Weekends are supposed to be the time to get away from your regular work week and get in awesome rides.

Not so much for CiclaValley.

Family obligations come first because why else would you have a family?

Somehow, I got in not one, but two days of cool cycling events and because it’s such an anomaly, I should write about it, right?

 

Saturday:

Earlier in the week, Mr. CiclaValley got to be Mr. Ciclavalleys rolling through South Pas warranting a trip to Team Dream’s Cub House for a couple of water bottles and uncontrollably buying another pair of socks.

Team Dream has a few rides here and there, but when they do, they’re super fun.

 

Rolling out of the Cub House.

 

Danny told me another one was coming up on Saturday which normally means an automatic no, but remembering my wife had a car service appointment in Alhambra (her hometown), I thought I’d be a good husband and do her a favor while I would somehow find a way to kill time as it was being fixed.

I’m a great guy.

 

 

There were about 70 people with a mixture of riders kitted up all the way down to me who looked like I just rolled out of bed (mostly true).

After a ceremonial first shot, we headed to the Rose Bowl to make our way up and around to Chevy Chase when things started to drizzle a bit.

Unfortunately on the downhill, two riders slid out from the slickness resulting in a few bruises and good sized raspberries.

 

Rider down.

 

I’m glad I was riding with my 37s.

We headed on to Elysian Park where I got to talk with Johnny who I last saw pulling away while I was in the cramp zone at the Lake Elizabeth race.

He’s in the process of opening up a cafe in Highland Park with the superdomestik crew which, of course, is a process that never faces any delays.

 

Elysian Park shortcut.

 

Inside the park, we cut across to give us a great view overlooking DTLA & Dodger Stadium. Aren’t we so lucky for this?

Golden Saddle Cyclery was our next stop which provided enough time to imbibe in some adult beverages before the hour of noon (thanks Mike & Matt).

 

Golden Saddle’s “Sidewalk Cafe”.

 

I said hi to Kyle who just drove back from the midwest sounding pretty excited about what he has to share on the Radavist.

A good chunk of the group decided to hang around, since a lot seem to live nearby, so the rest of us made our way through the Arroyo Seco back to the Cub House.

 

Rolling through Silver Lake

 

It was a fun time connecting with old friends and making new ones, including the tallest Austrian I’ve ever met.

I hope there are more shop rides coming from Team Dream and more problems with my wife’s car.

 

Sunday:

Work has made the least couple years of CicLAvia’s a necessity leaving little time to actually enjoy them.

This was the first time I had more than an hour to roam around one (maybe two) and I was pretty excited to see Atwater and Glendale finally play host.

As most people know, Glendale doesn’t have a good rep for cycling and is more widely known for high speed driving.

At the same time, the city is moving inward with a number of large housing developments popping up around the downtown area.

 

New buildings going up, up, up!

 

Even with a lot of other things going on that Sunday, this was a super packed event.

Yes, it was only 3 1/2 miles, but with the volume and activity, it sure seemed longer than that.

 

Imagine if people were driving cars, how much space that would take up!

 

The businesses that embraced CicLAvia had a banner day, while I could look at the long faces from the places that didn’t.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly, except for a little fall underneath the rail tracks which someone overreacted with an ambulance call.

 

 

Really just a flesh wound.

 

I had a chance to stop by the Walk Bike Glendale booth in the middle of all the action.

This LACBC chapter has a strong core of supporters and have been making progress year over year.

 

 

I also had the chance to talk with Justin from the City of Glendale.

They’ve been working on making the city more people friendly, but this is a concept the city council still has to adopt.

 

This looks like progress.

 

Hopefully, seeing the businesses overflowing will give Glendale more of a mandate to accommodate more than just car trips.

We ended our day playing at Cerritos Park just across the street from CicLAvia.

And yes, we weren’t the only ones there on bikes…