5 Boro bike tour

I'm registered for the 5 boro bike tour this Sunday. The tough part is that my daughter Shira is dancing/marching in the Salute to Israel parade this Sunday (and the One Family Fund is of course marching in their own group). Her school doesn't form up at the parade until 11:45 AM, theoretically at 12PM they start.

The finish line on the 5 Boro bike tour at Staten Island opens at 11AM. The tour organizers state that the front of the line moves at a 15 mph pace (and the back at 6 mph). I know there is mandatory stop at Astoria for the lead riders. I'm not any sort of official lead but I hope to maintain that 15 MPH pace and be among those who are on the first Staten Island Ferry back to Manhattan then hustle back uptown and over to 5th avenue to reach the parade and see my daughter. While a bicycle isn't as fast a subway train when both are moving, I don't have to wait for my bicycle to arrive nor spend time getting on or off a train nor do I have to stop every 10 blocks to pick up passengers.


I'm looking over the route to find the subway stations in Brooklyn that we pass near so that if I'm short on time I can bail out. My experience is that trying to get up or down the East Side on a bicycle without interference from special events is a frustratingly long and slow trip because the East Side Greenway ends at 23rd street; trying to get uptown on the roads will get me maybe 8 mph average speed. A subway ride to Herald Square is probably a good compromise on a bailout.