My Pictures of

The Five Boro Bike Ride

May 2, 2004

Two friends and I and roughly 30,000+ other cyclists did the forty-two mile New York Five Boro Ride on May 2, 2004. Here are pictures of last year's ride.

This year's crew included Elliot Holland '04, an environmental engineering major from Massachusetts, a member of the cycling team, and Sasha Solovyov, a first year physics graduate student from the Ukraine.

We met at 4:00 am in the U-store parking lot and loaded the bikes and got organized. We headed to Staten Island, where we parked and caught the 6 am ferry to Manhattan and the start of the ride.

It rained a little during the ride and at times it got quite chilly (enough that I didn't have my usual post ride ice cream bar!), but overall it was a pleasant day.

The rest of the story is in the pictures below.

Click on a thumbnail to see a larger picture.

Elliot and Sasha after we got our bikes put together in the parking lot on Staten Island. About 5:10 am. Waiting on Church Street for the ride to start. One of the couples near us found a good way to keep warm.

Looking towards the start line on Church Street. You can see the "Bike New York" sign in the distance. Looking the other way on Church Street. Cyclists extend as far as one can see.

Sasha and Elliot waiting at the start. Sasha and me waiting at the start.

We came across a wedding party. We're not sure whether they were coming from the wedding, riding to the wedding, or just dressed up as a wedding party. In any case, you can see the bride, the groom (wearing his BNY vest over the top half of a tux with bike shorts on the bottom), and a flower girl. A closer shot of the flower girl and the bride.

Sasha and Elliot at the rest stop in Astoria Park, Queens. This is about half way through the ride. There was a backup getting on to the Brooklyn Queens Expressway as Men in Black checked that everybody had a vest. (I guess without a vest, you might be a terrorist, yeah right.)

The BQE entrance backup around the corner behind us. Here's me with my bike and Elliot's bike at the festival on Staten Island. This is about 39 miles from the start (41 miles from where we started in the parking lot) and there's 3 miles to go to get back to the parking lot and the car.

Elliot and I at the festival. Sasha had a flat and although he had a spare tube, he didn't have tools. Elliot and I didn't notice that he had dropped back and we lost him. He had to wait for someone with tools to help him and got to the festival two hours after Elliot and I.
So, we had a lot of time to wander about the festival. Here's the food tent.

Cyclists coming down the lower level of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge form a backdrop to the festival on Staten Island. One of at least two bands playing at the festival.

	Elliot and Sasha after we got our bikes put together in the parking lot on Staten Island. About 5:10 am.		Waiting on Church Street for the ride to start. One of the couples near us found a good way to keep warm.
	Looking towards the start line on Church Street. You can see the "Bike New York" sign in the distance.		Looking the other way on Church Street. Cyclists extend as far as one can see.
	Sasha and Elliot waiting at the start.		Sasha and me waiting at the start.
	We came across a wedding party. We're not sure whether they were coming from the wedding, riding to the wedding, or just dressed up as a wedding party. In any case, you can see the bride, the groom (wearing his BNY vest over the top half of a tux with bike shorts on the bottom), and a flower girl.		A closer shot of the flower girl and the bride.
	Sasha and Elliot at the rest stop in Astoria Park, Queens. This is about half way through the ride.		There was a backup getting on to the Brooklyn Queens Expressway as Men in Black checked that everybody had a vest. (I guess without a vest, you might be a terrorist, yeah right.)
	The BQE entrance backup around the corner behind us.		Here's me with my bike and Elliot's bike at the festival on Staten Island. This is about 39 miles from the start (41 miles from where we started in the parking lot) and there's 3 miles to go to get back to the parking lot and the car.
	Elliot and I at the festival.		Sasha had a flat and although he had a spare tube, he didn't have tools. Elliot and I didn't notice that he had dropped back and we lost him. He had to wait for someone with tools to help him and got to the festival two hours after Elliot and I. So, we had a lot of time to wander about the festival. Here's the food tent.
	Cyclists coming down the lower level of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge form a backdrop to the festival on Staten Island.		One of at least two bands playing at the festival.