Evanston is a Chicagoland suburb, the first one north of The Loop. This is the first year that it has hosted a Superweek race. The course has a couple of nasty turns, but a superacute corner that narrows 3 lanes down to 1 gets the gold star for treachery.

I decided to sit this one out. The risk-to-reward ratio of these weekend crits is not favorable. I'm sitting down right now watching the races of the day. It was nice to get an outside perspective on the 4s race. True to form, the 4s race was a barely contained catstrophe, constantly exchanging the hard currency of kinetic energy into broken machines and screaming wreckage. I feel very very good about not racing today and I've spent most of the day wandering around collecting free stuff.

This afternoon I'm making my final exit from Illinois for the last road race of the series. I'm staying with a friendly Wisconsinite I met on the flight out here, who says she is only a few minutes from tomorrows course at Holy Hill.