There were some things taking place at the same time in the last weekend in July. The festivals and Brewers were the hot events. But you had to spend money. While that was going on, bicycle races on Downer Av. and Silver Spring Dr. drew lots of people. And it didn't cost a thing.
You couldn't beat free parking and free admission. Plus, there was the chance to see some of the best professional cyclists in the world not in the Tour de France racing on city streets and rural roads.
The International Cycling Classic tour - better known as Superweek - made its last stops on the east side of the Milwaukee area. The tour concluded, as always, in Whitefish Bay.
This is the oldest and longest multi-day event in the country. It began six days after the “other tour.” Superweek ran from July 11-27. Riders from 22 countries and 45 states participated in the 17-day series.
All of this wouldn't be possible without Otto Wenz. The 73-year-old organized the first race in 1969. It was a one-day lakefront race that ran during Summerfest. This year was the 40th anniversary of Superweek. The series almost went under back in 1998. Financial support was restored, and Superweek rolled on. Wenz sold the rights to the event two years ago to Mike and Andy Garrison of Breakaway Event Productions. He's listed as the race director.
What Wenz saw was the potential to make a one-day race a mid-summer attraction by adding more dates and lining up the best cyclists available. Past Tour de France winners Lance Armstrong and Greg LeMond won stages at Superweek. Robbie Ventura and current Tour participants Cadel Evans and Christian Vande Velde also raced here. Wenz explained how the series expanded over the years.
“I just looked around, find a site or road,” he said. “These guys, you know, they like road races.”
Wenz has one favorite race location out of the 17.
“I look back in my original event there. I had my business right there on Downer. And it became one of the best events,” Wenz said.
Eddy Van Guyse, a Belgium native and U.S. citizen, has been the race announcer for the last 30 years. He played a rival Italian bicycle racer in the 1979 film, “Breaking Away”, starring Dennis Quaid. It's one of the top ten sports films of all time.
“There are so many races that come and go,” Van Guyse said. “But it's a real tribute to the people of Wisconsin. And now we race in Illinois. It's not a second rate event. It's a first-class world cycling event.”
The first six races were in Illinois. They had another race in that state July 20. The other 10 races were in Wisconsin. A total of $61,100 was up for grabs in prize money in various categories. Local businesses and other individuals donated money each day for riders to win during the race. In cycling, they call it primes (French word, pronounced preems). There was money for the overall points winner, the overall sprint champion and daily stage winners.
Distances at the shorter races - called criteriums - ranged from half a mile to 1.3 miles. Two of the courses were longer than the criteriums. One lap was 2.3 miles around. The other was 8.1 miles a lap. The riders covered 100 kilometers (about 62 miles) each day. The laps varied according to the distance. The women and amateurs raced earlier in each of the days. Two rest days were built into the Tour de France schedule. In Superweek, there were no rest days.
On each day, the riders in the field knew who wore the yellow, white and red jerseys. Sometimes, it changed from one rider to another after each race, depending on how many points were gained at its conclusion. The race winner got seven points, $475 and the white jersey as the daily winner. Fifty dollars went to the 25th place rider. There was a daily purse of $2,800. Sprint and overall winners of the day received red and yellow jerseys, respectively.
Sterling Magnell, from California and Rock Racing, wore yellow for the first 12 days of the series, despite suffering a serious crash in the Ripon race and taking 30-plus stitches to the face. Magnell was out of the hospital and on the saddle (bike seat) the next day. But he lost the jersey on the 13th day to Jittery Joes' Jonathan Cantwell, from Australia, at the Whitnall Park race.
“At the end of the day, it's a yellow jersey,” Cantwell said after the Racine.org Criterium, July 24, in Racine. “There's prestige. There's prize money. So at the end of the day, it's like any sport. May the best man win.”
On July 26, at the Greater Downer Av. Bike Race, one of Magnell's teammates won the largest Super Prime for one lap ever - $7,000. Justin Williams, an African-American, won the dash for cash with 12 laps to go.
Rahsaan Bahati, another African-American teammate, missed three days of racing to attend a wedding. He was the sprint points leader at that time, but he lost it to local rider Chad Hartley, also of Jittery Joes. Bahati came back to make up for lost time. He began the July 27 Whitefish Bay race down 18 points to Hartley. Magnell's win at Downer Av. left him three points behind Cantwell. It came down to the yellow and red on the last day with lots of money at stake. It was $1,500 for the overall series winner and $2,000 for the sprint winner. Bahati wasn't a factor because a seven-man breakaway group took all the sprint points that were awarded to those places.
“That breakaway rolled, and they got to a good safe distance away,” Hartley said that day. “I didn't want the group to go too slow. At 40 (laps) to go, it was game over.”
Cantwell kept his eye on one person throughout the race.
“I just had to beat one guy,” he said. “As long as I was in front of Sterling (Magnell), the yellow jersey was mine.”
If you weren't there at Superweek, you missed the best athletes on two wheels pedal around and around in a circle.
