Five Boro Bicycle Tour - CycleTour

Since Karen and Mike have done this ride before, they knew the secret NOT to start at the actual start since it is chaos. We opted to ride a few miles from the start to meet my brother. After meeting Michael near Central Park, the five of us took off at a nice pace. We first rode through Central Park which was beautiful and fun with the downhills. I didn't know there was so much in the park! We then went over the Harlem River into the Bronx for a few miles before coming back into Manhattan. We rode down FDR Drive, a highway along the East River (I think). We circled around to cross over the 59th Street bridge. As Brad and I rode over it, we saw a gondola which was pretty cool! We continued on over the bridge into Queens where we stopped at the 2nd official rest area in Astoria Park. We ate the bananas, crackers and mini Lara bars they had while we waited for about 30 minutes for the rest of the course to open. We hit the bathrooms and we were off again! By now, the sun was out and it was starting to warm up. We started the day a little chilly, but not bad. After the rest area, we crossed the Pulaski Bridge into Brooklyn. We rode along the Brooklyn Queens Expressway and was having a blast! We were snapping pictures as we rode and was able to ride near someone in our group for most of this stretch. We next stopped at Cannonball Park which is in the shadows of the Verrazano Bridge. We hit the port-o-potties, grabbed some food before continuing on. We looped around and before we knew it, we were on the lower level of the bridge with the most amazing views! We hit the crest of the bridge and was now able to effortlessly coast the rest of the way. After getting off the bridge, we made a right hand turn into the park for the "finish line" festival.

Nothing at all! I just wanted to go out and have a blast with our group and I did! This was an awesome and super fun ride!

We met up with Michael and just hung out in the sun, laying on the grass as we waited for some of Karen and Mike's friends. We hit up the mini Lara Bar stand a bunch to stock up for training food. :)
We then rode the 3 miles to the ferry to head back to Manhattan and then another few miles to the train station to head back to Jersey City.


I will add this to my list every year! It was organized, well run, had tons of volunteers and was a great way to see the 5 boros! Best of all (and not trying to sound cheesy), but the best part of the entire ride was that I did it with Brad, Michael, Karen and Mike! Can't wait to do it again next year...and the year after...and the year after that...