Race Report: 2026 Chicago Grit - Men’s Pro/1/2
Race: 2026 Chicago Grit - Men’s Pro/1/2
Date: July 18-26, 2026
AVRT racers: Michael Bektas and Jon Wells (first 3 days only)
Top Result: lol
Day 1 - None of us raced
Day 2 - Jon, 57 of 72
Day 3 - Jon, 48 of 75
Day 4 - Jon, 59 of 70
Day 5 - Michael, 62 of 73
Day 6 - off
Day 7 - Michael, 65 of 103
Day 8 - Michael, 80 of 103
Day 9 - off
Day 10 - Michael, 84 of 114
Course: All 10 days are around greater Chicago area, generally in neighborhood streets of some small suburb and near their little downtown area
Day 1 - None of us raced
Day 2 - Glen Ellyn, technical, longer loop around a lake with u-turn towards end of lap
Day 3 - Winfield, rectangle course on a slight side hill
Day 4 - Mundelein, 3 corner triangle with respectable uphill between corner 1 and 2
Day 5 - Lombard, hot dog crit with long sweeping turn 1 into a small hill and tight back stretch
Day 6 - off
Day 7 - Northbrook, very easy 4 corner crit with one tight turn
Day 8 - Elgin, mostly regular rectangle crit with a tight chicane and very scary downhill penultimate corner
Day 9 - off
Day 10 - Fulton Market, flat 4 corners in downtown Chicago. Back straight under the L train.
Strava:
Day 1 - None of us raced
Day 2 - https://www.strava.com/activities/19369470702
Day 3 - https://www.strava.com/activities/19383372715
Day 4 - https://www.strava.com/activities/19396617045
Day 5 - https://www.strava.com/activities/19410975095
Day 6 - off
Day 7 - https://www.strava.com/activities/19439805079
Day 8 - https://www.strava.com/activities/19451927008
Day 9 - off
Day 10 - https://www.strava.com/activities/19479162282
Nutrition: Jon - daily pre race Redbull and 100g flow bottle plus a fat ice sock during the race
Michael - caffeine pills and Maurten 320 for 80g carbs, yum
Race Recap:
(Day 1-4 Jon, 5-10 Michael)
Day 1 - None of us intended to race this day and it ended up being for the best as wildfire smoke blowing down from Canada was pretty bad, even cancelling the morning races.
Day 2 - Glen Ellyn is a pretty technical course around a lake. My flight to Chicago got in the morning of this race, which has been going poorly for me this season when I do that… must be getting old or something. Was pretty hot out even at almost 7pm when we started and still some smoke in the air. Pre race plan was have fun and don’t die.
Race started and all the strong teams immediately started launching attacks until one with 2 cadence and 2 kiwi riders got away and stuck it (they were the strongest teams all week). It was immediately hard but I was starting to feel a rhythm in the back tailgunning as much as possible to save some energy but it was way too late. As soon as a couple riders sat up and a gap opened that needed to be closed down, my race turned real quick. I closed a couple opening gaps but pretty soon it became unmanageable and I was dropped before the halfway point of the race.
Day 3 - Winfield is one of the easiest courses of the entire week with no super technical corners and no curbs around most of the course, which makes it one of the sketchiest races all week. Generally it comes to a field sprint and there will be a big crash in the last lap (spoiler alert!).
It was very easy to sit in and move around the pack on this course. I spent some time near the front in the first 10 minutes and watched the cadence and kiwi teammates all trying to start doomed breakaways. As we got down to the gritty end of things, I was in a pretty good spot at 7 to go when there was a huge crash into corner 3 that only about 30 guys were in front of. The rest of us got around the carnage and went to the pit only to be told to chase. There was lots of big sprinter egos yelling after the race about how free laps work since we were told free laps ended at 7 and the crash was also on 7… anyways I was just happy that we didn’t hit the ground and onto the next day.
Day 4 - Mundelein looked easy on paper with only 3 corners but there was a solid hill between corner 1 and 2 that made for a proper effort every lap. Last corner was ripping fast if you could find space. Goal again was to hang onto the group on this more challenging course.
Sitting in was pretty easy most of the race. Breaks tried (every field prior in the day was won from a break) but nothing got away with the right teams. Meanwhile I was getting tailgunning lessons from Lucas at the back of the field. Eventually the sprint turn up started and I got dropped off the back on the hill in the last laps, but still finished on lead lap.
Day 5 - Racing without Jon was sad, it’s always so much better to do these races with teammates. I was originally going to take Day 5 off but Lombard is such an iconic course I figured I had to give it a go. The iconic long sweeping right hander into the tight back straight was fun to do amongst a pack of some of the best crit racers in the world. However fun it was, 3 consecutive hard races before meant I didn’t have the power to recover from many mistakes. I took some bad turns, the people around me took turns and before we knew it we had all managed to drop ourselves. Very frustrating but I was looking forward to some rest and a reset ahead of the second half of the race
Day 6 - off
Day 7 - I was feeling good for this one and the majority flat, flowy course really suited me. Northbrook races like ¾ of a regular 4 corner crit with an extremely tight turn 3. Every single lap the field would bunch up significantly and you would need to surge out of it with a lot of power to get back up to speed. With the bunching came a lot of crashes. As primes started to get called out, more and more people would miss the apex, skid a tire or have to extend their line into someone’s front yard. Eventually, there was a massive pile up, removing most of the field. We rolled to the pits and were let back in a decent amount behind the lead ground, leaving us to push hard to get back on terms. As the finish came up, the fight into the tight turn became more and more fierce. With my eyes on the ACC day, I kept it smooth and safe within the pack. I rolled it in with some other Bay Area guys after keeping it upright.
Day 8 - On paper and Youtube, Elgin looks straightforward. There is one obvious chicane but the rest of the corners are relatively open. What the videos don’t show is the extremely scary and downhill into the second to last corner. This turn and subsequent uphill drag to the line blew this race up completely. From the gun, the entire field was single file with people dropping left and right. I thought I was safe sandwiched between Team Cadence and Whoosh NZ but as those guys gave up, huge gaps started to open up. With the high pace, it was impossible to close these alone and I had to watch the field go up the road.
Day 9 - off
Day 10 - The ACC day! Fulton Market is definitely my favorite crit race and one that I had circled on my calendar for a while. The easy course mixed with the electric atmosphere of downtown Chicago had me excited to come back a couple years after my last race here as a Cat 3. The feels like was approaching 95 degrees, making the racing even harder. Like with all of these races, even the easiest courses become challenging as many current and ex-pros fill the field. Ex-Bora Hansgrohe rider Ide Schelling went off the front early and the sprinter teams had to keep the pace high to keep him in range. The pack remained strung out but nothing unmanageable. As we got to the last 30mins, I put in a big move to begin getting into sprint position. At the same time, Michael Garrison launched an extremely threatening 20min solo break. This blew up the field and raised the pace significantly right after I did my big effort. 35 race days on the season caught up to me and I watched the final few laps from the sidelines with friends.