Pictures from the 5 boro bike tour

The official photographers of the 5 Boro bike tour finally got their photos up.

The early morning was chilly, I wore my red long sleeve jersey and leg warmers.

Pedaling across the Queensboro bridge

I ride a hybrid: that's a ATB ("all terrain" AKA "mountain" bike) frame, with front suspension, and road wheels. Over the course of this last month or so, I've been riding downhills in a more sort of mountain-bike style where I stand on my pedals as you see in this photo of me coming off the Queesboro bridge. Usually, I do this with my knees flexed and try to lean forward while pushing my weight back, keeping a very light touch on my handlebars. The idea is to streamline myself more than hunching forward while seated because I have more flexibility when standing. It also lets me flex with vibration and shock as I go over rough road surface.

At the Astoria rest stop, I changed to my Team One Family blue short-sleeve jersey.
Leaving Astoria, we passed under the Queensboro bridge.

Not quite sure where this was taken.

I managed to get and stay relatively near the front of the tour. I found a Flick group with photos other riders took on the tour which only reinforced to me the imperative of pedaling hard and staying ahead of the massive mob epsecially when you get to steep hills like the Queensboro bridge approach, where a thousand weaker riders in front of you can bring things to a halt for you no matter how good a rider you are as they struggle up to the bridge (never mind the great funneling of folks from the broad Sixth Avenue into the narrower Central Park East Drive). yomamali's collection of photos from the Commerce Bank 5 Boro Bike Tour 2007.

I had a great ride but next year I'm going to pay more attention at Astoria so that when people start heading out before the posted end time for the mandatory stop, I'll be with them. Not that my position in the tour was so terrible leaving Astoria at 9:55 AM -- I certainly was not delayed by mobs of slow riders ahead of me, I had plenty of room to ride as hard as I could.