Mass Bicycling with the Blessing of the Police: Five Boro Bike Tour

New York City’s 29^th annual Running of the Bikes, the Five Boro Bike Tour, takes place on Sunday. This photo was shot last Sunday in Williamsburg during a mini-tour or dress rehearsal for the real thing. The hundreds of bikers were accompanied by many NYPD cruisers and motorcycles. Unlike Critical Mass when Gowanus Lounge has watched New York’s Finest decked out in serious gear riding oddly silent scooters chasing down and handcuffing bicyclists, the police were escorting the pre-Five Boro Bike Tour riders in an authoritative way.

The 42-mile route starts in Lower Manhattan, continues up the island so that riders can spend a New York minute in the Bronx, runs back south through Manhattan to the 59^th Street Bridge, up through Long Island City and Astoria, and back down to the Pulaski Bridge, eventually winding its way to the BQE. Here’s the official verbiage tugs at GL’s heart strings: “Now, you can fly along up over the Gowanus Canal and along the South Brooklyn waterfront reaching its shoreline park in the Bay Ridge neighborhood.”

The route ends at the Staten Island Ferry terminal in Staten Island. There is also a photo contest for those who can ride and shoot at the same time and for those of us simply wishing to stand, watch and digitally immortalize the event.