Brookfield’s annual day of professional and amateur bike racing is set to return for a fifth year in 2027, but Cycle Brookfield will not lead the organizational efforts. Instead, the Chamber of Commerce will take the reins on the criterium, which is one of 10 days full of bike racing that make up the annual Chicago Grit race series.
Village Trustee Nicole Gilhooley, who is the village board’s liaison to the Chamber of Commerce, announced the change at the board’s meeting on Monday, Oct. 26. Gilhooley said Peter Janunas, the owner and operator of Gears2You, Brookfield’s bike repair shop, will lead the Chamber’s organizational efforts. Janunas was previously a board member of Cycle Brookfield.
Chris Valadez, the president and founder of Cycle Brookfield, said the organization is stepping away from the criterium to refocus on its mission.
“It’s a major undertaking, overtaking everything else in between, for this organization,” Valadez told the Landmark. “At the end of the day, it really felt like it didn’t fit our mission any longer as far as hosting a bike race. Cycle Brookfield’s focus is about advocacy, safety and education … We decided to step away as the primary sponsor because that would give us more freedom and opportunity to focus on what our core mission is.”
Janunas said he approached the Chamber about taking on the criterium when he heard Cycle Brookfield was bowing out.
“I worked with Chris the last couple years, helping him work on it,” Janunas said. “I’m a member of the board of the Chamber. I asked them, and we voted to take it on with the caveat that the village continues to put in the money that they put in in the past.”
Janunas said he expected the transition from one group organizing to another to be “relatively easy” with four years’ experience within the village.
“Chris did a great job and got it to where it is now. I think the Chamber will take it up a notch or two and make it even bigger and better, hopefully,” he said.
Valadez, who is set to step down as Cycle Brookfield’s president in January 2027, said the group won’t abandon the criterium entirely, though.
“We will still be part of it to some degree. I know the Chamber is going to look to us for support, for volunteers, for other planning things,” Valadez said. “We wish the Chamber of Commerce good luck if they choose to move this forward and bring it back to Brookfield for 2027, and we will be there to support them in any which way possible.”
Janunas said the criterium will return to the triangular route south of the railroad tracks that it took in 2025, took cyclists southwest on Burlington Avenue, east on Southview Avenue and north on Grove Avenue due to ongoing construction work along Grand Boulevard.
The B-shaped route that the race took in 2023, 2024 and 2026 — taking cyclists north on Prairie Avenue, west on Grant Avenue, north on Sunnyside Avenue, west on Lincoln Avenue and southeast on Grand Boulevard — has been acclaimed by participants since its inception, but the turn from Burlington to Southview is even sharper than the turn from Lincoln to Grand.
While Cycle Brookfield is pulling out as the criterium’s main sponsor, Valadez called the village’s continued interest in the event “a testament to what we have been able to do.”
“It was kind of a risk for us, as a very small, nonprofit organization, to bring a multi-thousand-dollar effort that shut down the city, which pulled off resources of police, fire, public works and villager leadership. It really required all hands on deck,” Valadez said. “It is nice to see that not only the Chamber and the village but the community, the residents of Brookfield, want this back year after year.”
Valadez reaffirmed his plans to step down as the president of Cycle Brookfield after this year. While he said he’s proud of the impact he’s left on the village as the organization enters its 10th year in 2027, he gave a simple reason for ending his tenure.
“I’m no longer a Brookfield resident. I moved out right before the race [in July],” Valadez said. “I’m no longer there from day to day … Having to be present and there for days and hours on end was sometimes difficult.”
Valadez said he still owns some property in Brookfield but now lives in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood.
“I’m honored to leave a legacy, honored to leave the criterium, hopefully, in a healthy position, and leaving the organization and Brookfield slightly better,” Valadez said. “I never envisioned that I’d be fortunate enough to leave a mark on a town, and I’m fortunate that Brookfield embraced me.”
