Well, the Tour of Elk Grove (TOEG) professional, intermediate and entry level bike races have come and gone once again until next year. I was a little disappointed this year that, personally, I was only able to make it to one race ~ the  Prologis Pro Men Road Race (Stage 2) which was held on Saturday, August 3rd.

Tour of Elk Grove, Sharp Turn off Ridge Road

For those of you who may not be familiar with this event, it is a 3 day cycling race event, In Elk Grove Village, Illinois, that includes professional riders from around the world competing for large cash prizes along with intermediate races, amateur races and even a Big Wheel Race for the kids (along with quite a few other activities). The race is held on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the beginning of August (this year’s race was August 2-4).

I have included more information on the event, plenty of photos ~ and a link to the official Tour Of Elk Grove website ~ on our main Tour of Elk Grove page here.

I was actually able to attend all 3 days of the event last year (2012) but, as I mentioned above, I was only able to make it to one race this year :-(. I did however bring my camera, of course, took quite a few photos and have selected and posted the 2013 Tour of Elk Grove Photos here.

I think that this is a really fun and interesting event for anyone into biking (not just racers) as well as people who may not even be into biking all that much (I guess there are people like that out there 🙂 ). There is a lot going on, plenty of interesting people and the races can be pretty entertaining and exciting.

The other thing that I like about the races is that they are a Great Photo Op. Lots of action and colorful scenes. Both years that I attended this event, I have met and talked with other photographers (it’s a very casual environment). In some cases, the other photographers have attended the TOEG for multiple years and have given me some very helpful photography hints.

Wide-Angle view of Tour of Elk Grove Racers

I probably shouldn’t even mention this, because I would still like people to check out the 2013 TOEG photos that I linked to above and I think some of them came out pretty well, but I actually screwed up a little on one thing this year. I used Aperture Priority for all of my photos this year instead of using Shutter Priority with a faster shutter speed (or even the pre-programmed sports mode) for the action shots.

I think I was more focused last year 🙂 and I used the faster shutter speeds for most of the shots. This year, I guess I just wasn’t using my brain cell. Like I say, I still did get some good shots so please check out the 2013 photos if you get a chance.

As for the Ride Story part of this post, one of the reasons that I was not able to attend all 3 days and more of the races, as I did last year, was because we are sharing our vehicles more this year and I was not able to use our van to drive my bike to the TOEG and leave it parked there all 3 days so I ended up riding to and from the TOEG on my bike.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I used Google Maps to help me check out my route ahead of time and it actually worked out very well. I knew that there were bike trails, sidewalks along the busier roads that I needed to take and ways to get over or under the interstates that I needed to cross. The place that I thought would be the most difficult (near Woodfield shopping mall) was the most difficult, as expected, but I still managed to find a pretty safe route past that location.

Once I past Woodfield, I took the bike trail that goes under route 53 (or Interstate 290) and right to the Busse Woods Bike Trail. I then took the bike trail through the southern part of Busse Woods (by all the lakes) and up to Arlington Heights Road where I crossed and was right at the Tour of Elk Grove.

My entire ride, to and from the TOEG and my ride at the TOEG, was only a little over 22 miles but it still takes more time to get there and get back then when you are able to drive there.

I am a little bit of a stats nerd and I just checked my mileage on the Garmin site. I see that my mileage at the Tour of Elk Grove (not counting getting there and back) was 3.4 miles. This brings up the next topic that I also wanted to mention.

I have found it to be very convenient to have my bike at the TOEG (rather than having to walk everywhere when I am there). I tried to get photos at a number of different locations this year and having my bike made it possible to get to and photograph the race in different places.

I also wanted to mention that the Tour of Elk Grove is televised locally on Comcast Sports Network (CSN Chicago) about a month later so it should be on at the beginning of September.

OK, that’s about it for now. I hope some of you who live in the area were able to make it out to the Tour this year. If not, maybe we’ll see you there next year.

Later, Rob.