Superweek Day 3 and 4.

Where to start? I'll start at the beginning. I woke up and left my palace from the last few days and set off for the city.


I drove by my Ferrari/Maserati dealership for the last time. My Maserati does 185, but the Ferrari, that's the fast one.


As soon as I got downtown I ditched the most inefficient and cumbersome means of exploring a new city...


...and I traded it out for the best way to experience a place you've never been.


I headed straight to the lake, rode down the bike path to the museums and headed out toward the observatory for a good view of the lake...


...and a decent view of the city.


From there, I rode north along the lake, bouncing back and forth between the bike path and Lakeshore Dr. until I hit the locks at the mouth of the Chicago River.

I turned and headed up the "Riverwalk" bike path that led back into downtown. Beautiful.


It turns out I wasn't the only person that decided to explore by bike. I couldn't believe the number of people I saw on bikes, especially the new Electra Amsterdams. Then I noticed this place and realized where a lot of them were coming from. They also had these two and four person bike-car things for rent. I saw lots of families riding them, they looked like fun.


Wilco anyone?


I picture Mark Chase living in a place like this someday. Note the boat parking underneath.


After exploring I decided to eat and get on my way to my race in Bensonville. I really wanted some thick crust Chicago Style pizza, so I rode around for a while and thought I had a place picked out, when a little corner pub/restaurant appeared called Bosses. It had murals of Al Capone all over, a garage door that opened to a cool little patio on the sidewalk, and looked like the perfect place.

I sat down and ordered a coke and pizza and 15 minutes later was treated to a Totinos Party Pizza served directly on the cardboard it came on. Not even a plate. I laughed it off, ate it, and went on my way.

The course last night was a 0.9 mile, 6 corner lap that we did 75 times. That's 450 corners according to my math. The race started off pretty fast, and I tried to be aggressive but it wasn't to be. About halfway through I found myself surfing the back just as I hate to do. I tried to stay up toward the front, but the races don't stay fast enough through the corners, so everyone swarms and dives into the corners 10 wide. I usually end up losing about 15 positions every time this happens.

I guess I just need to keep working on acclimatizing to this style of racing. The last 20 laps or so, I found the wheel and followed it a lot. Perfect, big draft, no big accelerations, and I know he won't go down in a corner, everyone else could, but I think he'd clear his own path.

A break went sometime when I was at the back. I was going to try and jump with 4 or 5 to go, but the field basically split with 7 to go, and I was in the back. We just rolled in together, but not before at least one more big wreck in the last corner. Nothing like stacking it up racing for 50th place. Good work.

After the race I drove up to Milwaukee where I am now. I found the wheel to follow on I-94, and made it here about half an hour faster than I should have. I'm taking today off hoping that three hard days followed by some rest will help the form start to come around.

Man, that was long. Thanks for checking in.