July Club News
By Emily Laflamme | Jul 31, 2015
Our Tuesday night LaBagh Woods Criteriums have been a great success! These races are an opportunity for racers from beginner to experienced to develop crit racing skills and receive in-race coaching from our elite team members. These races have everything! Sprints, corners, mechanical support from Performance Bike and primes (thanks to Chicago Women's Elite Cycling for the socks!). Huge thanks to race director Chris MacFarland and teammate Jim Barclay for handling all of the logistics to ensure a safe, fun series.
Upcoming Dates: Stay tuned! We're working to host two additional LaBagh Crits on Tuesday, Aug 11 and Tuesday, Aug 25.
On July 10, USA Cycling announced the 12 athletes scheduled to represent the United States at the 2015 UCI Junior Track World Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan, Aug.19-23, including xXx Racing's Nikos Hessert and Johnny Kuhfahl. (Note: These two followed their 2nd/3rd place finishes at Junior Track World Qualifiers with a 1st/2nd place finish at the Illinois Junior Track Championships. These guys are fast). Athletes are required to fund a substantial portion of their travel costs to Worlds. If you'd like to support Nikos and Johnny, please get in touch with our team president, Tracy Dangott, at tracy [at] xxxracing [dot] org. Thank you!
Every month we honor a guy and girl from our team who exemplify what it means to be a xXx Racing teammate. This month, no one deserved the title more than Monika Kowalska, Matt Talbert and Chris McAuliff.
Our Saturday team ride is open to anyone and we love to have new riders join us! We leave from Wicker Park at 7 a.m., with a second pick-up point at Pratt & California at 7:30 a.m. The ride up to Highland Park is no-drop which means we ride at the pace of the slowest rider. We stop at a coffee shop in Highland Park and then you are free to continue on with groups that go further or return home. Find more details here.
And of course, a big thank you to our sponsors for their ongoing support. This month, we're particularly grateful for the support from the coolest mechanics on the block at Cycle Smithy Bike Shop and top of the line wheels from Psimet Custom Wheels.
Interested in catching up on cycling news, reading race reports or finally seeing a full calendar of upcoming cycling events? Head over to check out our friends at Chi Bike Racing.