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It's an every-two-year tradition: Bicycling magazine releases a list of the country's best cycling cities, and we in Portland find reason to gripe or rejoice.

For a long time, Portland dominated the field. Then it became a battle between Portland and Minneapolis for the top spot. But lately the metropolises have been getting shine.

Two years ago it was NYC nabbing the title. And this year it's Chicago, according to a report in the Chicago Tribune this morning.


Bicycling magazine is set to announce Monday that Chicago is now the best bike city in the United States, unseating New York City. This is good news for Rahm Emanuel, who had pledged when he became mayor to make Chicago the most bike-friendly place in the country.

This year, NYC's back to number four. And Portland's climbed from fourth place to third, according to the Trib.

San Francisco was ranked second-best bike city, followed by Portland, Ore.; New York City; and Seattle. Minneapolis; Austin, Texas; Cambridge, Mass.; Washington, D.C.; and Boulder, Colo., rounded out the top 10.

What's it mean? Well, that Chicago's done a good job building out its bicycle infrastructure, for one. Portland's stalled out somewhat in creating the type of super-comfortable "protected" bike lanes that advocates say pay dividends in getting people to begin riding.

But it also means that Bicycling wants its rankings to generate buzz (yep, I am their pawn), and that it's boring if it's just Portland and Minneapolis duking it out. We've noted that plenty of cities have made admirable strides in recent years, but Portland's also still crushing other big cities when it comes to bicycle commuting. Plus, we just added bike share, new "buffered" bike lanes have popped up in Old Town, the Better Naito project might become permanent, and there's talk of a real-deal protected bike lane in downtown.

Anyway. We're number three. Whatever that counts for.

Update, 12:40 pm: Here's the magazine's actual write-up, which paints a fairly glowing picture of the city's bike infrastructure successes in the last two years.