Here is a great note from Chuck Martin about the 2008 Illinois Junior State Championships:
"Illinois State Track Championships were held today (July 12th) at the Northbrook Velodrome. It was great to see so many riders out there enjoying the fun of competition. Seeing the Track Cats out there made me very proud of Marcus, Nicole, Brean and all of the others associated with getting this team together.
I went out there this morning to watch. but as has been the case in the last two years, riders bikes were not prepared. That's when competition was thrown aside and sportsmanship resoundly announced its presence. While coaches were helping athletes, and team members helped former teammates get ready, there were two coaches that showed all of us what the races were about.
There was rider who did not pass rollout. The officials let him have as much time as he needed to make his bike "legal." So he borrowed some tools to make his bike compliant. No matter what he did it wouldn't work because the chain was too short. So Coach Steve Thordarson of Smart Cycling borrowed a chain tool and started to perform the delicate surgery of adding links to the chain so that a larger cog could be used. Well sorry to say I had only road chain links in my box (note to self... get some track chain links). So that effort did not prove fruitful. That's when Coach Brean Shea of Track Cats offered his track bike to the rider. Two Track Cats and the rider started a ballet of borrowing tools and swapping pedals and swapping wheels so that one rider who was not a member of either Smart Cycling or Tack Cats could compete.
In the spirit of full disclosure, my son is part of the Smart Cycling Team, I help the team where I can and some of my tools were borrowed.
My apologies because I was not able to stick around to watch who won the medals. But I do know that each of the competitors and Junior Track Cycling were all winners. Coaches, officials, parents and athletes regardless of team affiliation, all operated toward one objective: seeing everyone who wanted to ride could get on a bike and compete. "
Juniors at Nationals!
Please extend a (belated) congratulations to the following juniors who represented Chicago and Kenosha at the 2008 Junior Track National Championships at ADT in LA. Congrats to all of you!
Katie Antonneau
Aaron Harrison
Andy Harrison
Sammy Huang
Sarah Huang
Kaleb Koch
Chazz Martin
Jessi Prinner
Adam Spitulnik
John Tomlinson
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