Oak Brook Road Race

• In the coming weeks, we'll be saying adieu to James, John, and Claus -- and so it was bittersweet that we arrived fully prepared in Oak Brook early Saturday morning: fifteen racers, nine spectators, a cooler full of beer & Red Bull, a beautiful custom frame to taunt other teams with, and a pair of delicious ice cream cakes.

  It would be a good (if long, hot, and sticky) day, despite the two hour line for registration, gigantic grass spiders, and annoying habit of race officials to pull riders barely off the pack pace. The morning started will in the M5 race, with Team TATI represented by James, Miles, and Matt. It didn't hurt that the pace car was a Ferrari F430. Matt was unfairly pulled early, but James and Miles finished well (18th and 10th, respectively) thanks to a strategic and unfortunate crash in the final lap.

  We were geared up for the M4 race, and had the white team leader helmet to prove it. Bernard, Lewis, Jesse, Dan, Liam, Patrick, and Claus (AKA Francisco) had a plan, and for a while, it seemed to be working rather well. Lewis looked great taking an early prime (car wash!). A mid-race crash then took out Jesse, Dan, and Lewis -- but the rest of the crew were able to stick with the pack and finish in the bunch sprint at the end, with Liam sneaking around a dozen riders on the outside line to take 4th.

  The race of the day had to be the W4 category. With only one veteran (ie three months of experience) rider in Liz, I was pretty nervous about the race. But the women themselves seemed pretty relaxed: eating Gummy Bears, pinning numbers, and chatting under the sole shade tree along the finishing straightaway. I noticed Suzanne rubbing her chest, and asked if anything was wrong. "I'm warming my heart chakra," she said, looking surprisingly blissful.

  This would be the first race ever for Katie, Veronique, and Suzanne, and the group had never really ridden together. They took a few laps around the parking lap in formation, and that would have to be enough. As the field came to the line, I noticed a couple of masters bruisers (more on that later) and a very fit triathlete-looking woman on a purple Orbea with Zipps. Our race plan was to have Liz jump with the inevitable break, with the rest of the team prepared to block. I nudged Liz and nodded towards purple Orbea. Yup.

  Sure enough, Orbea went on the third lap, taking a Tower rider with her. Liz bridged, but it was clear that Orbea would be strong enough to solo. Tower never took a pull and finished second, while Liz held off the field, thanks to some excellent blocking from Veronique. Meanwhile, Suzanne was gapped on lap two, but managed to recover and basically mark the field's pace for the remainder of the race. Also, Suzanne easily took the style award for the day, thanks to her vintage silk Gucci neckerchief.

  Katie's race ended well, with her winning the pack sprint to take 4th. But I was worried for a while, having observed not one, but two of the masters riders visibly throw elbows when Katie tried to move up. It was really quite gratifying to see her zoom around these same racers at the end.

  Carly was another unfortunate victim of the aggressive pulling by the race officials. Granted, her race included some very strong W1 riders and the 2nd ranked juniors rider in the country, but were it not for the early primes (yes, in a "road race") and the resultant surges, I am confident that she could have hung with the pack for the majority of the race. In fact, we were told that by lap 4, the race had slowed to a crawl, averaging around 25km/hr for the rest of the day. Ho hum.

  Oak Brook