5 Boros New York City Bike Tour
On Sunday morning May 5, 2013, Margaret and Bruce Berry and I rode a 40 mile circuit through the five boroughs of New York City -- no cars, no stop lights, 5 bridges and 32,000 other cyclists.
The 5 Boros Bicycle Tour dates back to 1977 when it was 250 participants with a couple of police cars accompanying them on the route. Now it’s a mega- production with corporate sponsorships, a pre-tour Expo showing off tons of bicycle merchandise, huge rest stops featuring views of the Manhattan skyline, and a registration process that requires you to make sure to be on your computer when signup starts.
The tour starts in lower Manhattan, proceeds up 6th Avenue passing Radio City Music Hall, through Central Park and then into Harlem. After a brief foray into the Bronx, we went back to Manhattan, down FDR drive, over the Queensboro Bridge to Queens and Brooklyn where we cruised through some Hispanic and Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods. The only inclines were the approaches to the bridges; however there were many cyclists who hadn’t trained and walked their bikes. The Verrazano Narrows Bridge connecting Brooklyn and Staten Island where the tour ended was the longest bridge.
We got good advice while we were waiting to start at 7:45 am: it’s not a race; it’s an experience to savor, take time to enjoy the sights. I’m from New York and worked for the Parks Department in my twenties but I have never had the opportunity to view the city in this way. Usually I’m on the street and while I love walking in Manhattan for the variety of people and places, it takes a while to get from one place to another. It was amazing to ride from one area to another in no time at all because you didn’t have to pause for automobile traffic or stopping for lights. We did have to be conscious about other cyclists of course, just as we are during GCC group rides, but after the initial few miles the concentration of cyclists wasn’t bad. There was so much to see on the route that the miles passed really quickly. Many teams had decorated their helmets with goofy things such as fake rats wearing tiny helmets or cocktail glasses.
We were lucky to have excellent weather and everything went really well. Bruce did a great job of taking care of Margaret’s flat in Brooklyn, but there was also assistance that the tour would have provided if it was needed. The event was scheduled soon after the Boston Marathon tragedy and they added extra security procedures such as outlawing hydration packs. There were huge numbers of police officers and a multitude of volunteers to cheer us on during the route.
It was a great day. If you’d like more details, feel free to ask. I also am always interested in bicycle tours and tourism and would like to hear from others planning to cycle in an interesting locale.
For more info, see http://www.bikenewyork.org/ride/five-boro-bike-tour/.