Today was the 15th annual NYC Century Bike Tour (my 5th or 6th - lost count a while ago) and what a day it was! Stunning and perfect for a tour on bicycle of our fair city. Stacey and I joined 5,000 others as we started from the Harlem Meers (the Meers is a lovely lake and lawn at the far north end of Central Park at 110th Street).
We woke at five. (Yes, you read that right- five o'clock). The word "Century" as applied to a bike ride signifies one that is 100 miles long. The rider, however, gets a choice of 15, 35, 55, 75 or the whole megillah if he or she is so inclined. We're not. We took the 35 mile tour which just right.
As I loaded the bikes into the car for the trip into the city, I stopped to admire the beautiful day that was dawning. A tiny crescent moon coupled with a very bright Venus were dueling with the rising sun.
Getting ready to leave for the bike ride. A beautiful sliver of the moon and Venus greeted me.
There were 1000's of bikers and bikes at the starting point. The ride is sponsored by Transportation Alternatives, a wondeful NYC organization (of which I'm a proud and long-standing member) that promotes bicycling, walking and more sensible (read less cars) transportation policies to make city life healthier, less stressful and more enjoyable. Despite the large number of bikes lining up to take off, things went very smoothly thanks to TA's well-prepared organization. The time you departed depended on which mileage you were riding. So the 35'ers were to leave at 7:30. If you were doing the 100 you were expected to be at the starting line at 5:30! (another reason for choosing a lesser amount, right?)
Some lined up for the WC before lining up to leave on the tour.
The beauty part of this tour is that you get to see so many great New York sights and neighborhoods. It covers every borough but Staten Island and it's designed to show off great NYC bike routes - many of them car-free - part of the ever-increasing NYC Greenway System. However, many miles are on the road and sharing it with cars. Cyclists, with TA at their vanguard, declare that the roads belong to bicycles as well as cars and that we have rights that must be respected. It is very evident from the numbers of bicyclists participating in this and other rides around New York that we have arrived and we will be heard!
Every few minutes the marshall would allow several hundred bikers to begin their tour, then holding back the rest. This assured the ride would spread out on the streets and be unencumbered by sudden stops (and thus, possible accidents) due to congestion.
Waiting at the "starting gate." The marshalls would stagger
departures to avoid bunching up on the road.
Well, we're finally on our way. We've done this many times but it's always a thrill. It's 7:30 on a pristine, but sleepy, Sunday morning. One thing I love so much is that almost silent sound of bike tires on pavement and the quiet click-click of the chain and gears. It's now amplified by hundreds of bikers either passing me or being passed by me and its music to my ears.
It's early morning and we sail down Fifth Avenue past the Guggenheim Museum.
Say hello to the Cardinal - rolling down Fifth, Saint Patrick comes into view.
(i.e. we rolled - the cathedral was stationery).
The lighting at this early hour is beautiful -
here the Flatiron building at Fifth and 23rd Street.
The next borough on our tour was our home town - Brooklyn, via the bridge that bears the same name. Kind of nice to be heading towards Brooklyn at 8 in the morning, the sun coming up strong now and turning the cables and granite arches into sillouhettes as we biked across the river. We're headed through Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, Park Slope and to the first rest stop at the Prospect Park carousel. Here, TA has arranged for us riders to take a break, help ourselves to bagels, Krispy Kreme donuts, bananas, plums and apples, use the bathroom in the zoo and then enjoy a free ride on the carousel. How great is that?
Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge.
An added bonus for bikers - a seal show at the Prospect Park zoo!
Not to mention a free ride on the carousel. Built n 1912 for Coney Island
and moved here in the 50's, it was restored to its former glory in the 1990's.
We left the park at Grand Army Plaza and headed up Underhill Avenue -- right past our new apartment! This was certainly grand -- the bike tour headed through the most beautiful parts of "Brownstone Brooklyn" - Prospect Heights (our soon-to-be new "hood"), Fort Greene, Clinton Hill and the Pratt campus. Then further north into Williamsburg. The contrast was striking: lycra shorts and tank tops on bikes whizzing through neighborhoods teeming with ultra-orthodox Hasidim dressed in long black garments and wide black hats.
Leaving Prospect Park at Grand Army Plaza to head up Underhill
Avenue - we passed right by our new apartment!
Waiting for the light at Atlantic, Underhill and Washington Avenues.
North and north we went, through Greenpoint and then over Newtown Creek on the Pulaski Bridge and we were in Queens - Long Island City. This is a very interesting part of the tour as it takes you along the East River with fabulous views of Manhattan on the other side.
As I'm pedalling along I hear two guys talking behind me. One guy is sayng "I told my dad that I was biking through Prospect Park and he said 'what are you crazy??'" The next thing I hear this same guy say is "Is that Matt Weinstein I see?" It turns out I've run into a friend of mine (who I met recently), Alan, and his friend, Isaac. Don't you just love living in a small town like New York?
People regularly walk from Brooklyn to Queens (and vice versa)
over the Pulaski Bridge. Even though it's another borough, to them
it's just about getting from one neighborhood to another.
The view of Manhattan is awesome. Here's Stacey and our new
friend Alan, whom we met by coincidence.
New York City is so big and so spread out that you can live there, as I have, your entire life and not know of, or ever get to see, dozens of other neighborhoods in your own borough, not to mention in the other boroughs. The wonderful thing about this bike tour is that it takes you through some gems of neighborhoods. It gives me a new respect for the variegated city that I call home and for the people that live there.
When we cross from Brooklyn into Queens we are in the manufacturing section of Long Island City. But lately it's becoming home to an influx of young people fleeing the rents of Manhattan. So there are interesting looking bars, clubs, restaurants and cafes, interspersed with the warehouses, power plants and factories of the older industrial base of this part of town. That seems to be the story of the entire eastern rim of the East River. Neighborhoods are being re-invented and renewed. The views of Manhattan are splendid; the rentals are priced somewhat lower (albeit rising) and the subway delivers you to the "city" in a matter of one or two stops.
The industrial backwash of Long Island City.
Down the street a tennis club on the East River and
views of the Empire State building in Manhattan.
A beautiful old church in the Two Coves section of Queens.
Again we're headed north, this time our destination will be the second rest area - in the shadow of the Triboro Bridge in Astoria Park. It seems to me to be one of the city's great parks; a beautiful expanse of lawn and trees on the banks of the Hell Gate, a portion of the East River with treacherous currents separating Queens from Ward's Island, an island that was used for a large state mental hospital. Hundreds of bikers are converging on this rest stop and the grass is covered with their bikes and them, lying out in the sun of this glorious day. Food and water is being dispensed again and my odometer is reading 25 miles - just 10 to go to reach the end point back in Central Park.
Bikes spread out in Astoria Park - unknown to most New Yorkers
except those that live nearby but certainly one of the city's great parks.
After a while and a rest we head off for the final leg of the tour. The route, which is given to each biker on cue sheets that lists, ad seriatim, each and every turn to be taken for all 100 miles, now takes us across the Triboro Bridge. It's nice to know that there's a bike/ped path on that many mile long crossing, but it's certainly not one of our favorite parts. Hot, noisy and narrow is how we see it. And you have to carry your bike up steps several times as you cross the bridge. Not fun after 25 miles. But once again, the views are impressive. And I guess we should be thankful that there's a path at all. Robert Moses, the car-centric highway Czar of years past, decided to prohibit bikes and walkers from many NYC bridges, a legacy that haunts us to this day.
We're taking the bridge to Randall's Island. At that juncture, some will head up to the Bronx to build up more mileage. Others, like us, will cross the East River on a little bike/ped bridge at 103rd street and connect us to the bicycle path alongside the FDR Drive. From there we head North and cross the parkway at 111th street. Then it's cross town and back to where we started some three and a half hours ago. The weather has been great - we're not very tired. Free ice cream and massages are being offered to the returning champions. It's been a very wonderful New York city day.
My point of view - in case you're interested. The odometer reads
26.83 miles covered. Just a bit more to the end.
Carrying the bikes up stairs on the Triboro Bridge.
Still in all, wonderful views of the Manhattan skyline.
We took this little footbridge across the East River and back to 103rd street in Manhattan from Randalls Island.
Back to the beginning ... 35 miles and 3½ hours later.
Where's that free ice cream?
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