The next stop will be…

My friend Joshua and I joined 30,000 other cyclists on the Five Boro Bike Tour today, a first for both of us. The tour, closed to auto traffic, covers 42 miles and passes through all five boroughs of New York City. It crosses two major bridges, the Queensboro or 59th Street Bridge and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge plus several smaller ones. The course also runs onto roads normally accessible only by cars such as sections of the FDR drive, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, and the Belt Parkway.

It was really cool riding on those sections. Other favorites of mine from the tour include riding through Central Park, the well organized and stocked rest areas, and reaching the crest of the Verrazano-Narrows knowing it was all downhill to the finish. Here’s a few pics, there’s a couple more over at my Flickr account.

My friend and co-rider, Joshua.

The mass of riders waiting to cross 57th St. The course itself was closed to cars but in a few sections they made us wait for cross-traffic.

Cruising through Central Park, one of the nicer sections of the course. It was really pretty.

The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge viewed from the final rest stop. Intimidating does not begin to describe how it looked. We still had to cross it to reach the finish on Staten Island. Thankfully, it was mostly bark and only a little bite.

All in all, I had a super nice day. It was an awesome experience bicycling around one of the greatest cities in the world without having to worry about cars and all they entail. My thanks to Bike New York and all the tour sponsors for a wonderful and exhilarating bike ride.

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