Tour de North Branch
The Tour de France is consuming my life again. For these past two weeks, I have been more excited than a Dutch kid on Saint Nicholas’ Eve. I usually catch the last hour and a half or so from the repeat broadcast on Versus every evening, even though I know the results already. And even though Bob Roll keeps mispronouncing just about every foreign name: it is Michael Boogerd as in Humphrey Bogart, not as in the gooey stuff that comes out of your nose.
In the morning, while writing news releases and other good stuff, I try to catch the live commentary from the Dutch public television, thanks to a tiny little gadget the station has produced. For an example, see Bas van den Beld’s Web site; for the actual code, see the NOS Web site (both in Dutch).
Last year’s Tour was heavily affected by doping scandals beforehand and even more so in its aftermath. This year, it has hit during the Tour. I am tempted to think there’s something fishy going on with Michael Rasmussen’s neglect to report his whereabouts, but he has been warned and is acting fully within the rules of the UCI, so I think it’s blown enormously out of proportion by L’Equipe and the rest. Nonetheless, I am fairly convinced all riders have used, use or will use performance enhancing materials and methods; some are just better at hiding it than others. I am still rooting for Rasmussen.
The Tour de France never fails to make my legs itch for some biking. After moving to my new neighborhood I did not have the lakefront nearby anymore, so I needed to find other routes. In the first week I discovered the North Shore Channel Trail, but it has too many traffic lights. The weeks following that discovery, the condo needed to be painted and I did not take my bike out for a deserved ride.
This Friday, however, no amount of scratching (or painting) could resist anymore and I took Elston over to the North Branch Trail, which goes through the Forest Preserve District of Cook County and roughly follows the north branch (hence the name) of the Chicago River. It was getting dark, so I needed to turn around halfway up the trail. On Sunday, I returned and I had the best ride you can get in Chicago. I biked 40 miles from my condo to the Chicago Botanical Gardens and back. There is some construction going on in the northern part of the trail, but that covers just a mile or two. The trail curves beautifully through the woods and along the river with some interesting false flat (faux plat in French or vals plat in Dutch) stretches.
No more snooty Lincoln Park in-line skaters annoying me around North Beach on the lakefront! And one more reason why moving to Albany Park was a great decision.
