Minneapolis Bike Tour

This morning I rode in the 2nd Minneapolis Bike Tour, doing the 37 mile route (plus 14 miles round trip to and from the Parade grounds) that covers most of the Grand Rounds. The weather was a little cooler than last weeks St. Paul Classic, but at least the rain held off until I got home. The crowd at the start seemed to be a little smaller than last year, but once I got started (about 8:30), it seemed about the same:

There was an early morning regatta underway on Lake Harriet when I got there:

Part of the route heads north on West River Parkway from Minnehaha Falls. Because of the collapse of the 35W bridge, last year, we had to cross over at Franklin Ave, and proceed to St. Anthony Falls on East River Parkway. This year, with the bridge almost finished, they opened West River Parkway for the riders. I had forgotten how much fun that climb from the river flats can be.

I wasn't too sure last year about the design of the bridge, but seeing it finished, it does look nice. I'm especially anxious to see it at night with the LED lights on. Somebody must have been very busy on West River Parkway this week, because last Sunday, I crossed over the 10th Ave bridge to show a friend the 35W work, and the parkway had a pretty good coat of mud on it. As you can see, it was pretty clear this morning.

I was surprised that there are still a lot of twisted pieces of the old bridge still on the flats. I'm guessing that with work on the ground continuing, that the parkway will close again for some time.

One thing I really disliked this year was the leg in NE Minneapolis. From Boom Island, they routed us counter traffic north on Marshall St. This wouldn't have been too bad, except that they didn't close that side of the road to parking (or if they had, they didn't enforce it and tow people). That meant that there were a lot of places where we had to move out into the lane into potentially oncoming vehicles to get around parked cars. Throw in groups riding two or three abreast, and I was really glad when we finally reached St. Anthony Parkway.

And finally, something that I hadn't noticed before when we crossed the Stone Arch Bridge is that I can't here the St Anthony Falls from there. That may be an early stop in November.