New website

We have moved!   Check out our new website for updates and to follow us this season.

Let the racing begin ...

Not all of us have been riding on the same 6x3 ft plot in our homes.

Stacy headed out to the ABD Indoor Time Trials last Sunday.  This was the first race of the four race series and featured a flat 10K course.  Stacy clocked a fantastic time of 16:23, just 22 seconds off the winning time of 16:01 clocked by Kristen Meshberg (Flatlandia), earning her a first place for the Cat 4 women and the third best time of all women who raced.

Way to go Stacy!

January Updates

It's January. There's not much to update on the racing front other than we're all plodding away at our trainers/rollers in anticipation of the 2010 season. 

In other news, Josh and I were elected the 2010 Race Directors for the Ed Rudolph Velodrome, aka Northbrook.  Josh also had shoulder surgery and is recovering well, he's even getting into the gym a few days a week (no free weights though). 

Stay tuned, we have a new website in the works and new riders to announce.  2010 is going to be the year of the Bulldog!

Chicago Bulldogs Need Your Help!

Dear Friends of the Bouledogues,

Please help one of our charities, Chicago English Bulldog Rescue, win a grant to support their mission of helping neglected and abused animals. They currently sit in fourth place among all Illinois animal rescue shelters in an online voting competition, and we would like to see all of our friends push the Bulldogs to the top step.

Please place an online vote for Chicago English Bulldog Rescue at the Animal Rescue Site (found here). You may do it once daily.

Many Thanks,

Bouledogue tout noir

Bully Bash--Contribute to One of Our Charitable Partners

The Chicago English Bulldog Rescue (CEBR) is holding its annual fundraiser this Sunday in Oswego, which is only a short drive from Chicago. We would love it if members of the cycling community would attend Bully Bash or contribute to this charity.

CEBR has made multiple efforts to purchase and remove large numbers of female bulldogs from puppy mills this year. It has been an expensive campaign because almost all of the dogs needed considerable care once they were free. Some of the girls had never seen grass, stairs, or been outside.

Bully Bash is appropriate for families, first dates, or even a romantic afternoon with your long-time partner. Nothing is more endearing than two hundred English Bullies competing in tests of agility and fashion. They may not be speedy or quiet, but bulldogs are very skilled at wearing costumes and making people smile.

Click on the advertisement at the top of the page for additional information.

Ryan Impresses at National Championships

Josh Ryan earned a top-ten finish at the U.S. National Track Championships in Los Angeles yesterday. Ryan rode the one kilometer time trial--arguably the most painful of all velodrome events--at a speed quick enough to gain a ninth place finish against america's track elite, including multiple world champion Taylor Phinney.

Update.
Josh continued his success at Nationals with a second top-ten finish (9th) in the men's Keirin final and finished an impressive fifth in the team sprint.

En traînant mon cul épais partout dans le Midwest

Photo courtesy of Mark Keller

It is with some regret that I am posting this message on our board, since it reports no impressive cycling endeavors, unlike the preceding messages which did celebrate yet another championship win by a member of the Bouledogue team.

This story is largely one of athletic failure. For me, 2009 was the year that I showed up to race the Blue Mounds road race with a 12-23 cassette and 35 pounds overweight (try smashing that gear over...you get passed by everyone), suffered and failed in nearly every race--although there were rare instances where I outlasted my rivals--and raced the second half of July and parts of August with a broken collarbone and separated shoulder. I was the worst category three rider in the Midwest.I can handle being an awful rider because almost one year ago I was crippled. I had spent over a week in the hospital after doctors ripped the lining of my spinal cord open in an unfortunate surgical accident. It left me essentially disabled (hence the weight gain) and the resulting muscular spasms left my spine twisted and maladjusted to this day.



Regardless, 2009 was the most successful year in this team's three-year history. We became leaner and meaner. It marked the point when we took control of who we were as athletes and members of the cycling community. We chose to made a stand, and were better off for it. We promoted causes that mattered to us and helped other people rather than promoting ourselves, and the rewards were greater.

It was also the year that I got back on my bike. I made sure to finish every race even after it had become an embarrassment to continue. I had dearly missed cycle racing, and was overjoyed to have it back in my life.

As we gear up for the future there are many reasons to look ahead. Our team is growing in quality because of who we are, not because of what we give to people. We now have riders in multiple states, including Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Arizona, and Louisiana, and are riding the best bicycles (Storck**) manufactured today. Most importantly, we are friends.




**Do you think carbon fiber bikes are brittle? My Storck went 20 feet in the air when someone decided to ride no handed in front of me during a race. My shoulder did not survive, but the Storck was not even scratched. Try that with your Cannondale.

Ryan wins Illinois State Sprint Championship

Josh at the Alpenrose Six Day, by Jim Long

Josh Ryan, our resident track sprinter, was crowned Illinois State Sprint Champion on Thursday night. Josh has been absent from the local track racing scene most of the summer, deciding to focus most of his energy on training for Elite Track Nationals which will take place at the end of this month at the ADT Event Center in Los Angeles.

He won't be alone in LA this year. A number of other Chicago racers will also be making the trek West, including:

Val Brostrom (Bouledogue Tout Noir)
Al Urbanski (Chicago Cuttin Crew)
Dave Moyer (XXX Racing)
Chris Mosora (Scarletfire Racing)
Franco Panveno (Alberto's)

AVC - July 2009

Back in July, Josh and I ventured out to Portland for the Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge. Here is my report from my blog:

I love Portland. The scenery is so beautiful, the food is so good, the track is so ... unique and the track community is so awesome. Candi and Mike "Two Beers" Murray really know how to run a track. It's such a pleasure to race there. Too bad I can't stand rain otherwise I would make a case to move.

Josh "Mad Cow" (not to be confused with Jame "Mad Cow" Carney) and I returned to Portland for the Alpenrose Velodrome Challenge after our Six Day Coup (or something like that) and apparently brought the hot weather back with us. Sorry! Josh and I separated at the airport so he could get the car and I could get the bags. I got the bags and dragged them to the curb, got a call from Josh that he was on his way in our vehicle. Turns out they were out of whatever smallish SUV we had reserved (traveling with bikes is awful for the environment) so they upgraded him ... I see him about 20m down the road and, holy crap, I felt a wave of air as the "vehicle" was pushing the atmosphere towards me. Cars parted, pedestrians ran in fear ... Josh had arrived in our monster truck. As Josh said "it was as big as all outdoors". Indeed. Let the weekend begin!
Elena and Daryl (and Ollie and Daisy) were our awesome hosts (and dogs) for the weekend. And they were totally stoked to see our monster truck pull up. We decided to do it justice and go to a redneck bar, complete with 80's cover band, on Saturday night. We fit right in!

Anyway, I digress. I went to Portland to race my bike at the AVC which draws some of the best Men's and Women's fields outside of Nationals. Racing started on Friday but my first race wasn't until Saturday night which meant for a lot of sitting around both days. On Friday, Josh did his first Kilo in years and did pretty well, considering he hadn't practiced with his new aero bars. We cheered Elena as she Eddy Merckx'd (no aero bars) her 500m. Then we went to eat somewhere.

Saturday was my first race, the 5 mile Scratch. That's 40 laps on Alpenrose. We had 20ish racers in our field. It was a great field, many really strong racers were there. The officials informed us that they were going to give out $3, $2, and $1 to the 1st-3rd person across the line each lap. Meh. Women usually don't jump on those lap primes the way men do. So we started out and basically pacelined for 20 laps, maybe more. It was pretty funny. I did my share and never let myself drift back further than 8th or so place. At some point, maybe with 10? to go Jen Triplett jumped off the front. No one really did anything at first but then we started to chase. I can't remember when we caught her but a few more people launched when we did. My memory is kind of rusty but I think we caught one of the attacks and then Hanan Alves-Hyde attacked and that stuck. With 2 to go I was in the first 5 in the chase, primed to move up and then with one to go I found myself behind someone I couldn't get around since she was shifting up and down the track and slowing down. Oops. Well I ended up launching out of turn 4 and passed a few people to finish 5th, just nipped at the line by Kendi. (Should have thrown my bike!) I also did the Madison with Elena, who had done the Six Day with Megan Dean, and we had a blast.

Hanan winning the Scratch
all photos by Amara Boursaw, Wheels in Focus

Sunday was the busy day. I was scheduled to do the Keirin, Miss and Out, and Points Race. A lot, right? First up were the Keirin heats. I love Keirins. I love them so much that if I could do one race forever it would be the Keirin. For that reason, Josh thinks I'm truly a sprinter at heart. Hmm, I don't know about that. Anyway, I knew there were certain people I had to watch, but a lot of the others I had never raced with before so I wasn't sure what to expect. In order to keep this report relatively short, I'm going to sum the Keirin events up really fast with minimal text and photos (all by Amara Boursaw). I'm also not going to give away what I did wrong, since I learned it the hard way and that's what everyone else should do to. :)

Keirin heats. Top 2 advance, everyone else to repercharge. I finished 3rd in my heat = off to the rep.

Getting 3rd in the heat. Already gave up at this point.

Repercharge. Top 2 advance to Semis. Won my rep heat. Sat 3rd wheel behind the motor. Heather in front of me passed Camille who was on the motor when it pulled off. I came around Heather for the win.

Winning rep

Semi Finals. Top 3 advance to Finals. I managed to win this bad boy. It felt good, hence all the pictures.

Finals. Erica Allar, Jen Featheringill, Annette Williams, Shelby Reynolds, Tela Crane and me. Fun times. I really wanted to get Jen's wheel right off but apparently so did everyone else and I ended up 4th wheel. The motor pulled off and the race was fast. We were single file for like a lap which is pretty nuts and just means we were really chugging. I ended up 5th. Not great but not awful.

5th in the Keirin Final

I should say that the Miss and Out was after the Keirin heats but before the reps. Since I wanted to do well in the Keirin I scratched the Miss and Out. It was a tough decision but seems to have turned out for the best.

Up later in the day was the Points race. We started and I knew within 2 laps that my goal of a top 3 that weekend was out the window. My legs felt really heavy and I just didn't have my normal snap. Slowly a few of the other Keirin finalists, Shelby and Annette, pulled out. There were a few attacks which stuck for a few laps and would get caught and then a group of 3 or 4 got off and I tried so hard to chase them back with 2 others but I was cooked. We were so close and I felt so bad for sucking but what can you do? Eventually the rest of the field caught our chase and I was promptly in the back of the pack. Oh man, I wanted to quit so bad but I rode through the pain. At one point Jen Triplett was on my wheel and I felt so bad because at that point I was a really slow wheel to be on. She sensed it and got around me and I settled into the yo-yo that is being on the back of the field when you're cooked. Off the back, back on, back off, back on. The break was eventually caught, when I don't remember. I found energy somewhere and I tried to contest a 4th place at some point and failed. I also managed to overcome the lead brick legs and finished 5th or 6th in the field sprint at the end. I ended up 8th, a real bummer. To make myself feel better I like to say that I finished 2nd out of the Keirin finalists.

So that was the weekend. I had a blast and got to catch up with some people I haven't seen in a while. I learned that Zak likes to do a booty dance at the line in Keirins. Elena and I danced to LL Cool J in the backseat of Daryl's car, because ladies love cool J. I got to see some track records broken, congrats to Per (Kilo), Amelia and Andrea (Team Sprint) and Kelyn, Adam and Travis (Team Sprint) and Travis in my mind you're the real record holder for the flying lap. The AVC is really a well run and fun event. I encourage anyone serious about track racing to attend. And that means you Chicago! I'll be back next year for sure.

BTN Sweeps Major Taylor Velodrome Championships

Just a brief result update. The Bouledogues went down to the Major Taylor Velodrome in Indianapolis the first weekend of August to compete in their Velodrome Championship/State Championship/Elite Qualifier and took 1st in every event entered!

Josh Ryan
Men's Elite Keirin - 1st

Val Brostrom
Women's Elite Keirin - 1st
Women's Elite Scratch Race - 1st
Women's Elite Points Race - 1st