'Chicago' Olympic bike course really in Wisconsin
BLUE MOUNDS, Wis. -- The first road cycling course proposed for Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid began in the city's suburbs and wound its way through some hilly terrain before building to a big finish downtown in the heart of the Olympic village.
It was roundly rejected as being too easy.
That sent former professional cyclist and Chicago-area resident Robbie Ventura back to the drawing board.
Ventura, who once rode as a teammate to Lance Armstrong, was playing a lead role in designing the cycling venues for Chicago's bid. He could think of only one place in the area fitting the difficult profile Olympic officials desired: the diabolically hilly rural roads that wind around and through a state park about 30 miles west of Madison, Wis.
While the common perception might be that the Midwest is all plains, local amateur cyclists who have taken on the annual "Horribly Hilly Hundreds" ride know better. Now, with the International Olympic Committee poised to decide the fate of Chicago's bid in October, Ventura and bid organizers have a message for the best cyclists in the world: Bring it.
"We really have a viable case for this being one of the most challenging courses in recent memory," Ventura said.
Ventura rode in the Horribly Hilly event last weekend, and said it lived up to its name.
"Oh, my gosh. It was epic," Ventura said. "It really tested me, for sure."
The same roads also tested current pros in the June 18 Blue Mounds Race of the Future, the first stage of the inaugural Tour of America's Dairlyand cycling series.
Beth White, who oversees sport venues and operations for the Chicago 2016 bid, watched the first lap from one of the course's toughest climbs. From the side of the road, she could hear what riders were saying as they chugged up a steep hill and rounded a bend in the road -- only to find more climbing in front of them.
Recalling rider comments, White said, "My favorite one was, 'If this is the race of the future, I'm history!"'
The decision by Chicago 2016 bid organizers to move the proposed road race to Wisconsin eventually blossomed into a bigger idea: Make bike-mad Madison the hub for Olympic cycling.
The proposed time trial course winds its way through the streets of Madison, and mountain biking events would be held in more hilly terrain in the Blue Mounds area. Cycling athletes would be housed in a scaled-down Olympic village of their own on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
BMX and track cycling events would still be held in the Chicago area.
AP