NYC 5 Borough Bicycle Tour - CycleTour

Went with Juan C. again and he bough Caesar with him this time. Caesar brought with him the heaviest bicycle I've ever lifted in my life (it was an aluminum mountain bike......YEAH OK!!).
It was chilly waiting for the start but otherwise OK. The porta-potty lines were as long as expected but moved along pretty quickly.
I drank two cups of coffe and managed to get a bagel sandwich that filled me just right.
We averaged about 10mph thruout most of the tour. The chill was pretty much gone by the time we made our way back into Manhattan. You could feel the elements hitting you pretty good thruought the entire event. I had neglected to put sunscreen on but it wasn't bad enough to cause any real problems today. Chapstick that I had helped a lot. The sun was out the entire time and was happy to see no one seriously hurt this year with the exception of a few scrapes here and there.
After leaving Astoria Park we took a 20min detour to Evelyn's house to refresh and say Hi.
We joked and laughed most of the time, sometimes losing sight of each other but recovering quickly.
By the time we were about 7mi from the Verazanno (entering the BQE), Caesar was seriously dragging - we were averaging 6mph. It didn't help that he was riding an Abrahms M1 tank either - regardless of age and fitness, that tank of his (WITH KNOBBIES TO BOOT!), was a challenge to ride.
I stayed with Juan for the rest of the trip. Later, when Caesar finally joined us said he walked the bike up the Verazanno.
I never heard anyone (much less two guys at the same time), complain about their rears hurting so much.

1 - Get these two guys in shape
2 - Have them get better (road) bikes
3 - At the very least have them change to road tires, and to dithch the king knobbies they used (dorks! I had warned them about this).

Went straight to the merchandise booth and got a bike jersey, better yet, managed to get last years that I missed out on for $25 bucks!!........Um, did some stretching after racking the bike. Hams were real tight.


Juan and Caesar - they really need to get better bikes or at the very least better tires for the occassion. HEY!...IT'S A TOUR, NOT A RACE!!


As usual, very nicely set up event. Everyone else in the family wants to do it next year (OH BOY!). I'll need to really prep for that one. I can see 07 turning into a punish-fest for them and an emotional roller coaster for me. But I'm ready for it and like usual, we'll all have a blast.

Oh yeah, Caesar seriously doubt's he'll be doing it again........EVER! :)
Before the event, both guys claimed they were more than ready to do a century with me in a couple of weeks. At the end of the day, I told them to think about this "You just completed 42 miles in 5 hours. In a century you would ALMOST be half way there". The totally defeated looks on their faces (as their shakikng head and eyes rolled down), was too funny.

PS - As I type this, one of them e-mailed me still complaining about his rear hurting and how he missed work today. :)