Bob CollinsIn the last 24 hours, Minneapolis moved into position to claim the prize as America’s Best Bike City, and it didn’t have to lift a foot to do it.
You may recall Bicycling Magazine gave Minneapolis a bit of snub in 2012 when it named Portland, Ore., the best bike city, knocking Minneapolis to number 2.
Minneapolis? Please. Let’s ride—along the Willamette now, on the paved Springwater Corridor, where, off to the east, great blue herons and snowy egrets pick about in the reeds and the mud of Oaks Bottom. Three miles on, amid the grain silos and rail yards of north Portland, you can feel the industrial heft of the city, built a hundred-odd years ago on shipping and logging.
In Forest Park—which, at 5,000 acres, is the nation’s largest urban preserve—there is a growing network of singletrack on the slopes of Portland’s west hills. But me, I like to take my road bike higher in those same hills, past gracious manses built by long-ago timber barons, until I am up on Skyline Boulevard with its horse pastures and country-road dips and turns. It is cooler up there—sometimes in winter snow whitens the bows of the evergreens.
But it is the locals’ bike zeal that is most dear. Once, when I called the city’s Transportation Options office to ask about airport bike parking, a guy there responded 45 minutes later via e-mail, with a 500-word personal treatise. (“There is a specific bike parking area,” he began, before discussing option B, the bike lockers, and riffing on the bike-guarding aplomb of Homeland Security.)
Another time, when I found myself stooped by the roadside, muttering cuss words over a broken chain, a random savior materialized to offer assistance gratis. “I’m a professional bike mechanic,” he proclaimed, superhero-like. “What can I do?”
About that “zeal” thing: Organizers of the 2014 Worst Day of the Year Ride in Portland have canceled Sunday’s 46-mile ride, apparently because it will actually be the worst weather of the year, according to Willamette Week.
We remind you that Minneapolis claims to be the best biking city in America, that their best day of February is worse than our worst and that they are all going to laugh at us.
Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have to get home before it gets dark because our office is officially closed and Portland’s streets really are scary when it snows.
Portland organizers were quick to note that only the the 46 mile course will be closed and that the much smaller “urban route” is still a go.
OK, but it’s clear those Portland folks are a little worked up that their reputation might take a hit. No irony allowed!
From the director of the @WorstDayRide: “There is no irony because the event is not being cancelled.” Take note, folks.
— Jamie Hale (@HalecommaJamesB) February 7, 2014
You can hardly blame Portland bikers for wanting to stay inside. It’ll only be 39 degrees on Sunday, according to the forecast.
Who’d go out riding a bicycle in that kind of weather (Pssst: Answer here)?
(h/t: Patrick Stephenson)
