Local cheerleaders encouraged the runners along Lafayette Boulevard

I recently uploaded photos from this past weekend’s Detroit/Windsor marathon.

A group of us rode downtown from Royal Oak and elsewhere to cheer on our friends who were running.  It was a chilly ride down, but no injuries were reported.

We were starving midway through the ride, so I coerced the group into ordering crepes at Good Girls go to Paris.  It was very convenient that the marathon course went right past the crepe shop.

On the way back we stopped at the Woodbridge Pub for a beer.  Then we made another beer and bathroom stop at the Stonehouse Bar.

Photos: Detroit/Windsor Free Press Marathon

I ran into Will and Shelley Botens while biking last weekend.  We started talking about riding and I agreed to take Will on a tour of Detroit that weekend.

We started from Berkley and worked our way over to Oakman Boulevard.  The Boulevard took us to our first stop, the incredible Shatila bakery in Dearborn.  Biking to bakeries is always a great idea in my mind.

Next we went past the Ford Rouge Plant in search of a route onto Fordson Island, which we never found.

We headed east, making our way through Mexicantown and Corktown and finally Downtown.  Turning south, we rode the Riverwalk and the Dequindre Cut.

Will had never been to the Heidelberg Project or Eastern Market, so of course we had to stop by and check them out.

Heading north on Russell, we dipped into Hamtramck for a quick refueling at the Cafe 1923 before visiting Hamtramck Disneyland.

At this point it was apparent that I had turned this Detroit tour into a very long ride.  Never expect a short tour when I’m wearing my IMBA Long Live Long Ride jersey.

Last but not least, we had to stop at Theatre Bizarre before making our way up Woodward and back to Berkley.  At the end, we’d ridden 61 miles and had a great time.

Peter and Jeff climb towards Vail Pass

I’m getting caught up on posting photos from this summer.  Here’s a series of photos from a ride a few of us did in Colorado.

Jeff, Peter, and I started in Frisco.  We headed out on the bike path towards Copper Mountain then up Vail Pass to the peak at the I-70 rest stop.  This really is a gentle mountain pass, at least in this direction.  It didn’t look like much fun for those riding from Vail.

At the peak, Jeff turned back while Peter and I coasted into Vail and then Minturn.

There were a couple tough road climbs between Minturn and Leadville, one of which was the Tennesee Pass.  It rain on us briefly, but we soldiered on to Leadville.

We briefly loaded up on water before heading back to Copper.  Going up and over Fremont Pass was a major pain.  The wind and occasional rain didn’t make it anymore pleasant.  But, once at the top it was basically a long coast into Copper and Frisco.

In the end we’d ridden 95 miles and climbed three Colorado mountain passes.  Not bad.

The Rouge flows through its concrete trough

I think I’ve only crashed two or three times this year.

One was in Birmingham.  There was slick ice on the roads and a thick layer of loose snow on top.  I was running studded Nokian tires, but the snow kept them from hooking up on the ice.  It wasn’t that bad of a crash since you can’t go too fast in these conditions and snow is fluffy.  My riding partners even noted that I was laughing as I fell.

So that wasn’t my number one crash.

It was in the middle of summer and I was on a long ride.  My purpose was to scout the planned Rouge Gateway trail extension along the Rouge River from Michigan Avenue to the Fort Street Bridge.

This segment of the Rouge River had been heavily modified through the years in order to accommodate large Great Lakes ore vessels on their way to Ford’s Rouge Plant.

Keeping the river in a more natural state was clearly not a priority. It had been dredged, straightened, and eventually placed in a concrete trough.

More scratches on glasses = less abrasions on face

On the bright side, that concrete is somewhat fun to ride.  It gently slopes towards the river and you just need to avoid the occasional dead wood.  It’s like the Dorais Velodrome with any turns.

My scouting ride was following some recent rains, so there were some wet spots where water was flowing over the concrete to the river.  It was no biggie — or so I thought.

One time it wasn’t just water.  It was a slimy, wet algae mix.  I was riding about 15 MPH when my front wheel hit that slick concoction and slipped sideways down the concrete slope.  My handlebar end was the primary contact point with the concrete and a quarter-inch of metal was quickly ground off.  My knees, hands, and face eventually hit the hard surface as well and I quickly slid to a stop.

I took inventory, swore, flushed the blood off my face with my water bottle and got back on the bike.  I really thought about continuing my ride, but all my cleanup meant I was nearly out of water.  Oh, and everything hurt, too.

I rode 15 miles home, cleaned up my wounds, and bandaged my knees and face.  My cut above my eye got a butterfly bandage and didn’t require stitches.  I got a tetanus shot just in case.

Yes, it’s premature to blog about your year’s biggest crash with three months remaining, but I’m an optimist.

Ste. Anne church in Detroit

One resource that makes biking in Detroit so unique and spectacular is its historic churches.

Ste. Anne de Detroit

Did you know that the second oldest continuously open Catholic parish in North America is in Corktown?   St. Anne was founded by Cadillac in 1701, the same year as the City of Detroit.  The parish is now in their 8th church, which was opened in 1887.

Father Gabriel Richard is called the Second Founder of Detroit and is the church’s more famous pastor.  He rallied Detroiters to rebuild the City after the Great Fire of 1805.  In fact he gave the City its motto: Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus (“We Hope For Better Things; It Shall Rise From the Ashes”.)

Richard was a founder of the University of Michigan, MIchigan’s delegate to Congress when it was just a territory, and lobbied for the completion of Michigan Avenue from Detroit to Chicago.

Richard’s remains are kept in a chapel at the church.

Gabriel Richard's remains at Ste. Anne

Sweetest Heart of Mary

This is beautiful church just north of Eastern Market and situated midway between the St. Albertus and St. Josaphat churches.  All three Catholic churches served the Polish communties on Detroit’s east side.

Below is an excert from Olivier Zunz’ book, “The Changing Face of Inequality:”

The building of Sweetest Heart of Mary and the controversy that surrounded it provides a perfect example of the Poles’ difficulties with the hierarchy and of their dedication to their churches. It also sheds light on internal dissensions within the Polish community, between those willing to abide by the bishop’s authority, and those (priests and parishioners alike) preferring a uniquely Polish American church which would leave some decisions to the laity. In 1886, Bishop Borgess dismissed Father Kolasiñski from his pastorate at Saint Albertus when, amidst other charges of disobedience, he refused to submit his financial books to the bishop for audit. His popularity among his parishioners, however, was such that many of Saint Albertus’s congregants violently protested their pastor’s dismissal. A crowd of women initially forbade entrance to the church to the new pastor, Father D the founder of the Polish seminary, and this was only one in a series of violent incidents which divided the Polish community over the degree of autonomy of the Polish-American church. Kolasiñski’s supporters went as far as severing their ties from the diocese and waited for Kolasiñski’s return to Detroit in December 1888 to build a new church of their own, Sweetest Heart of Mary, without the bishop’s consent, just a few blocks away from Saint Albertus.

Sweetest Heart of Mary on Russell at Canfield

In retaliation, the bishop excommunicated all Kolasiñski’s parishioners, and the new church was not dedicated until December 1893, when the dispute was finally resolved and Kolasiñski publicly reconciled with the hierarchy.

In the meantime, a group of Poles managed to break away from the Catholic hierarchy to keep their priest on the job; they bought the land for a new church for $13,600, and built church, school, and presbytery for another $13,700. A few years later, the parishioners started a fund-raising drive for a new church building, and in 1897, Sweetest Heart of Mary was estimated to be the most expensive church building of the Polish community. That year, however, the community defaulted on its debt. American Savings Bank refused to extend the repayment period and took the case to court. The community tried to settle the dispute by paying the interest of the debt or $7,700; Potrzuski, a butcher on Riopelle, alone gave $2,800. This sum, however, did not settle the dispute; the case was tried and the church sold at a public auction for $30,000, to a lawyer, Mr. McGravie. The Polish community took the case to a higher court, charging that a property appraised at $214,000 could not be sold for $30,000. The court granted a new auction, but in the meantime community leaders managed to get a new loan for $65,000 from London Bank in Montreal, which many community members guaranteed by mortgaging their homes, and bought off the church from McGravie. This dramatic story of a church built by excommunicated parishioners against the orders of church hierarchy, so expensive that the community defaulted, and yet a church that the parishioners managed to buy a second time with money secured by new mortgages on their homes, clearly demonstrates the communal strength of Detroit’s Polonia.