obersts001

I got back home about 45 minutes ago -- I'll try a full trip report.

Pre-tour
I moved to Manhattan 14 months ago, and got into biking about a year ago when my health clearly needed more attention than I was given it. Since I live close to CP, I started doing laps on a hybrid 3-4 times a week, got up to an average of 70-75 miles per week, and lost somewhere around 25 lbs by late September '07. Winter put 5-6 lbs back on me, though, and it was only since March that I been riding riding more than once per week this calendar year.

I had made the 5BBT a goal for this spring and did the early registration in February. For the past two months I have been riding 2 or 3 times a week, mostly rides in CP in the 12-20 mile range. Last Sunday I took a 27-mile ride, my longest since September. But then the long-term weather reports started to appear, and I knew that I was not going to ride in a thunderstorm. Also, I found out that friends from out of town were flying in on Friday and staying with my wife & me for the weekend. As of yesterday, it still didn't look good. We had other people over last night, drank and ate things not ideal for pre-ride training, and didn't get to bed until after 1 am. I figured that I'd wake up early, see it pouring rain out, and crawl back into bed.

Not-so-early start
The Tour starts at 8 in Battery Park, but I didn't wake up until 7:30. I was surprised to see that the rain was over, and while foggy, it wasn't that bad out: 50 degrees, a little bit windy, but expected to clear up in the afternoon. So I had a plan: ride to the entrance of Central Park, wait for the leaders to go by, and then just blend in. Sure it misses the first five miles and riding through the Midtown canyons, and I'm sure that some purists would see me as some sort of criminal for not following the "rules", but there was no way that I was going to ride down to the entrance in time. Besides, the one thing I have heard about the 5BBT is that the middle to end of the pack while going past the start is, well, unpleasant. So I put on bike clothes and headed over to 59th Street.

Central Park, 8:15 am
I was clearly not the only person with this brilliant idea. Several dozen riders were standing around, and I was surprised to see a bunch of riders just going straight into the Park and not waiting for the "official" start. So I rode in. There is no bike area in the universe that I know better than Central Park, and it was nice to ride along the East Drive with no horse-drawn carriages (or their droppings), and fewer runners / walkers / gawkers than the average weekend afternoon. Down Harlem Hill and on to Powell Blvd.

Harlem, 8:25 am
Near the north exit of CP, the NYPD motorcycles arrived. They passed by me but then slowed down a bit to a 17-18 mph pace, and the limited number of riders around had police escort for a few miles. This was pretty much smooth sailing with almost no one on the road, and nearly all of the streets closed. Police stopped us once to let traffic through near 135th Street. A few quick turns and we were into the Bronx.

Bronx, 8:35 am
This is the obligatory "we need to go into the Bronx so that we can say we cover the entire city" section of the route. On the way off the Madison Avenue Bridge, I saw a big group of riders behind a barrier to the right of me. As I passed them, a tour official took out a bullhorn and yelled, "stop so that the marshals can lead!" Ah yes, finally, busted for the early start. I slowed down, the marshals went past, and everything was fine. There was nothing else memorable about this borough - auto body shops and that was about it.

Manhattan FDR Drive, 8:40 am
We go around a helix on to the FDR going south. This was cool. For those of you who don't know NYC, the FDR Drive is the primary north-south artery in Manhattan on the east side, hugs the East River, and is normally a clenched-teeth drag strip for NYC drivers. With not a car in sight, I let loose for the first time and ride over 20 mph for most of the duration. My underside starts to feel a bit numb.

Queensboro Bridge, 8:50 am
The first real "hill" is the Queensboro Bridge on-ramp. You might know this as the 59th Street Bridge (Simon and Garfunkel, "Feelin' Groovy"). Even though I'm riding on a hybrid and still terribly overweight, I pass by a big group of people who are struggling up the ramp. This makes me feel good - maybe I can ride a bike well, at least compared to the average person. I break 30 mph on the downhill part of the bridge. Welcome to Queens.

Queens / Astoria Park, 9 am
This part of Queens is only slightly more interesting than the Bronx. There's a car wash that is open and taking customers (boy are they going to be annoyed when the big crowds start to arrive), but otherwise there's not much in the way of scenery. I make it to Astoria Park at about 9:15, the unofficial halfway point, maybe two minutes behind the marshals. Oranges, bananas, water, Larabars, pretzels, DJ music. There are signs that say that we will be held at Astoria Park until 10:05 am, so I find a bench and sit for a while, reading the news on my Blackberry and calling my wife to tell her that I made it to Queens. Lots of other people eventually arrive, some wearing funny hats, nearly everyone wearing funny tight clothing.

Break
Part two to follow...