Tour de Queens '08

Joshua and I participated in the first annual Tour de Queens yesterday. The course ran for 20 miles and mostly followed the borders of the borough of Queens. The forecast for the day was 96° and humid and it proved devastatingly correct. The heat was BRUTAL!!

How bad was it? You remember that previous post where I proclaimed “I’m not gonna be ‘bike short’ guy!” Well, see for yourself. Believe me, it was totally the right decision for the situation and I’m not one bit ashamed of it. The shorts actually proved quite comfortable and were exponentially better than any other options I had.

Riding the course itself probably wouldn’t have been as bad as it was for me except I decided to ride to and from the start/finish at Flushing Meadows Park from my home in Crown Heights which tacked another 20 miles total onto the Tour itself. Adding insult to injury, I had a headwind riding home. Hey weather, thanks!

Tour de Queens '08

Riders at the start unaware of the hotness to come.

Tour de Queens '08

Just about ready to launch off into heat and humidity worthy of equatorial countries or, in this case, Queens.

The tone of this post would probably lead you to believe that I didn’t enjoy the Tour and you’d be correct but it wasn’t the Tour’s fault. Had the weather been more seasonable, the Tour would have been a perfectly fine kickoff to what I’m sure will become a Queens institution. Transportation Alternatives, the tour’s organizers, did a great job planning, supporting and executing the ride. The challenges for me were purely due to the oppressive heat. In spite of it, you can actually see me enjoying myself in this video from the Tour (at the 1:40 mark).

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