First, however we have an appointment at the Jewish General Hospital to get the results of Stuart’s 3 monthly scan. Stuart insists on packing up the rental car with the bikes ready to head straight off to NY. I’m reluctant just in case…
We have the usual terrifying wait, but happily he gets the all clear. We’re on our way to New York!
After stopping over at a friend’s house in New Jersey on Friday night, we head into Manhattan on Saturday morning. First stop the Bike Expo to pick up our Rider numbers and Bibs. It’s a great place, and happily I find it’s not all spockets and gear ratios, and there’s plenty of shopping.
We then spend the afternoon wandering around the city, happily I find there’s plenty of shopping.
Only in New York City!
Sunday morning, and we decide to get up as early as possible to be at the front at the start. My usual slowness issues may cause us a problem, as we are planning to drive straight back to Montreal after the ride. We arrive at the start at 6am!
It’s a little cold! Temp probably starts at around 7 deg, rising only to 16 deg during the day. We hear later that it was 28 deg in Montreal, but we’re not bitter!
We are in the front of the riders at the start, but then I settle into my usual pattern of being overtaken by absolutely everybody. I have no idea how to get my speed up, even with the incentive of cycling in a pack, I just keep slipping further and further back. However, it’s still fun to ride through the streets of NYC. We start in Manhattan, and cycle up through Central Park, a brief loop through the Bronx, and then across Queensboro bridge into Queens.
After Queens we head into Brooklyn, and finally stop for a proper rest. We pretty much skipped the other rest stops to save time! My bike has been decorated with Dollarama flowers by Stuart, which has become a tradition every time I enter a city bike tour
We then head over the Verrazano Bridge across to Staten Island. I find Verrazano bridge really hard going, it’s a long slow uphill at the end of the ride and I’m pretty tired. My pace is now slow to almost rolling backwards. One of the ride volunteers shouts words of encouragement through a megaphone “Come on Flower Girl”, a cry which is picked up by the other riders behind me. Come on Flower Girl they all cry. I find I am mildly embarrassed rather than motivated!
After an 8am departure, we arrive at the finish around 12.30. So 4 ½ hours to do 40 miles (60km). No real improvement in the speed then, but at least it was a fun ride. We don’t hang around too long, as we’ve heard the wait for the Staten Island ferry can be horrendous. Fortunately, it’s only ½ hour wait.
We depart New York around 3pm. Stuart usually relies on me to navigate, but I’ve fallen fast asleep. There’s a point on the road between New York and Montreal where the I87 splits into two. The I90 heads east and the I87 heads north. We needed to stay on the I87, but Stuart merrily heads off down the I90 since his navigator is still completely out of it. The roads are awfully long in the States and you can head a hell of a long way before you realise that you shouldn’t actually be seeing signs for Buffalo. We eventually get home at 1.30am!
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