Weekend Wheeling in Chicago

Four Windy City Bicycle Rides

By Michael Roeser

The North Branch River Trail is just one of Chicago's great cycling options

Chicago is the American city, and the capital of the Midwest. Sure its winters may be bitter cold—you might be taken aback by the wind as it zips down Dearborn Avenue—but the people are among the warmest and friendliest city-dwellers anywhere in the world.

Chicago is architecturally world class, with famous people from van der Roe to Sullivan having left their signatures on its skyline. And the Blues! The Blues may have been born in the Mississippi Delta, but they call Chicago home. The annual Blues Festival draws crowds from all over the world, as do the famous clubs once visited by the likes of Al Capone.

And the biking? Well, if it's good food, good fun, good people, good music, and the great outdoors, Chicago is it. There's nothing like the summer breeze sweeping off of Lake Michigan as you indulge in that excellent bike ride along the Lakefront, along the diagonal side corridors of Northwest, or through the green of the Des Plaines River or Lebaugh Woods Trails.