Summer Fun In the Great Suburban Outback

One of The Great Suburban Outback’s coolest summer events is the national championship Criterium race in Downers Grove, IL.

Today’s Chicago Tribune sums it up: "Unlike the long treks that make up the Tour de France now winding across southern France, these races are held on closed city streets on laps no longer than a mile. With their many turns and short durations, they are fast and frantic."

The article doesn't say it but I will: criterium racers are lunatics. Give me a nice, solitary, "no-drafting" triathlon bike course any day.