Al Stern Illinois Road Race Championships

The road race was in Cedar Point IL. Course was a 9-mile loop done 4 times for a 36-mile race. This was the longest race of the year for the team. The Cat. 4/5 had 77 riders and was split about in half for Cat. 4's and Cat. 5's. The race went out at a controlled pace for the half of a lap. The hill on the back of the course split the field with one Team Tazi member in the front group. The second lap the hill was a factor again, and I was in a small chase group. The last 2 laps was in this group, everyone worked together and made the remainder of the race fun. With 1 mile to go one of the South Chicago Wheelmen (SCW) attacked and nobody covered so I had to take up the chase. With 300 meters to go the SCW rider pulled off forcing me to start my sprint early. By this time the other SCW was on me wheel and started his sprint crossing the line ahead of me by 2 feet. The SCW rider was Cat. 4 so they were scored separate. When it was all over Team Tazi had a 9th place finish.

Mike Wakeley
Team Tazi / Exelon