Bike New York Today
 

Did anyone do Bike New York today? There was a young guy who i think had a heart attack and died on the Verazzano Bridge today, is this correct?

Wow... did not see that... I went by the Verazzano around 11:15 - 11:30, there was a lot of fog but I did not see anybody down.

it was after 12:00 more like 1.

Apparently 2 people died yesterday...
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/23591.htm
Sad.

lots of injuries too, it sounds like. i did a different group ride on saturday so i didn't attend the bike new york event on sunday. 30,000 cyclists is just too insane!

I WONDER IF THEY WERE PUSHING TOO HARD...........

I saw two cyclist crash as one of them cut across the road to enter a rest stop. All in all I had a great time and finished at 11:45, on my big a#$ bike. Sorry to hear that the experience wasn't great for everyone.

The Asian man I think died of injuries sustained during the fall. I saw him at the bottom of the BQE which lead me to believe he was not pushing at all but made contact with someone else, hit the concreate and had a heart attact.

I also saw a woman on the floor with a broken foot and another woman who was riding along side of me down the Brooklyn Queens Expressway hit the pavement hard. She eventually got up but I'm sure she's feeling it today. I also talked with a couple of people who saw more accidents. I really hope they change the course someday to go around the BQE as that fast paced highway takes out loads of cyclists every year.

I did the event on a junk bike because I didn't want to muddy up my new road bike. YUP! A 16' inch Dahon Piccolo folding bike was my ride and I surprised many in my hill climbing! Actually, there were a ton of people who didn't know how to shift DOWN so those folks were easy to pass! There were plenty of cyclists who were using department store bikes and couldn't even shift for the hills! YIKES!

Overall, it was a good day and I ate at all the rest stops. It's always fun but you need to be aware of where you're going and never drift because there's always someone trying to pass.

Yeah that is very unfortunate news, I did it as well, my 1st time, I did it alone, and I had an awesome time, I will definately register for next year....!

Lot of pics are up now
here:
http://www.pbase.com/peakaction/bnycameraone
and here:
http://www.pbase.com/peakaction/bnycameratwo

What is this event? The Post article makes one reference to it as a "race"; is that just your typical sloppy journalism?

It's not a race; it’s a non competitive ride though all five of the boroughs that makes up NYC. There were a large variety of cyclist from your recreational rider, to your hardcore racer, mountain bikers, roadies, and everything in between. You're free to go at a leisure pace should you choose, or as fast as safely possible. It's just for fun.

I did it for the first time this year. I was amazed by the number of people on brand-new bikes (ie, obviously fresh-off-the-floor bikes)... I saw three that still had the owner's manuals taped to the toptube! Wonder how many people bought bikes for the ride and tried to return them Monday...

-chris