My Pictures of

The Five Boro Bike Ride

May 3, 1998

Loading up Here it is 4:30 am on May 3, 1998, and I'm loading up my bike for the New York 5 boro ride. Waiting Waiting at the start. Probably about 6:45 am. The banner and start line is about two blocks away. The end of the starting pack receded out of sight behind me - at least seven blocks.
Me This is me at the start. Roughly 30,000 people registered for this ride. But it was foggy and rainy and there may have been a number of no-shows. Speeches Finally the speeches started and everyone crowded forward in anticipation. Also it started to rain! The ride started very close to the scheduled time of 8 am.
BQE to south Since it was rainy, I didn't take many pictures. Towards the end of the ride it got partly sunny. Here's a shot from the Brooklyn Queens Expressway looking South over New York Harbor, towards the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, barely visible in the background. I had a nice chat with the couple coming along the walkway. They wanted to know why there were so many bikes! BQE to west Here's another shot from the BQE. This time looking west towards Staten Island. This point in the ride was something over 30 miles from the start at the southern tip of Manhattan. We've already ridden the length of Manhattan, crossed into the Bronx, come back to Manhattan, over to Queens, and now in Brooklyn.
BQE to north Here's another shot from the BQE, this time looking north. I have no idea what the guy with his leg out is doing! Over to the right, you can see part of a crash. I have no idea why there was a crash. It's a straight, smooth, downhill section of the road. V.N.B. to east We crossed to Staten Island on the lower level of the Verrazano Narrows bridge. I stopped at the midpoint to take a few shots. Here's the view looking east, back towards Brooklyn.
V.N.B. to Staten Island Here's another shot from the midpoint of the Verrazano Narrows bridge. This is looking Northwest towards Staten Island and New Jersey. It was still foggy enough that you couldn't see the Manhattan skyline from the bridge. V.N.B. to west Here's a shot looking in the Staten Island direction from the midpoint of the Verrazano Narrows bridge. All three lanes (and all the roads we used on this ride) were dedicated to bikes.
Fort Wadsworth Festival When you come down into Staten Island from the Verrazano Narrows bridge, you enter Fort Wadsworth for relaxation, food, and entertainment. This is 39 miles from the start. Sensational Soul Cruisers The entertainment was the "Sensational Soul Cruisers." They were good. You can't see it in this picture, but there was a steady stream of bicycles coming down the Verrazano Narrows bridge ramp. That was also entertaining!
  More relaxing at the end Cyclists relaxing at Fort Wadsworth. From here, it's still 3 miles to the Staten Island Ferry which goes back to the ride start. A total of 42 miles for the day. I had parked near the ferry and ridden the 6 am ferry to the start, so I had 3 miles to go to get to my van.