Katie and 5 others called the weather man’s bluff and showed up for the girl’s ride. Of course it was beautiful out. Stupid weather man.
Wednesday night: After Tower Road the break seemed to materialize quickly. It took the chasers a while to get organized. From there it was above threshold pedaling for all involved. Ouch. Everyone learned valuable lessons in “small group hammer dynamics.” There are four Wed Nite Rides left in the season. Our last ride will be the “Oldest, Heaviest, Ugliest (OHU) Ride.” Start pulling together a bike, kit, and any and all accessories which qualify as either old, heavy, or ugly for Wed September 8th.
Friday night some of us attended the Vera Bradley women’s clinic at Alberto’s in HP. We previewed the Glencoe course, worked on cornering, and sprinting. Unfortunately, on the way to the clinic, a bee bumped Lil V’s eye…with its stinger! That did not stop her from not only participating in the clinic but racing the next day at Glencoe! Way to go Lil V!
Saturday morning started with Spidermonkey-of-Last-Week-started-off-as-a-cat-nothing-Matt, completing his last cat 5 race. As expected, he went out with a bang finishing with the

pack! Masa was in the next cat 5 race and kicked some asa!


Many of the Spidermonkey’s showed up to cheer and to race in the cat 4’s. Our Spidermonkey of this week (Diffenderfer) finished with the pack and took 15th, right behind superstar Drew who took 7th. It looked hard as hell, so congrats to all! Thanks to everybody for coming out! And thanks to MS for hooking us up VIP style and to Zym and of course our favorite beer 312! And a special shout out to Universal Sole who lent us the changing tent which was a huge hit!
Spidermonkey of the Week: Brandon Diffenderfer (also best Spidermonkey name)

I rediscovered a passion for cycling about 4 years ago when Justeen and I bought some bikes and began riding: me for a triathlon, after an inebriated agreement with a friend, and her for fitness. Once I started asking for longer, faster rides she told me I could ride by myself. I said ‘OK,’ as everyone knows you are never really riding by yourself on the lakefront. After not making any
lasting friendships at 20 mph on the lakefront trail and joining the local crit scene, I threw the idea at Justeen about joining a club. As the final decision maker in our relationship she agreed that I should join a club. So, we started to survey teams at the races we were attending, and noticed that the Spidermonkey’s were having the best time. After a few group rides and some persistant emails, I was accepted into the Spidermonkey club. This past weekend at Glencoe reinforced all the reasons why I wanted to join the club: friends, bikes, and 312.