April 7th Chico Airport Criterium Results................

Hi Everyone! Well, even with the uncertain weather this evening, we still held the Tuesday Night Airport Criterium - and we had 16 riders taking part in this event! Thank you all for coming out to this one - even with the crazy weather!! Quite a few Prime Points were offered up tonight, and we have a few changes in the Overall Standings in the 2009 Airport Criterium Series(see below)! We were quite lucky in that it didn't rain at all out at the Airport, so the course was dry. Although, when I took off to come home after the event, it started coming down a bit.......good timing on that one.

Tonight's Criterium was also Event #1 in the April "Rodneyum" Omnium event - I will have the Current Standings for that event later this evening. Event # 2 is the Fast 50 tomorrow - and Event #3(and Final Event) is the Aguas Frias 10-Mile Time Trial on Thursday evening.

I would like to thank Steve Vickery at the Madison Bear Garden for donating BEAR BUCKS for Prime Prizes for tonight's Criterium - for every 1 Prime Point that was won, 1 Bear Buck was also given away! And, as you can see from the results below, we gave away quite a few Primes tonight! Thank you Steve and Madison Bear Garden for donating to the event!!

Okay, below are the Category Results from tonight's event - and below that section are the Current Overall Standings in the 2009 Airport Criterium Series. Thank you all again for coming out to this one - and we'll do this one again next Tuesday evening!

CATEGORY RESULTS FOR THE APRIL 7th AIRPORT CRITERIUM:

Category "A":
1. Roy Steves (7 points + 8 Prime Points + 1 = 16 points)
2. Alex Blease (5 points + 8 Prime Points + 1 = 14 points)
3. Mike Trowbridge (4 points + 6 Prime Points + 1 = 11 points)
4. Tim Creswell (3 points + 1 = 4 points)
5. Michael Jasinski (2 points + 4 Prime Points + 1 = 7 points)
6. Margaret Jones (1 point + 4 Prime Points + 1 = 6 points)

Category "B":
1. Matt Itamura (7 points + 3 Prime Points + 1 = 11 points)
2. Shawn Hughes (5 points + 9 Prime Points + 1 = 15 points)
3. Mike Crumm (4 points + 3 Prime Points + 1 = 8 points)
4. Ray Bransky (3 points + 1 Prime Point + 1 = 5 points)
5. Samuel Bransky (2 points + 1 Prime Point + 1 = 4 points)
6. Charlie Pelton (1 point + 4 Prime Points + 1 = 6 points)
Pack Finish:
Rob Glatthaar (1 Prime Point + 1 = 2 points)
Tom Embree (1 Prime Point + 1 = 2 points)

Women's Category:
1. Lisa Martens (7 points + 4 Prime Points + 1 = 12 points)
2. Jenn Gruber (5 points + 1 Prime Point + 1 = 7 points)


2009 AIRPORT CRITERIUM SERIES CURRENT OVERALL STANDINGS:Category "A" OVERALL:
1. David Albrecht 60 points
2. Mike Trowbridge 40 points
2. Mike Smith 40 points
4. Jeff Galland 37 points
5. Michael Jasinski 27 points
6. Alex Blease 26 points
7. Roy Steves 21 points
8. Mike Cordova 19 points
9. Tim Creswell 14 points
10. James Plummer 13 points
11. Kevin Speacht 10 points
12. Anthony Ferretti 9 points
13. Margaret Jones 8 points (1st Place Woman in Category "A")
14. Dave Berman 7 points
14. Kyle Hartelt 7 points
14. Ryan Olson 7 points
17. Evan Carroll 6 points
18. Greg Melton 5 points
19. Jesse Rushing 4 points
19. Ben Bryant 4 points
21. Jason Ziegenhirt 3 points
21. Charlie Dawson 3 points
21. Greg Golet 3 points
21. Jeff Ochs 3 points
21. Kenny Price 3 points
26. Geno Gruber 2 points
26. Janeen Thorpe 2 points
26. Brad Foster 2 points
29. Steve Vickery 1 point
30. Dain Melton 1 point
31. Dan Reymann 1 point
32. Kurt Haskins 1 point
33. Mike Castaldo 1 point
34. Tom Embree 1 point
35. Paul Sajben 1 point

CATEGORY "B" OVERALL:
1. Matt Itamura 39 points
1. Shawn Hughes 39 points
3. Mike Crumm 32 points
4. Frank Marinello 30 points
5. David Klein 21 points
5. Michael Dufresne 21 points
7. Charlie Pelton 20 points
8. Joe Schlesinger 16 points
9. Dain Melton 14 points
10. Colin Moakley 11 points
10. Denny McKenney 11 points
12. Tom Embree 9 points
13. Ray Bransky 8 points
14. David Weathers 7 points
15. Samuel Bransky 5 points
15. BJ LaRossa 5 points
15. Jeff Ochs 5 points
18. Clay Johnson 4 points
18. Brian Strukan 4 points
20. Rob Glatthaar 3 points
20. Jeff Davis 3 points
22. Adam Tischler 2 points
22. Christopher Cook 2 points
22. Mark Hendry 2 points
25. Johnny Jones 1 point
26. Walt Schafer 1 point
27. Gary Fowler 1 point
28. John Wiesinger 1 point
29. Tom Murphy 1 point
30. Greg Melton 1 point
31. Paul Begbie 1 point

WOMEN'S CATEGORY:
1. Lisa Martens 23 points
2. Jenn Gruber 16 points
3. Tracy Berman 12 points
4. Christa Ritchey 7 points
4. Margaret Jones 7 points
6. Caryn Jones 5 points
7. Amy Dawson 1 point
8. Teresa Kludt 1 point
9. Kristen Schonauer 1 point
10. Shirley Huffman 1 point


AIRPORT CRITERIUM SERIES INFORMATION:

After the great turn-out at last year's Tuesday Night Chico Airport Criterium Series, we're going to be doing them again for 2009......but starting up a bit earlier this year. For those curious, the definition of "Criterium" is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criterium

This Series starts up next Tuesday, March 10th and will go through September 15th, 2009......just before our Chico Downtown Criterium on September 20th! Registration normally starts at 5:40pm - with the event starting at 6:00pm.

How does it work???

Okay, here are a few notes for this year's Airport "Crit" Series:

1. We will be using more than 1 course for the Crits this year......including throwing in some lefty-turn Crits to get a feel for those - and some Weekend Criteriums as well. For the time being, we'll be using our standard Tuesday Night righty-turn course starting/finishing at Convair Avenue - http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Chico-Airport-Tuesday-Night-Crit-Course

2. ALL riders must sign in this year - There will be a small table on the sidewalk at the Start/Finish location on Convair Avenue - just sign in at the table and you are good to go! Sign-ins start at 5:40pm - the racing action starts at 6:00pm. We usually end the event by 7pm, at the latest - many times earlier than that - to get home before it gets too dark outside. RAIN AND WET PAVEMENT WILL ALWAYS CANCEL THE CRITERIUMS! In addition, last year we had some tremendous smoke from the Humboldt Fire in this area......which, in turn, would also cancel the Criteriums due to hazardous air quality.

3. The Category "B" races normally go for 45 minutes PLUS 3 laps.........while the Category "A" races go for 50-60 minutes PLUS 3 laps. There can be anywhere from 1 to 15+ Primes in the Airport Criteriums......just depends on the mood of the Dictator.....er......I mean, Director. ;)

4. Helmets are MANDATORY! So, please....please.....wear your helmet! Please!!

5. All are welcome - you don't have to do the Series - just come on out and give this Criterium training/riding a shot! It's amazing what kind of workout you can get in during a 45 to 60 minute practice event.

6. Points are used to calculate the Overall Standings in the Series. The point breakdown is as follows: 7-5-4-3-2-1, with an additional 1 point being given to each participant at each event. So, 7 points goes to the winner, 5 points goes to 2nd place, 4 points goes to 3rd place and so on.........in addition to 1 more point just for doing the event. The rider with the MOST points at the end of the Series wins the Overall Title - and the Chico Airport Series Championship Trophy, plus whatever goodies we can give you. Also, Prime points will be given out during each of the Crits - these are just lap prizes......but in this case, the prizes are points. We will also be having some product Primes out there this year!

7. Last year, we had just two categories during the races - Category A and Category B. However, the Series itself has even more Trophy Categories, including:

Category "A" Men
Women's Category
Women's Masters 40+ Category
Category "B" Men
Men's Masters 40+ Category
Men's Masters 50+ Category

These are the Categories which all qualify for a Series Championship Trophy. If nobody - or very few folks are in one category - we may eliminate it and add an additional category where the numbers allow it. As usual, sandbaggers are strongly discouraged ( A Sandbagger would be a Category "A" rider entering a Category "B" event).

8. Although donations to put on these events are always very appreciated and accepted, this Series is FREE - so come on out and take advantage of some, or all, of these Criteriums in 2009!

9. Finally, remember - these Criterium events are essentially for practice and exercise - we have fun out there and get a great little workout in, and we get to work on some quality cycling skills. But, overall, they're no big whoop....no World Championship/Olympic medals or million dollar contracts on the line. So, with that in mind, just treat 'em as such - a good training event to try some new things, gain some good fitness.....and maybe even get into a "real" sanctioned Criterium at some point in time. Or not. Just have fun with it!! We'll have trophies and hopefully some prizes for the Series winners - and definitely loads of fun....and pain and suffering. ;) But remember - it's all in good fun!

Hope to see you out there!!

Rodney............
Team Chico & R.A.C.E. - Rodney's Absurd Cycling Events
Chico, CA
www.ChicoBike.com