All things considered, Thursday afternoon turned into a good day for a ride (aren’t they all?). That’s not to say that there weren’t any challenges – including a planned long time in the saddle and temperatures that can only be described as “oven-like”. But, a good bike ride is often about adversity and would not provide any good stories if conditions were always temperate and pedaling easy.

The Midtown Greenway includes this fantastic bridge named after the cycling-friendly congressman Martin Sabo

The company at which I work is located in a part of the Twin Cities area with several good options for cycling. You could head northwest and travel around the Lake Minnetonka area – a favorite of many local cyclists. You could head southwest and ride through Chaska and Chanhassen areas. Or, you could head into the city and enjoy true urban cycling at it’s finest.

I can say “finest” with confidence, as Minneapolis was recently voted the “Best Cycling City” for 2010 by Bicycling magazine. Of course, reading the actual story about the decision – you’d think you need to subject yourself to 20 degree temperatures, ride constantly in the snow (which is rarer than most people think for Minnesota – we have an awesome road clearing infrastructure), live in Downtown/Uptown Minneapolis and ride a “hipster fixie” bike to actually enjoy the region. Since I don’t fit any of those particular bike-culture stereotypes, I can only describe the details of Thursday’s ride in this post to demonstrate that I at least agree with the conclusions in the article – Minneapolis is an awesome urban place to ride a bicycle.

John rode well and has made good use of his bike upgrade this year

For Thursday, I got the chance to ride with several co-workers – each of us taking some time off to get outside and ride. Our journey (all three of us) started out from the company parking lot and headed a short distance along some side streets before we found the western edge of the Cedar Lake Trail. This trail is an old railroad line (as most are around Minnesota) and offers an amazingly un-interrupted approach into downtown Minneapolis with only a few interactions with motor vehicles. The trail is flat, smooth and well-maintained to the point that it almost makes you feel guilty for having such a nice environment dedicated to cyclists and walkers. This guilt is especially true when many of Minnesota’s roads are in rough condition due to the extreme seasonal changes we experience.

But, not this trail. Whereas many bike trails in the metro area are twisting and curvy preventing any real speed of being reached, the Cedar Lake Trail is long, straight and open. This gave us a good chance to average close to 20 mph for the 5+ mile journey into town.

Once we neared the Lake Calhoun area, we split off the Cedar Lake Trail and joined up to the Midtown Greenway. I’ve talked about this trail in past posts and it is often heralded as the “flagship” example of how Minneapolis is committed to the local cycling community. Even though it may not provide the most beautiful of riding experiences, it has tremendous utility. We were able to get from the Minneapolis lakes region to the Mississippi River in no time with no stopping along the way.

Think about that.

We biked from the outer southwest suburbs into the heart of a major metropolitan region and rarely stopped our bikes or interacted with any cars. It’s quite amazing when you actually think about it. It illustrates that the Twin Cities truly take their cycling seriously and take action with practical trail development – versus painting a few extra lines onto already congested roads.

At nearly 100 degrees, it was tempting to stop by the fountain and run through to cool down

Upon hitting the river, our plan was to travel south. We hit the Minnehaha Falls Park after about 16 miles into the ride and the one hour marker – which made of a perfect opportunity for a quick dismount and re-fill of the bottles. By this time, the temperature was starting to have an impact and we were each going through a bottle’s worth of water in less than an hour. Riding at 95+ degrees takes some proactive steps to ensure that your body can tolerate both the exercise and the inability to properly cool down due to lack of sweat evaporation. Consistent hydration is a very important step.

From the Minnehaha Falls, we kept working our way along the river and were soon traveling right through the middle of Fort Snelling and up onto the Mendota Bridge to cross the big river. Many of you may have traveled over this bridge in your cars – making your way through the southern metro region. Going over the bridge on a bike, you quickly realize how long that bridge really is. It seemed like we were on that bridge for 10 minutes (which isn’t actually true), but I did take the extended opportunity for straight-line riding to capture a few picts.

Now on the other side of the river, our next plan was to head northeast toward St. Paul. Brent, one of the riders who was acting as our guide, wanted to make us suffer and cross the river again using the High Bridge. The name of the bridge is appropriate, as the damn thing is really high. This is especially true when starting from the river’s base elevation. We climbed up the winding Ohio Street road – me suffering in my granny gear – until we hit the peak and were able to reap the rewards of the elevation by coasting down the full length of the bridge. Unfortunately, we were met by another big hill following Grand Avenue in order to reach Summit Avenue.

Even with the classic Guthrie Theater moved to the river, the Sculpture Garden and Walker Art Museum are still great places to visit

While riding along Summit Avenue, I really started to get hot and was ready for a break. In looking at the Garmin details (which I will display later in the post), I can see why I was suffering. My bike computer registered a high temperature of 102F over this part of the ride. Fortunately, Brent led us over to a Dunn Brothers Coffee place for a brief stop in an air-conditioned building and the chance to down something cold. By this time, the water in the bottles was far from refreshing, as it was the temperature of warm soup. The coolness of the break was enough to breath some life back into me and I enjoyed the remainder of the ride.

After heading back north on West River Road, we passed the University and the new 35W Bridge before heading into downtown Minneapolis near the Stone Arch Bridge. Minneapolis is a fairly easy city to navigate with a bicycle and I have some experience with numerous rides downtown during my college years. We headed right up Nicollet Ave until we hit the branch-off spot to join up with Loring Park. After zig-zagging through the park, we were soon over the bridge near the Sculpture Garden and back on the Cedar Lake Trail for the final leg back to the company parking lot.

In total, we covered around 47 miles. Here are the stats from the computer.

My mileage and average speed are a little goofy, because my Garmin kept registering movement while we were inside Dunn Brothers. If you zoom into the Garmin map, you will see some crazy numbers around this area. Overall, we accomplished nearly 48 miles in under 3 hours of riding while suffering through near 100deg temperatures.

The bridge near the Sculpture Garden has recently be re-planked and was a joy to crosst

That’s a real ride – no matter who you are – and represents one of the longer ones for me this season. Also, aside for the two climbs we took near St. Paul, the ride was flat and our winds were light so it didn’t present too many challenges. The temperature and distance were the main adversaries and were easily overcome.

Thursday’s ride gives me some motivation to both ride in an urban setting more often and cover some longer distances. Finding three hours to ride – even on the weekends – can be tough, but the reward is indeed high. Plus, the ease of riding in Minneapolis is something I should not take for granted. It really is the finest urban city to ride in the US. I’m just lucky it happens to be in my backyard.