Intelligentsia Cup cycling series won't return to Glen Ellyn

The Tour of Glen Ellyn - a challenging race that made its debut last summer with professional cyclists - won't return for a second year.

The reboot of John Vande Velde's course around Lake Ellyn got plenty of buzz and drew about 400 riders. The two-time Olympian even helped plug the race, the second leg in the 2016 Intelligentsia Cup series that travels through the suburbs and Chicago.

But last year's local sponsor, a Woodridge training gym, has opted against backing a 2017 race in Glen Ellyn.

Still, other venues have expressed interest in hosting races. The Intelligentsia Cup also expects to expand the series to as many as ten days of competition in July, spokesman Mark Zalewski said.

"We are actually looking to increase our race days despite not being able to return to Glen Ellyn," he said Wednesday.

Even if another sponsor stepped forward, it's probably too late to bring back the Tour of Glen Ellyn this summer, Zalewski said. But organizers hope to restart the spectator-friendly race in subsequent years.

"Everybody who raced that I talked to loved the course and the atmosphere," Zalewski said. "We were embraced by the local community very warmly."

Vande Velde, who represented Team USA in the 1968 and 1972 Olympic Games, helped pitch the event before the village board and considered the tour the toughest stage in the eight-day series last year. With 14 turns, a chicane (S-curve), roundabout and hills, the 1.4-mile Glen Ellyn course stood out from the typical, flat criterium race. Both amateurs and pros from around the globe tackled the route in categories set by the sport's governing body.

"There's nowhere on the course where you can relax and catch your breath," Vande Velde said at the time.

The 2016 Intelligentsia Cup, billed as one of the largest series in the country, featured 923 riders, representing 3,776 total entries across eight days of racing, or an average of 472 riders per day.

Organizers plan to announce this summer's race lineup next month. Returning venues are expected in West Dundee, Elmhurst and Lake Bluff.

The series is set to begin July 14 in Chicago's Beverly neighborhood.