By some cruel trick of the fates or God I will be leaving the vicinity of Mt. Baldy and the Glendora Mountain Road climbs for the humidity and utter flatness of suburban Chicagoland.
I’m also training for the Spirit of Racine 1/2 come July.
Does anyone out there know of any good places to bike? Or even places I should definately avoid? My long rides are pretty long so I don’t mind getting out of town a bit.
Anyone out there who can offer some guidance?
Jim Scott, one of the best Grand Masters in the world, has been doing it from his home base of Naperville for many years. My guess is that he can help you figure out the best places to swim, bike, and run.
Check the phone book when you get there, or at least the LBS.
You’d be surprised about the triathletes you’ll find here. I’m out in Naperville and it is a great place to train. If you go south or west from naperville, you’ll hit nothing but open roads as far as the eye can see. It’s a great community for runners and swimmers as well. The north central track club has an infusion of triathletes in their track workouts, not to mention any of the high schools’ tracks (North and Central near the downtown area) are always open for use. The Naperville Waves swim club based out of Edward’s health and fitness center is the fastest masters team in the state. Basically what i’m saying is that this place makes you tough. Bad winters, LOTS of wind in the summers out on the roads. Send me a pm if you want any more specific stuff about ride times and such. Later
Do you mean Bob Scott?
RocketDogEJ has great advice and I would second his information. The Naperville Waves is one of the best Masters swim teams in IL. However, it is NOTHING but flat in Naperville - but super windy! I guess that doesn’t count. I just rode 50 miles today down west of Naperville and it is a great ride - some rollers. We have nothing STEEP here unless you count the highway overpasses. There are some great bike stores in Glen Ellyn (20 minutes east of Naperville) - The Bike Shop - as well as The Naperville Running Company in Naperville that we triathletes hang out at.
There are a TON of GREAT triathletes in the suburbs of Chicago - no problem finding great ride partners…and some great Roadies as well.
My bad – Bob Scott indeed. Really nice guy, too, and would be happy to help I’m sure.
Yes the wind was NASTY today…my buddies decided that I needed to pull the entire ride too…damn it. We headed west to the Sugar River Forest Preserve and came back east like a rocket was on our backs (and I dropped them BAD).
One could head out to St. Charles area for some more hilly terrain. Around here, the only hills are former trash dumps (Mt. Hoy, Greene Valley…etc.) Dang it was windy today.
Yeah, I have some guidance. If you can afford to live in Naperville, you can afford a COMPUTRAINER.
P.S. Don’t make fun of the flatlands until you’ve lived here at LEAST a year. Yeah, it sucks but it’s ours. 
Great riding in the corn feilds. Geneva St. Charles and west. I love the Fox river area. Yes flat corn lots of corn.
Dirt
I’ve been out in the Chicago area for a year and a half now, and I certainly didn’t come here for the riding. Between work and the kids, I haven’t really done any long rides since I’ve been out here.
My wife will be doing her first triathlon next weekend, though, so we’ve been looking at ways to get out for 1-3 hours. Where do you Naperville area riders go for good training rides? I’d like to avoid traffic and lights as much as possible, but still leave from home (Downers Grove).
If you are in Downers, throw your bike in your car and drive about 20 minutes west to 103 and 59. Then just go west and south until your heart is content. Yorkville, Newark, Morris…wherever you want, all of you naysayers would be surprised at the biking you can do around here.
Get hooked up with the North Central College Track Club. When I trained with them (1998) there were a lot of triathlon types in the club (I hadn’t started tris yet, it is a great running club, really fast people.) including a couple of people who later went on to race as pro triathletes (Jenny Marine, Mark Wachendorf). I am sure some people in the club could hook you up with some good rides.
I like to ride from the house, so riding from there really sucks. I moved to Aurora and things were lots better. If you head toward Oswego or West from Aurora the roads are great. Getting lost in the cornfields isn’t too fun. Just remember how many rights and lefts you take. Getting out of Napsterville or Weedtown is a pretty dangerous proposition. Been some years but the Fermi Lab used to have some pretty good places to do intervals.It is probably locked down with post 911 syndrome. Great thing about the Chicagoland area is there are tons of people and clubs to train with in any sport. Cyclocross in fall and speedskating are super fun ways
to pass the winter. Can you spell BIG HURT? Then you can have two new sports to suck at. Enjoy
I’d prefer to ride from the house, as work/life commitments make it difficult to drive somewhere and then ride. By the time I can get my gear ready and drive anywhere, I’d already be finished with a trainer ride in the basement.
I know what you mean about Wheaton G-man. I rode from my house to Wheaton two weekends ago and was dodging traffic the entire way. Still nice to get outside, but not something I’d want to do everyday.
What are some of the best road to look for around Oswego/Yorkville out of Naperville?
It has been too long for me to recommend specific routs as one new subdivision can screw up a “good” road. If I were to move back I would probably trial and error on Sunday mornings. If there is a shoulder a road can handle a bit more traffic and still be “good” in my book. Maybe some of the local folks will kick in. G
I live in Clarendon Hills - I usually take side roads until Hobson, bend south on Washington, to 111th, take that west to 248th ave, north to 95th (Wolfs Crossing) into Oswego and beyond. From home it’s about 60 miles round trip with no loops.
If you like some hills around Lemont there are some nice steep climbs, through the tank farms (not pretty but also little traffic). I also ride the I-55 frontage roads a lot - you can get to those from Naperthrill as well.
Chicago Tri Club is pretty active out here - and there’s no shortage of races. Downers Grove has a criterim every year too that’s pretty fun
Check out the route maps on the Chicago tri club’s website. There’s one particular route from Lake Barrington (far NW burbs) to Lake Geneva and back that has some nice hills.
From Naperville…the best route out of town is to get to Modaff and 75th. This is easy enough if you are familiar with the town. You will not hit any major roads that you will have to ride on. Take Modaff South all the way until it curves right and keep following it until you get to gateshead. Take a right on Gateshead. (gateshead will curve around and cross Naper/Plainfield and then 95th street) Follow that ALL THE WAY until you hit conan doyle (the road it dead ends into). Take a right on that and then you will follow for a little bit until you hit Book. Take a left on book road, then a right on Wagner. Wagner dead ends into McGrath (take a left) You can then take McGrath all the way until you hit 103rd. Take a right on 103rd and go through rt. 59. AHHHH, you are there. Take 103rd west to Normantown and go left on that because 248th ave is closed for construction, don’t try it. Then you can head south to 119th or 111th and take a right (west again) and be on your way. There are some routes that follow 119th to Schlaap and out to Walker or Caton Farm Road and go to Morris or Newark or Yorkville or …well, you get the picture. This IS the easiest way to get out of town without traffic. I got this route down pat after about two rides, so I hope it works for you. Just don’t go ride down some major road where I’ll be there honking at you because you are making everyone think that bikers have no clue as to what’s going on. Enjoy
Fermi lab is still open for riding, I’ve been out there several times. A friend of mine has a route that’s not too bad that’s about a 40 mile loop that goes through there. I can’t tell you what the route is except it goes past cantigny and through fermi lab.