Glen Ellyn cycling races return with a hometown flavor
New organizers put their own spin on professional cycling races that returned to Glen Ellyn Saturday for their second year.
Jim Burket and Ben Raby worked to save the Tour of Lake Ellyn and in the process instilled some hometown pride in the event.
Working with village officials, they invited five cyclists from Glen Ellyn's sister city of Le Bouscat, France, highlighting a relationship that builds cultural ties.
Burket and Raby also teamed up with a charitable partner in town - the Glen Ellyn Food Pantry - to donate any proceeds from the event to the nonprofit. And they enlisted Benjamin Franklin Elementary student Regan Ward to design posters promoting the Tour, the second stage of the Intelligentsia Cup series.
Spectators responded to that community spirit by showing up in big numbers to the nearly 10-hour event at the neighborhood lake.
Parents and kids also got the chance to experience the course for two laps during the Greentarget Family Fun Ride, while the professional men warmed up for their race and the pro women cooled down after theirs.
"The Intelligentsia Cup is a 10-day series and of the 10 days, this is one of the most challenging courses we have, with Chicago being a notoriously flat area," Mark Zalewski, marketing director, said Saturday. "Lake Ellyn offers hills and other features that some of the other venues don't have. It's also a narrower course so that provides a challenge to the riders because it's hard to make passes to move up. The response to feedback from the riders is that this is one of their favorite courses."
Brandon Feehery won the pro men's title by just 0.01 seconds, and Marlies Mejias placed first in the pro women's race.
The series continues with the Willow Springs Road Race Sunday. And the fifth stage of the series - the Dennis Jurs Memorial Road Race - will be held Tuesday in Elgin.