Professional cyclists racing in the third annual Cycle Brookfield Criterium in July can expect a new route near Brookfield’s central business district.
Brookfield trustees approved an alternate route for the day of racing, part of the Chicago Grit race series, that will have cyclists start by heading southwest on Burlington Avenue near Prairie Avenue before making a sharp turn east onto Southview Avenue, turning north onto Grove Avenue and completing a lap back on Burlington. This year, the Criterium will take place on July 23, Cycle Brookfield President Chris Valadez said.
Valadez said the turn onto Southview Avenue is sharper than the turn from Lincoln Avenue southeast onto Grand Boulevard, which was featured as a highlight of the route in past years.
He told trustees the vendor expo for the event will take place along Prairie Avenue inside the loop of the route rather than at the Linda Sokol Francis Brookfield Library. Volunteer staff for the event, comprised of residents and Cycle Brookfield members, will use Creekside Park as a home base.
At the village’s Feb. 10 committee of the whole meeting, Village President Michael Garvey explained that the change was needed due to street work that would render the previous route through downtown unusable.
“Due to planned work on the 3700 block of Grand [Boulevard], no matter how fast and how hard we schedule, the 3700 block of Grand will not be available,” he said. “Staff worked together with Chicago Grit and Cycle Brookfield, Chris Valadez, to come up with an alternate possible route.”
Valadez told trustees that designing the new course to fit all of the requirements for the race was a challenge.
“We don’t like boring, mundane bike racing; we want to make sure there’s some excitement and a corner somewhere,” he said. “We have to find it typically within less than a mile [with a] good route, good pavement … Burlington is brand new paved with all the new work that’s there, so from a bike perspective, it is gorgeous to ride, and it’s very fast.”
He said pedestrian crossings were planned near the intersections of Burlington and Prairie avenues and Southview and Park avenues and at Southview and Prairie, with a potential fourth crossing area near Southview and Grove avenues, though the locations are not yet final.
Community Development Director Libby Popovic said the new course “seemed like it was an easier route” for Brookfield police to monitor. Police Chief Michael Kuruvilla said, if staffing levels stay the same as last year with about 19 police personnel, he expected to be able to place more officers near the Prairie Avenue railroad crossing to make sure residents stay safe.
In a memo to the village board, Popovic described impacts of the event to other village departments. She wrote Fire Chief Jim Adams recommended two off-duty paramedics watch close turns along the route after working last year as one of two standby emergency staffers. The Public Works Department also tasked six staffers to set up and break down the event and outsourced traffic control to a contractor, costing the village about $16,400 between overtime and outsourcing costs.
Valadez said that, as in prior years, Cycle Brookfield will work with village staff to ensure at least two mailers are sent out to residents who live along the new route, explaining how they may be impacted by street and railroad closures.
Once the board reached a consensus to approve the new route, Garvey said village staff were getting better at managing the event each year.
“We’re becoming pros at this. After the race, we get a lot of compliments,” he said. “I didn’t do any of the work, but I’m the recipient of the compliments about what a great job our police, fire and public works and everybody did. I had the privilege of talking to some of the racers after the race … I think you said last year, we were the second-favorite route on the entire thing, just beat by one town because they had a hill, but to hear that excitement from the racers about what our staff does to make this happen is tremendous.”
