An annual high-speed bike race series returns to select suburbs for 10 days.
Chicago Grit, formerly the Intelligentsia Cup, is a premier cycling race series held annually in Chicagoland, drawing cyclists from across the nation.
Chicago-area stops include West Dundee July 19, Glen Ellyn July 20, Winfield July 21, Mundelein July 22, Lombard July 23, Brookfield July 24, Northbrook July 25, Elgin July 26, Lake Bluff July 27 and new this year, Chicago’s Fulton Market July 28.
Now in its 12th year, the largest bicycle road race series in America drew more than 5,400 entries last year.
Marco Colbert is the race director and one of the co-founders of the series along with his business partner Tom Schuler. Colbert has been involved in managing bike races for more than 20 years, he said.
“We love cycling and we hope that comes through. We want to share it with everyone, and we want to give back to the sport,” he said. “Cycling represents a healthy lifestyle, an active lifestyle, and that’s important. And it’s fun.”
The series was formerly known as the Intelligentsia Cup but as Intelligentsia Coffee is no longer a title sponsor, a name change was in order.
“We created this new name after a lot of thought, we thought it was a dynamic name,” he said. “We wanted to have a short name that was punchy, so we came up with ‘Grit.’ Chicago Grit is the biggest road series in America — we measure it by the number of entries. We’re proud to be the biggest and I would say certainly one of the best bike races in America.”
Criterium racing, or crit, is a road race normally held on short courses in neighborhoods or even parking lots, which makes for incredibly fast and exciting races as cyclists must corner quickly to maintain speed and jockey for position, he said.
“They’re all about a mile or less than a mile in length,” he said. “The beauty of this is that it is very spectator-friendly because the bike races come around the racecourse frequently therefore the spectators get to see it and enjoy it.”
Unlike a race such as the Tour de France, which goes from point A to point B and isn’t an ideal spectator event, he said.
“Crit racing is very spectator-friendly,” he said. “We don’t really see ourselves as being a bike-racing series. We see ourselves as being an assembly of community events with a bike race. We’re in 10 really great communities or neighborhoods. We partner with local organizers in each of these places and try to bring fun and family-friendly entertainment to each of these venues.”
That includes music, food and activities free to the public on those days.
For example, West Dundee will have a “really wonderful” food court, local vendors and music along the racecourse, he said.
“The racecourse goes by a really nice park in West Dundee called Grafelman Park and there’s going to be a lot of activities going on,” he said. “And by the way, there’s a bike race going on all day.”
Make no mistake, the bike racing is intense, he said. These cyclists are athletes in prime condition.
“Crit bike racing is very intense racing. It’s fun but intense. It takes fitness and skill and experience to do this kind of bike racing,” he said. There are, however, beginning categories people can enter. There are also junior categories for riders 15-18 years old.
“The pinnacle is the professional men’s and women’s races and we will have some of the best, fastest bike racers in America and many foreign countries,” he said. “The speeds they attain and the level of skill they exhibit is just amazing.”
Ambitious racers can compete throughout the entire series if they choose to. A fun mini event this year is the DuPage Triple Crown. Riders compete in Glen Ellyn, Winfield and Lombard in hopes of being crowned the best in DuPage County.
The American Criterium Cup is a separate national series composed of eight significant bike races around the country, Colbert said. It comes to Chicago Grit in Lake Bluff on July 27, with the women’s race at 5 p.m. and the men’s race at 6:45 p.m.
Check the Chicago Grit website to see what time the races begin and end, as well as what course they take. For example, in West Dundee, bike racing starts at 10:20 a.m. with the last race ending by 8 p.m. The last two races of the day are the professional women’s race at 5 p.m. and the professional men’s race at 6:45 p.m. Sandwiched in between that is the family bike parade, he said.
“That’s a period of time when families can get on the racecourse and ride their bikes around,” he said. “A lot of them dress in costumes and it’s a lot of fun for the whole family.”
He hopes people come out and watch the race, have fun in their communities and perhaps even become inspired to mount their own bikes for a ride.
“It’s like a festival going on around you,” he said.
Go to chicago-grit.com for details.
Annie Alleman is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.
