Cafe De Luca Ride

As you can tell from previous posts, the weekend's team ride did not turn out to be a bust...it actually got better. We planned to do the Judson Ride, which starts up in Evanston and rolls north from there...it meets at 8am. This is a great ride that brings out all of the Chicago hammer heads from all teams to beat up on each other. I woke up at about 6am, looked out the window, snapped that picture below (it turned out horrible, but it's a snow-covered street...a few inches) and then went back to sleep thinking that the day would end up on a trainer over at the Get a Grip Cycles Fit Studio.

When I re-woke up at 10:30/11am the sun was out and the streets were clear! We called around and organized a Get a Grip Team ride to roll out at 12:30 and do my favorite Chicago ride - The Cafe De Luca Ride. This is a much better route (my opinion), but the Judson would have been nice to see all of the other friends I have in the Chicago cycling scene. I guess I can't have everything.

Eric, Steve, Jon, Cesar, Uwe, DJ and I headed out for a cold and windy ride. These guys are ready for the season...Steve was a total hammer-head and the rest of the gang held on in a strong fashion. If you are reading this and heading to the Hillsboro-Roubaix, watch out for the green goblins.

The bike I borrowed from the shop was great, though I could not get used to the SRAM group for the life of me. I kept shifting the wrong way and also nearly dropped my chain a few times. I also REALLY missed the sweeping action that Campagnolo provides. I can see Shimano people switching to SRAM, but once you go Campy you won't go back.

Anyway - Here's the Cafe De Luca Ride/Route: