Photo by Steve Hansen

I haven’t seen complete results yet and I was out of the country, so I don’t have much commentary on this weekend’s races, but I was pleased to see how big the fields were. I figured people would take a respite between Superweek and the Tour of Elk Grove. The Grayslake P/1/2 in particular looks to have been unusually competitive, with not only Chicago’s best coming out to play but also a full squad of Bianchi/Grand Performance from Minnesota.

As I noted in my last post, some fun video was taken in Grayslake. En route to a second-place finish, Julian Baumgartner (Team Clif Bar Midwest) recorded the Cat 3 race, and Veloist shot and edited a great package, including interviews from the sidelines.

Mainstream media alert! The Daily Herald covered Sunday’s Elgin crit.

Full Grayslake results.

Grayslake race reports
Mike Ebert (ABD; P/1/2): “I played the aggressive card off the line long enough for Jeff Schroetlin to get in a break of eight guys.”

Steve Hansen (North Branch Cycling; P/1/2): “The cards were stacked from the beginning as Bianchi/Grand Performance from Minnesota brought six guys to the line.”

Bryan McVey (Vision Quest; 3): “Once I saw that they were getting closer, I went up next to a Team Clif Bar Midwest guy whom I knew was strong and said, ‘Let’s attack hard when the gap starts to get really small.’”

Jeff Wat (XXX Racing-AthletiCo; 4/5): ” made my move as usual and jumped clear. It seemed like everyone else didn’t care.”

Elgin race reports
Bryan McVey (Vision Quest; 3): “I just concentrated on pumping my legs hard and since I got a decent jump on the group at the end, I held off any late charges.”

Matt Smith (Big Shark; 30+ 4/5): “That nice, comfortable feeling lasted until they called a $100 prime. As a bonus there was a 1/2 burrito, too.”