Chris Valadez, the president of Cycle Brookfield, said the transportation advocacy and biking community group has a lot planned for 2026, but the year will be his last leading the organization.
“It’s been my honor, and I get emotional, if not choked up, most of the time thinking about how this community has embraced the [Cycle Brookfield Criterium] and the idea of bikes,” he told the Landmark. “Bringing the race took a lot of trust from the residents, from the village, from the community, and leaving it in a really positive, healthy spot — I can’t think of a better way to step away.”
Valadez said he plans to step down at the end of the year, with other members of the group taking his place once the calendar rolls over to 2027.
In the meantime, Valadez said he has a lot planned for the group before he departs, including long and short events. Cycle Brookfield is well known for its role in organizing the Criterium, an annual day of amateur and professional bicycle racing that is part of the Chicago Grit circuit, which will return for a fourth iteration in July.
The race will revert to its original, B-shaped course around downtown this year after moving south across the railroad tracks last year due to ongoing construction along Grand Boulevard.
“The B is back,” Valadez said.
Otherwise, much about the event will stay the same, he said, with the addition of a meet-and-greet expo for attendees that will highlight the professionals who travel to Brookfield to compete.
“They’re the stars of the show, the pro women and men flying from all over the world, and they love to engage with their fans. We want to make sure that we’re building some fandom in Brookfield,” he said. “Go and meet them before the race. Cheer for them as they’re out. There’s some really awesome, young talent that exists out there, and I would love if a young Brookfielder were to look at some of these racers and say, ‘I think I could do that one day.’”
Aside from the Criterium, Valadez said the group’s plans include continuing to work with the village on several projects, including sharing findings from the bike audit it completed last year in order to inform Brookfield’s upcoming resurfacing projects along Maple and Prairie avenues. Volunteers took a detailed look in September at those two streets, as well as Kemman Avenue, to evaluate their safety and “bikeability” with the help of a grant from the AARP.
“It’s a win for not only Cycle Brookfield but for the village of Brookfield to have an advocacy organization that is actively trying to perform and create a safer environment, not just for cyclists but for motorists and pedestrians alike,” he said. “As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, we have opportunities available to us that are not available to government agencies … We’ve already committed that we’re going to be applying for more grants in 2026.”
Cycle Brookfield has also been working with village staff on the Des Plaines River Trail south extension project, for which Brookfield is the lead agency. The project could see a new bike path put in along 31st Street from Prairie Avenue to First Avenue as a new connector route for the trail, which runs uninterrupted for 55 miles from the Illinois-Wisconsin border before splintering due to gaps in the region surrounding Brookfield.
“Part of the reason that we started as an organization was to say, ‘Somehow, some way, we need to be able to safely access the Brookfield Zoo, the bike path that’s there on 31st Street and all the accommodations that are right there. Why isn’t anyone making this a priority?’” he said. “The village brought us in to ask our opinion and said, ‘What should we do as far as building an entire route, half a route, a portion of the route?’ We came right up and said, ‘We believe that you should, as the village of Brookfield, take the lead and really connect that part of the village to the rest of the village.”
Out of everything Cycle Brookfield is working on for 2026, Valadez said he’s most excited for the smaller, more regular events, like the group’s monthly slow rides.
“I’m looking forward to bringing these events back as much as possible and continuing to build a community in Brookfield that is sustainable, not just for [bicyclists] but for anyone,” he said. “What can we do to better serve? That’s really the theme that we’re trying to create for 2026. We want to serve Brookfield.”
