trailer. So we headed off carefully with me constantly looking back to ensure the wheel wouldn’t surprisingly take off. During those awkward moments, by Division and the lakefront, I came across Adam Clark, and old friend, framebuilder, and proprietor of ‘Pedal to the People‘. He was doing exactly that – setting up his portable shop at the lakefront assisting bike riders. I stopped and we exchanged a great conversation on our going ons and he took the skewer once again to review its issues. After a short bit, he concluded the skewer would hold but to definitely get the factory correct skewer to ensure full compatibility and with that vote of confidence the journey began. My daughter had been playing with even more bike tools at this stop and enjoyed the barefoot run around the grass.

We made it home by 4:30PM – my wife was home already for a happy reunion to the great day. At 6PM my wallet was returned while I made pasta with pesto. All in all – reflecting back, I did admittedly miss the dirt trails, but passing up an opportunity to play hooky with my daughter was too good to pass up. And I enjoyed the day greatly, made a new friend, revisited with an old friend and watched the karmic revolution transpire before my eyes. It was a day for cycling, family, friends, and further realization that it exists daily in our fine city.

As far as ‘training’ goes – pulling 70 pounds 42 miles might actually qualify me as the keg puller for this weekend’s Half Acre Gravel Metric Century.

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.