07/22/08

By Ben

On Tuesday, July 22, The Chicago Cuttin’ Crew and Yojimbo’s Track Cats decided to collaborate and invade the Tuesday night track series at the Kenosha, Wisconsin velodrome. We loaded up the Cuttin’ Cruiser with Cuttin’ Crew members; Brean Al, Andrew, and myself. We also brought Yojimbo’s Track Cats racers, mentor Chuck, and a modest cheering section.

The Bob Pfarr Classic is a track race sort of like boxing, with a huge main event, and some undercard races before it. The main event being a 150 lap, 30 mile points race. We left Chicago with a full bus, with myself at the wheel, planning on racing the lower races, and putting Al, Andrew, and maybe Brean into the main event. The trip up to Kenosha was brutal, with all of the construction on I-94. The Cuttin’ Cruiser barely fit into the narrowed lanes, and semi- trucks were passing us almost constantly. It was a two and a half-hour, hair-raising drive up the battered Tollway to get us to Kenosha. I don’t really understand why we pay almost $4.00 in tolls each way for the privilege of driving on this God forsaken, uneven, narrow, grooved, pot-hole ridden stretch of interstate highway. But whatever, we survived and unloaded the bus at the Kenosha Velodrome.

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08/10/08

Details to come…

Yeah, it has. Bonebell turned most of us onto this at first. Then CBR got everyone lookin’.

There has been a lot of this stuff going on lately and it needs to stop…seriously

Open letter of invitation to everyone. Welcome to our living room. Our kitchen. Our bedroom. Our entertainment room. Our bathroom. Our office.

Welcome to our streets.

Word is they gots 2 jumbotrons (TWO JUMBOTRONS!!!), 2 stages, a grandstand and then some. Who’s hearing ads on B96? Fuck. Yes. Thank you Chicago. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Be there to witness this craze for Criteriums and cheer us on, cheer them on, you just gotta cheer. July 27th. Most of us males will be rolling right before the multi-lingual big boys at 1:35 PM. Our ladies are looking at an 8:10 AM appointment.

SNIP! SNIP!

The Yojimbo’s Track Cats are doing a FANTASTIC job. Needless to say, so are the volunteers and supporters who are providing them this great opportunity. For a great backstory and latest developments check out this article from Simon, our good friend at:

7/15/08

By Jeff

It was a Danish (Win-N-Out, first across the line at lap 1 wins, 1st on lap 2 gets 2nd, 1st on lap 3 gets 3rd and so on). It was also close to, if not the best racing atmosphere I’ve seen in sanctioned racing. Washington Park Velodrome in Kenosha. The field got a little scrambled after the first sprint and people were moving high. I knew the track was short, I knew the pace was still strong and I knew the guys up front weren’t going to burn out so I wanted to make up for a VERY missed attempt at getting into that winning sprint and a jeopordized position for 2nd. It was time to get around some people.

The field was moving up but it wasn’t until the middle of the turn that it was apparent things weren’t normal. In an attempt to make that great cut around someone things got tighter against the rail and the best I could shout is “OP! OP! OP! WHOA! WHOA!” It was a frenzy as I was guided up towards the rail. While the mind is thinking a thousand things a second, there was that quick and repetitive, “Don’t let this happen! Don’t let this happen!”

BANG! TINK! SCRAPE! SCRAPE! SCRAPE! Slow motion (I swear) and my front wheel is right in front of me as we’re both flying above the fence…

“It’s happening”

It’s amazing how much shit unravels after the fact. I remember even thinking right at the moment, “I hope this one doesn’t go bad.”

My arm knocked the protective cover off of the rail which left a chain link fence exposed. I whipped around when my arm caught a link and whipped me around to face the other direction. As things concluded I noticed that famous red Corima on the track too. Fuck. Ed White was the other one making sound effects.

I was torn up and half naked the way my suit cut, but Ed was face down and bleeding. He is OK now and walked out of the hospital but at that moment, my heart absolutely sank. I’m sure it’s an ego thing of mine because every accident I’m in I can’t help but feel responsible. I’m so sorry that this happened Ed, I know we aren’t personally tight but I don’t ever want to see ANYONE face down and bleeding, let alone you.

The fence caught alot of my skin and left my right hand the size of a softball. “I can’t believe nothing broke” was the popular saying from the med staff. I got some stitches, a whole bunch of deep scrapes at every joint possible, a shitton of soreness and a good deal of guilt.

Mike Winn is a saint. He was the race organizer and MC. He handed the mic to someone to take over and never left us at the hospital. Even stuck it out ’til our midnight discharge. The man had great spirits and was a good storyteller. There’s nothing I could ask more of someone who was a stranger 4 hours prior. There was another off duty firefighter that stepped in to help me when one of the new paramedics got the jitters. Dude stuck around to see that everyone was OK. Thanks to him as well. Tim from Half Acre was great for checking up on us well, thanks man. Al and Andrew were the best of teammates and friends, even gettin’ me an ice cream cookie. Of course a big thanks to Jamers as well.

Ed got his ear reattached by a plastic surgeon and a bunch of stitches right above his brow. The man is so powerful he broke the unbreakable equipment but he was up and bashfully smiling by the time we were leaving the hospital.

Calls and texts started coming, thanks to the people that worried and sent wishes and thanks to those that worried and didn’t want to interfere, it is always nice to have both.

The Fuji is done. Most other parts are salvageable, but the ol’ Track Pro is punching the clock. That puts me down two track bikes in a month. Ha. A messenger who races track and I don’t have a track bike, injustice.

Stay up ya’ll. I’m going to lie down.

Peace

JP

Just some flickr footage for you to look back on. Courtesy of our numero uno fan, Rachel. Everybody say it: Tha-a-anks Rachel…

Fact: Phil Ligget digs the Cuttin’ Crew.

Who recognizes the guy chasing Mike?

7/05/08

By Brean

another race in which i
didn’t have time to warm up.
had to duct tape my shifter together
and got over to the line just before
the masters rolled out.
bradley, avi and i
were representing the cuttin’ crew,
and i found my friend john there as well.

john is a triathlete,
and i found his a good wheel to follow,
since he was steady and a surprisingly good climber
(efficient and smooth).
there were a lot of teams out there,
but not any teams with more than three members.
Tati, Crew, IIT, and at least two 2CC.
so my job for the race would be to keep an eye on breakaways.
i wanted avi to get a podium finish.

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06/29/08

By Brynn

Bringing home a gold and a bronze at the state champs isn’t too bad, for a new team. Sunday turned out to be a good day for us, up early we loaded up the bus with all the bike stuff and el presidente drove three hours south to the State Crit Championships or as some say “we were just trying to get to da bike race.”

Though the weather was questionable, just a few sprinkles hit. The course was full of turns and short allowing for lots of passes through the crowd and the cowbell. Women raced a short one. Only fifteen minutes with a lap on top of that. So after what turned out to be six laps, Brynn ended up rolling through the finish solo after a mishap between two Proctor girls to take the gold for the women’s cat 4’s and better, the Cuttin’ Crew.

Later in the day the boys were up with a forty minute race plus three laps and Stanley crossed the finish grabbing a bronze for the Cuttin’ Crew, a couple of crashes at the last few turns caused the tactics in place to not go as well as we hoped but hey that’s what happens sometimes and that’s why we sign that piece of paper before we race, right?

Everyone had a sloppy joe or two and a good time despite some poor sportsmanship from a girl in the 4’s. The bus was loaded up again and we headed to the skyline. After a coupla bathroom breaks and some Steak n’ Shake everyone was sleeping and you would have never guessed how loud we can be with cowbells and cheers and, even better, how fast we can ride them bicycles.

It only gets better and better.

I really don’t think anyone could possibly sum it up better than this:

Cuttin’ Crew has a new member! Just check out that smile!

We proudly present the great addition of Avi Neurohr!