UNReal

I did Chicago Cycling Club's (CCC) "Ultimate Neighbourhood Ride" yesterday and had an absolute blast. The ride consisted of three loops taking about six hundred riders through various neighbourhoods of Chicago. I had pre-registered online and had to reach the venue, a building in University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) campus, just south of downtown Chicago between 7 and 9 am to pick up my rider packet, which included a route map with cue sheets listing every turn, a small pre-ride snack and a pair of free CCC cycling gloves.  

I had planned on waking up at 5.30 so I could leave home at 6 and take the L down there, but I slept through my alarm and only woke up around 6.15. By the time I got down to UIC on the train it was almost 8 and I started the ride at about 8.20. The weather was perfect barring a fairly stiff northerly breeze, but that didn't affect my ride, as I chose a speed that allowed me to look around and take in the scenery. One could do any one or more of the three loops in any order, so I decided to begin with longest of the three - the twenty-mile northwest route which went through neighbourhoods like Greektown, Little Italy, the Ukrainian Village (with some beautiful Russian Orthodox style churches), Wicker Park, Humboldt Park, Logan Square and Bucktown and past United Center, the home of the Chicago Bulls. Given how early it was on a Sunday morning most of the streets were empty, and the ride was a really pleasant one.  

After a brief rest stop back at the start to refuel with brownies, cookies and Gatorade I set off on the twelve-mile-long south loop which went through Pilsen and the heart of Chinatown (bustling with people and very unlike the one restaurant-lined street that most people visit) and by McCormick Place (Chicago's main convention centre, which hosts several events throughout the year, including the annual Chicago Auto Show). We also rode past Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears and through the Bronzeville neighbourhood past the Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago's very own IIT!), which had a huge corrugated pipe-type structure surrounding the closest train station, presumably as a bizarre tribute to the Institute's focus on engineering and technology.  

Returning to UIC, I again stopped briefly for an American staple - a couple of PB&J sandwiches and some more Gatorade - before I started on the last loop, a short nine-mile ride through the Magnificent Mile, Gold Coast and River North neighbourhoods in the heart of downtown Chicago. I enjoyed this one the least, probably because I've been downtown so many times in the past four years that nothing was really novel, and also because the increased traffic on the streets due to the later hour made riding a little less pleasurable.  

On the whole, unlike last week's L.A.T.E. Ride, this one was excellently organised, with clearly visible road markings for every turn, and course marshals guiding us at locations that required us to leave the road or make a more complicated manoeuvre. Having a cue sheet listing all the turns was also a great boon and I only missed one turn in the whole ride. The entire forty-two miles took about four hours because I wasn't really riding hard and because of the stop-and-start nature of any ride on city streets with stop signs and traffic lights. I think the smaller number of riders also helped the organisers make the ride far more efficient and and easier to regulate. 

Riding with clipless pedals for the first time was quite an experience, and unable to unclip in time at an intersection, I took my first (and fortunately, only) tumble of the day on a busy street in Chinatown. Incidentally, the "clipless" moniker is quite misleading and dates back to a strange historical anomaly in cycling nomenclature. An older accessory that performs the same functions as a clipless system is the plastic or rubber "cage" attached to a regular pedal, which you slip your foot into. This, funnily enough, was called a "clip." To differentiate the clip from the newer invention, the new system was called "clipless" and the name stuck.