"On Your Left!": Urban Assault Ride Returns to Chicago

By Kim Bellware in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 8, 2010 8:20PM

If the dipping temperatures and shorter days have already triggered the "I miss summer" ache, New Belgium Brewery's Urban Assault Ride serves as a fitting last call for Summer 2K10, replete with craft beer, biking and some pretty fun getups.

The Colorado-based beer company's bike scavenger hunt/fundraiser/merrymaking event has hunkered down at Murphy's Bleachers in Wrigleyville since 2008, which will once again host this Sunday's ride.

Checkpoints spread around the city (including a few secret points that participants can unlock by piecing together clues and solving trivia questions) are set up with obstacle courses or physical challenges that relate to biking, and have been known to involve big wheels, tricycles and an inflatable slip-n-slide. After teams successfully complete a challenge at a checkpoint, they receive a bead to present at the finish; the fastest team holding the most beads wins the the fatty prize--a New Belgium cruiser with a front rack made for transporting a case of beer.

Along with a pre-ride trivia quiz for extra points and being able to hit the checkpoints in any order, riders are encouraged to don a costume (albeit one that complements the always necessary bike helmet), making the competition as much about strategy and creativity as it is pedal power.

If covering the city on two wheels isn't your style, New Belgium hosts a post-race block party style shindig to award winners, dole out prizes and encourage safe biking as a transportation alternative. Even better--the proceeds benefit the much-loved West Town Bikes (which, shh, also served as a secret checkpoint in 2009).

Registration closes at the packet pickup on Saturday, with the race starting at 9 a.m. Sunday at Murphy's Bleachers.

Murphy's Bleachers is located at 3655 North Sheffield