Tour Da Chicago 2008.

"Da Tour is what street racing in Chicago is all about." I stole that quote from Yeoman. An annual series of messenger-run alleycats that starts in January and goes till March, Da Tour runs right through the most brutal and bitterly cold weather of Chicago's winter. The winners of each race get points, and the Tour has an overall leader with a prized, though rank, jersey, just like any other Tour.


2007 Tour winner Andrew Nordyke, wearing the jersey. Photo by Luke.

The time-trial prologue was a week or two ago. The first stage was this morning. It was 11 degrees Fahrenheit in Chicago this morning. That's -12 degrees Celsius. WTF?!? Tough as nails...

Each stage is a different themed alleycat. Last year's Tour involved a race around the various little islands around Chicago, a race that involved collecting bricks at different checkpoints with bonus points for carrying extra bricks, and of course The Stairmaster.


Stairmaster 2007. Photo by Chris Dilts.

The Stairmaster is the only race that happens at night. It keeps the same theme, but not the same route, each year. It's a mental race around downtown Chicago where the racers have to carry their bikes up and down loads of sets of stairs. Last year we did two laps around downtown, with about 15 sets of stairs per lap. I was fucking wrecked after it. It was the only stage I did, because I'm lazy and incapable of getting up before 10am, but it was deadly buzz. Almost 100 people showed up to it.

Anyway, here's the official word from the Tour's page:

The Tenth Annual Chicago Winter Alleycat Series.
We're back and ready to dive into this wintry mix. The race schedule for 2008 looks like this:
Prologue (time trial) - January 13 @ 8 am.
Stage 1 - January 27 @ 8 am.
Stage 2 - February 10 @ 8 am.
Stage 3 - February 24 @ 8 am.
Stage 4 - March 9 @ 8 am.
Stage 5 (stairmaster) March 22 @ 7 pm.
Starting locales, race formats, and other details to be announced in the days and weeks ahead.

Here's a few photos of past Tours. Enjoy. And for the people racing, stay safe and keep the rubber side down.

Miles, all wrapped up at the start of the prologue. If you look closely, to the left of the photo you can see the irrepressible j.dot of dispatch 101. Whatup, son?

The start of a stage, Ben Popper in the foreground. Photo by BenVC.

Stan looks cold, and frankly a little miserable. Photo by Andy.