Images: Northbrook Grand Prix, Intelligentsia Cup 2023

Hundreds of cyclists took to the streets for the Northbrook Grand Prix Thursday, July 27, as part of the 2023 Intelligentsia Cup series.

Not all finished, but 443 people entered to ride in one of nine races on the .75-mile course down Shermer and Meadow roads, Walters Avenue and Church Street, anchored by Village Green Park.

Noncompetitors rode in the Family Fun Ride scheduled between the conclusive women's and men's professional races.

"The event went perfectly," said Sam Reiss, management analyst for the office of Village Manager Cara Pavlicek.

"It was hot weather but we still had a good crowd there enjoying the race. We had a good Family Fun Ride at 6:30 p.m. that had a lot of participants," he said.

Reiss said the village had received no complaints about the event.

That would please the trio of Marco Colbert, Tom Schuler and Bekah Collins. Respectively, they're the executive director, location scout and course designer, and marketing director of Prairie State Cycling, which started the Intelligentsia Cup in 2012.

Collins, in Elgin on July 28 with Colbert and Schuler for the eighth of 10 Cup circuit stops, spoke with a pair of Northbrook spectators who had been skeptical going into last year's Grand Prix debut but "this year couldn't wait," she said.

"People were out on the course all day from the neighborhood that were just so excited that we were there," said Collins, who said Shermer Road reminds her of Disneyland's "Main Street USA."

The crowd built throughout the day to a finish-line throng for the professional races. Collins said the men averaged 29.2 mph over the 70-minute race, even with two hairpin turns.

The men's and women's pro races both ended in a sprint, each won by cyclists from Los Angeles.

"Even though the course on a piece of paper looks simple, in fact it's a challenging course," Colbert said. "The pros loved the course. They wouldn't say that if they didn't mean it."

Schuler, noting a town with a facility like Northbrook Park District's Ed Rudolph Velodrome is a natural to host a bike race, saw nearby businesses like Graeter's Ice Cream doing good business. He said "robust" lawn parties on Church Street added atmosphere to the back side of the course.

"Village Green is such a nice backdrop for a race like that," Schuler said.