Might be volunteering this year at a rest stop instead of riding it.

I found it way too crowded last year and the year before. My gf got knocked down by a bike trying to blaze through a crowd. She suffered only scrapes and bruises, but it could have been worse... her front wheel got dinged pretty bad and I had to do a little emergency truing until we could get to the next rest stop.

After Central Park, the crowds thin out -- it's the first big filter for the tour. I think the second filtering point is the Queensboro bridge and then there is this steep hill in Brooklyn that also thins out the crowd... this is assuming that you can ride through these points of course...

For the rest stops, try to be in the first group to leave or just skip the rest stop completely if you can. I found that you can avoid crowds that way as well.

Overall, it's fun if you've never done it, but IMHO, the NYC Century is better. Nothing is better than riding through Times Square, Herald Square, Flatiron, etc. in traffic, in a peloton.