OFF TOPIC – Five Boro Bike Tour

As I mentioned in my CCNP completion post (which seem to be ages ago), this week’s focus was New York’s five boro 42 mile (67.6km) tour.

New York's Five Boro Bike Tour

It started just before 6am this morning when my alarm clock buzzed. An hour later I was already in downtown Manhattan where thousands of bikers waited in line to start the tour.

Bike tours have their own QoS system: pay more for VIP access and earn a spot at the front of the line (unlike regular admission that uses the FIFO method), someone stop and all the bike packets queue behind. Downtown Manhattan with 30,000 bikers was so tight that we had to slowly walk part of the route, as we did in big parts of Central Park, as the huge crowd squeezed into the park. The small size pipe and the bikers DoS on Manhattan opened as we crossed to The (Internet) Bronx and back via FDR Drive.

Riding on the FDR Drive is an exciting experience and with the BQE and Verrazano bridge on the menu, the tour’s never open to bikers roads gave the extra thrill. It is the one time a year you get access to the major highways, just like getting a fiber for a day when you’re used to slow connections.

Great weather, nice ride and 42 miles later I was packed in one of Staten Island’s Ferries on my way back to the city. Overall, it was fun and not as difficult as I thought, I will try to add longer rides to my workout though I doubt my schedule will be cooperative…

You can check my performance in this RunKeeper map.
Some of the photos I took available here.

Starting tomorrow I’m back in business and will make my decision on the next step of my studies.