In honor of Dennis: Elgin Classic bike race honors veteran whose death changed Illinois cycling laws

To paraphrase Dennis's Law: Bicyclists have the same rights and are subject to the same rules as motorists on Illinois roadways.

Unfortunately, it took the death of an avid Illinois bicyclist and Purple Heart recipient to anchor this in Illinois law.

His legacy is the story behind the story of the Elgin Classic In Memory of Dennis Jurs. This criterium race on Friday, July 24, at the corner of Cooper Avenue and Spring Street in Elgin is the eighth in the 10-race Chicago Grit series, which started July 17 in West Dundee and ends July 26 in Chicago’s Fulton Market.

In its 14th season, Chicago Grit, formerly the Intelligentsia Cup, draws national and international riders, novices and pros alike, to criterium racing. In 2025, more than 4,200 cyclists entered at least one Grit race.

Races involve a predetermined time duration versus a set lap count. Each venue’s short course offers unique challenges for riders, who repeatedly accelerate and decelerate on limited straightaways, which are punctuated by tight turns. No matter the racers’ skill level, spectators enjoy 8 to 10 hours of competitive, tactical racing as riders frequently hurtle past.

Rounding the course, cyclists jockey for position, anticipating an official bell at various intervals announcing “primes” (pronounced “preems”), special prizes — cash/merchandise — for the next lap winner.

Criterium points are gained by one’s finish ranking after the last lap bell. Final score is total points earned over the race series — the more races, the more chances to accumulate points.

‘Dennis’s Law’

While the Elgin Classic is the story, hidden behind it are a tragic 2015 fatality, a court case dismissal, and legislation passed nearly unanimously.

Dennis Jurs was a local bike racer and organizer who died in May 2015 when a motorist failed to yield the right of way near Hampshire in Kane County. The driver challenged the failure to yield citation in court, which the 16th Judicial Circuit judge dismissed that October.

Elgin attorney John Steffen represented Jurs’s wife and Chicago attorney Michael Keating represented his daughters in the case. According to Michael Keating, “The judge ruled that right-of-way laws in the Illinois Vehicle Code did not apply to bicyclists, citing nontraffic related cases that held a bicycle did not meet the legal definition of a ‘vehicle.’”

In 2016, Keating drafted legislation to correct this understanding, and then crafted the bill’s final language (HB5912) with legislators and lobbyists. State Rep. Anna Moeller of Elgin sponsored the bill, which passed both the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois State Senate with only one vote opposed. That August, Gov. Bruce Rauner signed the bill into law, which took effect January 2017.

Known as “Dennis’s Law,” it amended the Illinois Vehicle Code and applies to all Illinois bicyclists using public roads. Every person riding a bicycle is granted all the rights and is subject to all the duties applicable to a motorist.

This year’s Elgin race is the 10th running of the event, which was founded in 2017 as the Dennis Jurs Memorial Race. Currently the Elgin Classic In Memory of Dennis Jurs, it was renamed after the Elgin Classic bike race that Jurs had helped organize and lead.

Cyclist honored

That original race honored Jurs, who had taken up cycling to rehabilitate leg injuries experienced from a land mine in Vietnam. He had been a longtime member of the Springfield-based Team Mack Racing Association.

From 2000 to 2003, Jurs helped organize the Four Bridges of Elgin race that attracted national and international riders. In the mid-2000s, he and Steffen, an Elgin council member since 2007, co-chaired the Elgin Cycling Classic race.

The NorthEast Neighborhood Association has hosted Elgin’s criterium race since 2017. Steffen contacted Eric Larson, then NENA’s president, after Prairie Cycling, the group behind Chicago Grit, approached Steffen to establish an Elgin criterium race. NENA agreed to serve as the local host committee, a key race requirement.

For 2 to 3 years, the racing course was a 3.5-mile hybrid road route, according to Larson. Currently at 0.8 miles, its shorter length aligns with all nine other race venues in the Grit series.

Unlike past Elgin races, no bridges are involved.

“The shorter crit course is more spectator-friendly,” Larson said. “It blocks fewer driveways.”

The race’s success has created a lot of good will, according to Larson, even if residents need to park vehicles a block away on race day.

Besides his involvement in NENA, Larson chairs the Elgin Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. He’s currently an Elgin Symphony Orchestra board member, and officer and board president of BACKBONES, a national nonprofit serving people with spinal cord injury or disease.

He has served several nonprofit groups during his career, including as a Greater Chicago Food Depository board member and executive director and CEO of the National Spinal Cord Injury Association. From 2016-2024, Larson led the Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestra as executive director.

Active in the community, he views the race as another resource for greater Elgin and a “cool thing to be involved in for my neighborhood and for Elgin as a whole.”

Recognizing that some Elgin families cannot provide bikes for their kids, Larson noted that refurbished bikes and new helmets will be given away to community members at 10:30 a.m. before the first race.

NENA, through its partnership with the Bikes & Music nonprofit, is providing 35 bikes to Elgin families. Bikes & Music will also collect previously loved (used) bikes on race day for repair and future donation to others.

A Family Fun ride on the course itself is scheduled from 6:15-6:45 p.m. before the final men’s pro race.

• Join the ride. Contact Ralph Banasiak at alongfortheridemail@gmail.com.