Intelligentsia Cup 2018: The Photographs (Part II)
This is the third entry in our Intelligentsia Cup race series coverage. For the introduction to our Intelligentsia Cup coverage check out this journal entry and for photographs from the first half of the series see this journal entry. We'll also have more from the perspective of Seb and Cullen (#feelings) in the coming weeks.
As we wrote about in our first gallery of images from Intelligentsia Cup we returned from the midsummer heat of Chicago with a family photo album of sorts from our 'crit-cation' (criterium vacation, get it?). A very very large family photo album that numbers nearly seven hundred images, making it so large that we had no choice but to publish it in two parts. This is the second half of that gallery starting with Thursday's Niles Cycling Challenge and concluding with the final race in the Intelligentsia Cup Series: Downtown Chicago / Fulton Street. As we mentioned before our fellow racers are welcome to share these images on their personal social media feeds with credit to @ToBeDetermined.cc - consider giving us a follow while you're at it. Apologies for the racers that didn't make it into any of these galleries - due to the nature of the race schedule I missed various races warming up / cooling down / actually racing myself. And just to say it once again - we're indebted to all of the staff and volunteers that make Intelligentsia Cup possible. It is a great event and we were excited to once again experience it. Stay tuned for the final pieces of our Intelligentsia Cup coverage in the near future.
Niles Cycling Challenge
Coming off a brutally hilly day at the West Dundee River Challenge the Niles Cycling Challenge couldn't be a more opposite venue and day of racing. Pancake flat with a few wide open corners Niles is probably the fastest day of racing all week. Which also made it the perfect venue for Clay's big sprint, similar to how the racing played out a few days earlier at the Autobahn Road Race. In fact the race once again played out almost perfectly with a solo rider getting caught in the final corner where fellow #nut (Northeast Unified Team) racer Colin Reuter made it through with a clean line that led him straight to victory (and a visit from USADA, who introduced themselves to all of the winners at Niles) while Clay got a bit hung up but still threw down a big sprint to add a second second-place finish to his Intelligentsia Cup tally. The team struggled a bit in the latter races but a mid-day trip to Pequods for some deep dish pizza quickly absolved any disappointment before we headed back to the race in time to see an excited Elite Men's race where a small break managed to lap the field.
Elmhurst Cycling Classic
As Intelligentsia Cup moved into its second weekend of racing Friday's event - the Elmhurst Cycling Classic - loomed in our minds as perhaps the biggest 'show' of the entire week. It is an exciting twilight criterium where the neighborhood that embraces the event in a manner that you certainly do not see in New York City (or just about anywhere on the East Coast we have raced). We're talking lawn parties in nearly every yard, a fleet of mobile lights for the evening racing, a jumbotron at the finish line, and a kicking scene at the beer garden ($10 all you can drink for racers!). It is an intoxicating combination that makes the Elmhurst Cycling Classic one of our favorite races bar none - as we told the Mayor of Elmhurst while getting a round of beverages in the beer garden. And if all that wasn't enough to get us excited it was also a successful day of racing for the team as Corey scored a 2nd place podium finish after another very aggressive day of racing by the entire squad. The team's third podium finish of the series certainly gave us plenty to celebrate at the aforementioned beer garden. Finishing off the day strolling from lawn party to lawn party during the elite men's race, taking in the live music between corner one and two while cheering on our friends in the elite race was the perfect way to end the day.
Tour of Lake Ellyn
After a late and incredibly memorable evening at Elmhurst we headed to perhaps our favorite course of the entire Intelligentsia Cup Series: Lake Ellyn. As we wrote about in our Intelligentsia Cup Guide it is a venue that involves just about everything. Lots of turns, a few small risers and a traffic circle to top it all off. It adds up to an absolute blast of a race and the Elite races in particular did not disappoint. On the Women's side we cheered on NYC's own Emily Spence as she made what looked to be the decisive move of the day only to see the field close a massive gap (1 minute?) on the final lap. Thankfully despite the break getting caught in the final corner Emily hung on for Top 10. Then on the Men's side a solo rider stole the show from the peloton with a long escapade off the front that looked almost certain to get caught only to survive by a slim margin at the end. This level of excitement was matched in the final race of the day where Cullen raced aggressively from start to finish and scored yet another top ten just as night was setting.
Chicago (Fulton St) Grand Prix
And so, after a very long and challenging week of racing that featured perhaps a few too many beers but an equal number of laughs, it all came down to downtown Chicago for the Fulton Street criterium. With an inverted schedule that stuck most of our races at the very end of the day the majority of the team decided to pass on racing in order to jump start the long drive back to New York City. But we did come out to the venue early in the day to cheer on Clay as he joined the Masters field and scored yet another result on the week, adding a top ten to his very successful outing at Intelligentsia Cup. From there the only thing to do was to jump in the car, pop on a podcast, and start thinking about the end of crit-cation and our return to the real world.
That's it for our Intelligentsia Cup photo galleries. Stay tuned to the Journal as we have a few final pieces of Intelligentsia Cup content in the works before we turn our minds entirely to cyclocross season.
A New York City based cyclist and sometimes photographer. Part adventure rider, part crit racer, and fully obsessed with an English bulldog named Winifred.
Instagram: @photorhetoric
E-mail: matthew@tobedetermined.cc
Our preview for 10 days of racing in Chicago at the 2023 edition of Intelligentsia Cup