Wow, who would have guessed that most of the Hillsboro Roubaix would be full by the end of the first day of registration? It just goes to show you what a high quality road race can do. There has been quite a lot of chatter lately on the local blogs about the fact that Hillsboro closed so quickly and many of the races were shortened for the sake of safety. The amazing thing is that Hillsboro isn't even in the Chicago area, and yet 95% of the fields will be filled with Chicago based racers. I kind feel bad for all of the St. Louis racers since this is their hometown, and I don't see even one name from St. Louis on the roster.
All this comotion and talk about Hillsboro has gotten me thinking. Why don't we put together our collective promoter heads together and see if we can't possibly get a race of Hillsboro's caliber going in the Chicago area. Obviously it couldn't be held to close to Chicago proper, but with all of the rolling terrain available to north, south, and west of the city, surely we could come up with a suitable venue.
This won't be an easy or quick task, but anything that is worth it never comes easy. For inspiration take a look at the Chicago Cyclocross Cup series. This year they are talking about perhaps 10 races! Sure a road race involves closing down public roads, but I know that with the proper planning and tons of work, we just may be able to pull something off. Why should we have to send all of our racers over 4 hours away to race anywhere from 22-88 miles when we should be able to put something together here that rivals or even betters what Hillsboro has to offer?
Maybe the Chicago area promoters can come together and share some info with one another, perhaps even work together to see if a great race can be held here. Lets make Chicago a destination on midwest racers programs, rather than us going to some podunk town in the middle of nowhere.
