Top Bike Racers to Zoom Through Downtown in Gran Prix Event Wednesday Evening

Bicycles will take center stage in downtown Beverly on Wednesday evening, with everything from a kids race and parade to a top-level criterium road race known as the Beverly Gran Prix.

It’s the fifth straight year that top bike racers will fill the streets on the .6-mile course that snakes it way down Cabot Street and through S-turns past Beverly Public Library and Beverly Common.

The course starts and finishes on Cabot Street in front of St. Mary Star of the Sea church, with racers heading north of Cabot Street, taking a right on Winter Street by Maria’s Pizza, then a left on Essex Street in front of the Beverly Public Library and then a quick right on to Dane Street past Beverly Common. From there, racers head back to Cabot Street on Hale Street, past the fire station. Spectators can watch from any point along the course.

While many criterium courses are circular or oval, organizers call the Beverly Gran Prix a “serpentine course.”

Several thousand people have filled downtown for the event in past year’s and race organizer and Beverly resident Paul Boudreau said he expects it to be the same again this year.  The first race is for amateur men at 4:20 p.m., followed by masters men at 5:10 p.m. and women at 6 p.m. Elite men go off at 6:50 p.m. A total of about 250 racers are expected in all four races through the evening.

 “The crowd’s peak by the elite men’s race,” Boudreau said, noting that casual fans are typically impressed by the “very fast, aggressive racing” they see at a criterium.

The course designer, Tim Johnson, will be racing, as will the winners from the past two years – 2011 champion Sean Milne and 2012 champion Ben Wolf. Other top competitors include Jeremy Powers, Adam Myerson and Mark McCormack.

“Right from the start, the race will be fast and furious,” Boudreau said, noting the vast difference from races such as the Tour de France, which just finished last weekend, that is a point-to-point race where spectators may see a racers pass just once.

Instead, criterium racers round the course over and over for a set period of time, reaching speeds up to 40 miles per hour for the top racers. The elite race will last about an hour, with earlier races running shorter.

In the women’s race, Gabby Day of the United Kingdom is “definitely the one everyone is looking at,” Boudreau said. Masconomet Regional High School graduate Maureen “Mo” Bruno Roy is also a top contender in the women’s race, according to a pre-race announcement.

There will be more than bike racing too, Boudreau noted, since Soma and Barrel House are expected to serve beer and wine in front of their restaurants and Atomic Café is also expected to be serving from the sidewalk.

The races and associated events happen rain or shine.

When the Gran Prix debuted in Beverly, it happened during Homecoming week but has been moved earlier in the summer as a standalone midweek evening event.

Other festivities from past years will return, including a bike race and parade for kids on Beverly Common and bike valet parking for spectators who show up on bike. The Beverly Bike Committee will offer a free bike valet service at the First Baptist Church from 4-8 p.m.

For the kids races and parade, registration is required and happens from 3:30-4:30 p.m. at Beverly Common. The kids races are divided up into age groups - 5-6, 7-8, 9-10 and 11-12 – and will be held on Beverly Common at 5 p.m. The kids parade, which includes a ride on a portion of the course with top racers, happens at 5:50 p.m.

Drivers should anticipate road closures in the downtown area from 3-9 p.m. and parking will be banned along the course during the same time.