Race Report: 2024 Chicago Grit - Men’s 2
Race: 2024 Chicago Grit, Lake Bluff - Men’s 2
Date: July 27, 2024
AVRT racers: Jon Wells
Top Result: Jon Wells, 20th of 43
Course: 0.76 mile loop through Lake Bluff, IL, a northern Chicago suburb. The 6 corner L shaped lap starts on the towns main street for the longest straight and then winds through some tight neighborhood roads.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/11997821458
Nutrition: a pre race Redbull and 60g flow bottle during the race
Race Recap:
Watch my race recap here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3n0asncIXE
This was the first cat 2 race I had done for the weekend in Chicago so I was really excited to get the chance to pick on someone my own size after getting chewed up and spit out from the pro race the night before. I didn’t know what the race dynamic would be like with an unfamiliar field but my plan was to just chill and feel out the field for the first part of the race and then look for a late race move.
I ended up absolutely chilling in the pack for most of the race. I was looking for smooth lines and trying to save as much energy as possible. This is a challenging course with how tight and technical it is, so its really important to be efficient and in good positions during the race. Nothing very threatening ever went up the road but there was enough aggression to keep the pace fairly high for most of the race. There were a few crashes in corners, but every time it was just someone making a mistake and crashing by themselves without any major pileups.
Around 7 to go I showed my face at the front of the race for the first time when I took advantage of a swarming field to move up to the very front. It definitely took some adjusting to go from looking for smooth lines to being aggressive just to hold my own space, regardless of line. In the end, I just wasn’t aggressive enough to fight for the front of the race and ended up rolling in just as a part of the pack.
Race: 2024 Chicago Grit, Fulton - Men’s 2
Date: July 28, 2024
AVRT racers: Jon Wells
Top Result: Jon Wells, 4th of 50
Course: 0.7 mile loop through Fulton St Market in Chicago. Its a downtown 4 corner crit with a very slight uphill on the start/finish side and downhill on the backside. This race is really the only 4 corner rectangle crit of the entire 10 day event and also the only race in Chicago proper.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/12005165918
Nutrition: a pre race Redbull and 60g flow bottle during the race
Race Recap:
Watch my race recap here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDE7kq99U-g
It was the last day of Chicago Grit and I really wanted to come away with some sort of result. The course is really not technical compared to previous days so tailgunning seemed like an acceptable move. The skies were very dark and cloudy so I was mentally preparing for a rain race. Luckily the rain held off until maybe 30 minutes after we finished.
My plan today was to be a lazy sprinter and sit in as much as possible so nothing really notable happened for the entire first half of the race. Moves would try to go but nothing was getting much of a leash. All of the strongest individuals who had spots in the overall standing were watching eachother much closer today than previously.
About 30 minutes into the race, I decided to test the water on moving up and also give my legs a small opener at this point so I picked a lap where I went from back of the field to the front and rolled an attack for a lap to get the legs feeling fast. I ended up almost accidentally swiping a prime too, as they rang the bell at the end of my lap off the front.
At 5 laps to go, the first rider through the first corner overcooked it and slid out. there was a construction barrier right up against the road on the outside of this corner so him and his bike were right in the racing line and a huge pileup occurred. Nearly the entire field crashed, with about 15 people (myself included) sneaking past the carnage on the inside. I sprinted hard to catch up with everyone whole hadn’t crashed since we were inside of free laps and I didn’t want to get dropped from the small group. I caught on through the last 2 corners, shortly before they stopped us at the finish to neutralize the race since there were still people out in the course.
They ended up restarting us on 5 to go once the course was clear. They ultimately let everyone who could still ride back into the race. The few of us who hadn’t crashed did get to line up first though so I got a front row position on the restart. I decided to change my mindset for these last few laps and pretend I was in a cross race. I wanted to start hard to stay at the front and also was willing to eat wind to stay at the front. I never left the first 10 wheels in these last few laps and it ended up working great.
Coming into one lap to go, there were some attacks from the previous lap that were just getting brought back by the now single file field. Right after we went through the first 2 tighter corners, the guy in second position attacked and the few guys immediately behind him just sat up and let it go. I jumped around them to the right but the gap was already there by the time I realized. Simultaneously, a guy on the left side of the field jumped and I ended up on his wheel going into the last 2 corners. I jumped with everything I had left out of the last corner and came around the guy in front of me pretty quickly. The last corner was a little far from the line, especially considering the slight uphill so 2 guys ended up coming past me just before the line plus the one guy who attacked earlier in the lap stayed away so I came in for 4th! I was super excited to at least have one legit result to show from the weekend!!
-Jon