Lake Bluff Twilight Crit

As part of our trip to Chicago, The Cyclist did two races the first being Lake Bluff Twilight Criterium.  Actually, who am I kidding?  The races were the reason for our trip, but you're not going to catch me complaining about that!

This was the first race (ever) in Lake Bluff and they did an awesome job hosting the race.

We also had the pleasure of staying in this quaint little town with our good friends and their family.  Lake Bluff is Tankyoupete's home town, so he came back to do this race and we got to tag-along.  Big thank you to the G family for your hospitality!

This was my first trip to the mid-west.  Boy do you peeps have some crazy weather! 

It was 50° when we got there and it rained and rained and rained the whole first day and into the night. The course was narrow and technical and at one point I awoke in the night and said a little prayer for it to please stop raining before the race.  Then I altered that to "pleeeaaase let it stop raining long enough before the race so that the streets will dry".  Thankfully my little prayer seemed to have worked!

I mentioned Lake Bluff is quaint right?  

Wow, it was such a great town!  We felt like we were in make-believe land or something.  Kids everywhere having lots of good old fashioned unsupervised fun, super nice people and great old homes.  I would totally live there, but I'm told I wouldn't survive the winters.  I suppose The Cyclist needing arm-warmers in June is a clue.

The Cyclist raced in the Men's 2/3 race.

He was without teammates and doing great hanging out near the front.  

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately...or both) there was a crash up front, which The Cyclist managed to avoid, but it put him at the front of the peloton chasing a break.

He probably should have sat up and let it go, but it's hard to think about that stuff in the middle of a race when your adrenaline is pumping....or at least that's what I think.

Anyway, he chased the break and blew himself up.  Bummer.  It allowed me to get a good solo shot of him though.....Sorry Cyclist!

Next up, ladies Pro race.  Our group actually knew three of the ladies competing in this event, so it was cool to be able to cheer for some friends from home.

The women put on a good show too.

Three teams got out into a break that stuck, with the help of their teammates behind blocking out the peloton from closing the gap.

Nice work ladies!

Before the last race of the day, the kids jumped in for their races.

Tankyoupete's nephew was the big winner!  It must be in the genes.

Now, on to the Men's Pro.  This was a National Race Calendar race (like Tour de Nez), so there were plenty of big dogs in the group...

...including Rahsaan Bahati! 

He seems to have dug this photo I snapped...

@TheCyclistsWife I love this pic. Reminds of Major Taylor back in the day walking to the start line on the velodrome. Thank you!
— Rahsaan Bahati (@bahatiracing) June 2, 2012

Nice!
Tankyoupete got a call-up too.

Unfortunately he had a pretty gnarly crash about a week before the race, total bummer.  He jumped in anyway though, cracked ribs and all, with a smile too.

Good job Tankyoupete!  

For safety sake he bowed out after a few laps at the front.

 

There was a break in this race too.  It stuck, like super-stuck, and the leaders ended up lapping the field.  

At this point my pictures were getting slim because I was on to more important things.

I did manage to get the finish though.

You can see them right?  The winner was Jean Michel LeChance from Rossetti Devo Cycling.

Great job Lake Bluff, for putting on an awesome race!  We hope to be back next year!

You can see ALL of my photos here.

P.S.  Don't forget about the giveaway, it ends tomorrow!