22 people showed up on the Saturday ride – we’re off to a great summer! Wait! It’s not summer yet! Sike! 14 showed on Sunday from Roscoe Village Bikes. Both days were fantastic rides and a great way to start the season.
Saturday was also the Sherman Park criterium and the Spidermonkey’s were there to represent!
“I am definitely ready to do the next one” says Chad after the race. John Castro did both 5A’s and 5B’s and reports: “The pack was twitchy being the first race of the day and first race ever for a good number of people there. A couple of crashes and one happened right next to me! Close call. Pace was good, however I dropped from the pack after Mike Cappello from RVB pushed the pace for one of the prime (preem) laps. Even after that I couldn’t even hold 20 mph (??), but suffered through and finished the race. While walking my bike right after, it seemed that my rear wheel was stuck and rubbing due to a severely loose and bent spoke. Doh! Luckily, Matt Daniels fixed it up and I was able to race the B’s. 5B’s: We had more Spidermonkey representation in the B’s: Chad Dunham, Peter Monko, Hayes Sanborn and myself. Crashes were a-plenty and Hayes didn’t go down, but got tangled up in one of them and lost the pack. Chad had to pull evasive maneuvers and ended up doing some off-road cyclocross action and then lost the pack. John flatted out with 3 laps to go. Peter, sitting in the pack the whole time took the prime lap and finished top ten!! Way to go!”
Lessons learned:
Stay near the front of the pack.
Avoid crashes.
Don’t flat out.
Don’t go off-road unless you’re on a mountain bike or cyclocross bike.
Stephanie reports: “The women’s 4’s had over 20 riders! When they called the first prime, a group of five women went for it and managed to stay off the front for the remainder of the race. I was in the second group and was able to take the sprint of that group for a 6th place finish. Lil V was in the third group and took her sprint for thirteeth. Overall, it was a very fun race” Lil V and Stephanie both got callouts for being in the top 10 of the Illinois Cup!
Great job and congratulations to everybody who raced!! Spidermonkey was also mentioned as being a rather new team and being known for drinking lots of beer. Dean was called out on that one (are we surprised??).

Congratulations to all Spidermonkey’s who completed the Shamrock Shuffle! Dean and Vanessa were out cheering you all on. Ryan was spotted killing it near the front. Castro got 511th. Way to go! Monica and Eric Goodwin were out helping sweep the course – thanks to all the bike marshal’s for helping out!
On Monday, a bunch of Spidermonkey’s made an appearance and actually ran at the monthly Burgers and Beer night at Universal Sole. Dean had a near record run! Yes, that’s right, Dean is a runner! Also, rumor has it that I-hate-running-Ken actually bought a pair of running shoes! Where were you Ken?
No, we are not a running club! (we all just secretly love it).
Our website has had a face lift…check it out! This week: Training camp in Galena being put together by Brandon and Justeen. Sounds like there are a lot of Spidermonkey’s going…we can’t wait to hear about it! Thanks so much for putting this together!
Spidermonkey of the week: Justeen McNett

I started off biking in 2007 while Brandon started training for his first triathlon. He was on a borrowed road bike while I borrowed his sister’s Wal-Mart special mountain bike. I enjoyed riding but couldn’t keep up, so I decided it was time to get my own road bike. We moved to the city that summer and I occasionally rode the lakefront trail and did a few super-sprint triathlons. I didn’t enjoy biking because I had developed knee issues while riding longer distances and the bike just wasn’t very comfortable. By the end of summer the pain was unbearable and I had given up riding my bike.
Last fall I had Ken give me a bike fit at Get-A-Grip‘s fit studio which corrected my knee pain, and a new saddle made me want to spend hours on my bike. Now riding on the bike was less painful and much more fun.
However I was still missing something… friends to ride my bike with. After a summer of hanging out with the Spidermonkeys at bike races, the Summer BBQ, beer pouring at the Northwestern game, and after much persistence from Brandon, I realized I wanted to be back on the bike and ride with the Spidermonkeys. Now that I had my fit, I knew I needed to start training. Two years off the bike had left me in horrible shape, and I knew I needed to be fit to hang with the women on the Tuesday Morning Ride so I decided to sign up for the VQ training sessions. My new training regimen was put to the test in March with the first annual Spidermonkey Spring Training Camp in Vegas. It was tough, but I didn’t crack!
I still have a long way to go so I don’t continue getting dropped on group rides, but my confidence and abilities are growing. The Spidermonkey’s have me hooked on biking and by the end of the summer I can’t wait to look back at how far I’ve progressed. I’m looking forward to our first “Illinois” training camp in Galena this weekend and a ‘hopefully’ great rest of the year riding and getting to know some FANTASTIC people!