Here’s another quick update to let you know that the Tour of Elk Grove (a little closer to home than the TDF for a lot of us) has just started this afternoon. I will do a more complete update on the race and activities after the entire event is over but I wanted to post an update now for anyone that may be interested in this event and that lives in (or is visiting) the Chicagoland area.

2012 Tour of Elk Grove

Personally, I was disappointed that I only found out about the race after it was over last year and when I saw it televised on Comcast ~ which they will be doing again this year ~ so that is really the main reason for this blog post at this time. See our Cycling Events Page for a brief description of the TOEG and a link to the site with all the official information.

Anyway, I did go to the TOEG today (Friday) and it was very professional, a nice friendly environment and lot of fun to see.  I also learned quite a bit this afternoon. First of all, the main event area (Start and Finish Line) is at Audubon Park off of Elk Grove Blvd. There is directions to this on the TOEG website but they don’t tell you that Elk Grove Blvd is closed to automotive traffic and there is really no main parking area.

So basically what you need to do is to park in the neighborhood somewhere close to the park. This worked fine for me, and since I brought my bike with me ~ which I would recommend if possible ~ it was easy to get around. The other thing that I found out about from talking to a guy who had been going to the TOEG for 8 years now is that they close off different roads for events at different times and if your car is close to the main event area you may get locked in (until about 8pm) when they close off the roads for the main event.

I also brought my camera, since these events make pretty good photo-ops and took the photo above. I hope to get a lot more over the weekend.

So if you are into biking and looking for something fun to do this weekend, stop on by the Tour of Elk Grove.