The annual Monsters of the Midway bike race returned to the University of Chicago campus on April 26. This year marked the 31st installment of the event, having been recently revived last year after a five-year-long hiatus. The race was jointly organized by the University of Chicago Velo Club and local Chicago-based road race team Okay Cycle Club.
The yearly competition is not to be confused with the similar nickname for the Chicago Bears, the hometown NFL team who are also colloquially known as the “Monsters of the Midway.” In fact, the nickname originally referred to the University of Chicago’s own varsity football squad before it was temporarily disbanded in 1939. In the meantime, the Chicago Bears had a string of successful seasons and championship runs. Despite varsity football making a return to UChicago in 1969, the Bears retained the nickname, even adopting the university’s wishbone-C logo design as their own.
Participants competed in a variety of amateur and professional categories, ranging in age from the 9–14-year-old Juniors class to the 55-year-old and above Masters class. Several cash and gift prizes were up for grabs, including merch from Plein Air Cafe, one of the sponsors of the event. Additionally, this year’s race was considered an official Illinois Cup event and a part of the Midwest Collegiate Cycling Conference, so cyclists were also incentivized to fight for valuable ranking points as part of the longer competition season.
Although the first race officially commenced at 8:30 a.m., athletes began arriving at Ida Noyes Hall for check-in much earlier. A base camp of team tents, bike racks, and mobile maintenance stations quickly formed across the lawns and on the pavement by the start line near the South Woodlawn Avenue bridge. Course marshals with bright orange flags and vests spread out across the Midway, positioning themselves at different corners and crosswalks.
Traffic on the Plaisance was blocked off from South Ellis Avenue to South Dorchester Avenue, setting the stage for the 1.1-mile-long course. A mass of participants lined up for the start line, ready to attack the counterclockwise track and crank out as many laps as they could in the designated race time.
The format of the event was that of a “criterium” race, in which riders take on a closed-circuit track for a predetermined interval of time, ranging from 25 minutes in the junior categories to 60 minutes in the professional categories. Upon reaching the end of the allocated time, the remaining number of laps (typically between 1–5 extra laps at most competitions) begin after the race leader next passes the start-finish line.
At the sound of the whistle, the athletes—already warmed up and clipped-in to their pedals—fought against the strain of their high gears for a crawling start. By the time the riders rounded the corner at the end of the first straightaway, they had already accelerated into a blur of vividly colored jerseys.
Riders took turns heading the peloton (the main group of cyclists clustered together to reduce drag) throughout the early stages of a race, which slowly broke up into smaller groups of riders over the subsequent laps. At various points, some of the cyclists would attempt a sudden breakaway dash from the rest of the pack, but fighting against the brutal Chicago winds made this no easy feat. The race leaders veered from left to right across the track to try and break the slipstream for the trailing riders drafting behind them.
By and large, the races proceeded smoothly, aside from the occasional rogue goose or squirrel attempting to commandeer the racetrack (before being swiftly chased off by motorcycle-mounted marshals). After all was said and done, the last participant crossed the finish line just before 4 p.m., rounding off an end to the long and sunny day of competition.
Throughout the day, many students and other passersby often stopped to observe the racing cyclists. Whether it was the rainy start to spring season that had left them unprepared for the copious amounts of sunscreen that would be needed for such a high UV index day, or because of the four problem sets that were probably due later that night, most onlookers did not stick around for too long. Focused on peering through my camera’s viewfinder and telephoto lens the entire time, I certainly didn’t notice my own mistake with the former until I arrived back home with an itching, pink sunburn.
Nonetheless, the event was also about increasing community engagement with the world of cycling, so for many a first-time spectator, the swaths of riders zooming past in vibrant spandex made for an enticing spectacle. With the annual Hyde Park race slated to continue in the upcoming years, Monsters of the Midway will be a great opportunity for anyone interested in giving organized road racing a go!
You can find the final results of this year’s Monsters of the Midway race on the official USA Cycling website.
