5 Boro Bike Tour

I was planning on doing the 40 mile ride in Tour de Franklin, but when my neighbor Marshall called to say he might have a bib for the 5 Boro Bike ride in NY, I was interested. He called two days later and said I was in because his sister in law couldn't make it. I had done the ride about 20 years ago when i was living in the Bronx and didn't have a great experience. there were so many riders, the backups were terrible. It took me close to 6 hours to ride 40 miles and the wait for the Staten Island Ferry back to NY was lengthy. I think I told my wife I would be home by 1pm and showed up at 6pm.

Marshall said we would leave really early and get to the front of the pack. Tom Moritz also gave good advice on how to avoid the crowd. After getting up at 4am and driving down near the ferry, parking on a side street, we boarded the boat at 6:30. We were up front but still quite a ways back. Last time I was lined up at the Battery, but we were up near the site of the Trade Center. Marshall wasn't happy with the location so we began our "razzle dazzle" as Marshall called it to get up closer. The course marshalls would not let us go down any side streets so we actually biked up about 1/2 mile past the official start. There were a bunch of riders already there so we good to go.

The start was on time and 5 minutes later the cyclists were pedaling past us. We jumped in and off we went. The sun was out but it still a bit chilly at 8am. Most of the riders wore long sleeves and many of them had props on their helmets which I assume made it easier to identify their friends.

Marshall and I were planning on taking it easy, about 12mph and enjoy the day and sights. The course was going to take us over 5 bridges and through some great neighborhoods. We rode through Central Park, then up through the Bronx, back into Manhattan via the FDR, over the Queensborough Bridge, then into Brooklyn and finally over the Verazano Bridge.

There were all types of bikes, a few unicycles, many tandems including a 4 person bike with a dad and his 3 kids. We were forced to stop and certain rest stops but it was welcomed as it was a time to refuel. Marshall was having a really good time and I was just enjoying the ability to ride on many of the roads in New York.

We finished up at 12:15 and hung around at Fort Wadsworth for about 30 minutes then visited the park where you got a Staten Island view of the Bridge. I had never seen the Bridge from that side.

Overall, it was great time but we heard from others that they got stuck at the FDR for about 60 minutes which ruined their day. That was one of the reasons we started early to avoid those issues.

I am now looking for more bike rides to help me cross train.