Knickerbiker: A leisurely bike tour, then into city fray

For the New York City cyclists who were among the TD Bank Five Boro Bike Tour’s 32,000 participants on Sunday, having several of Gotham’s bridges and freeways to ourselves was an annual gift that only the 42-mile route provides.

For the 70 percent of the tour’s riders who do not live in the city, however, it was seemingly enough to pedal through town from the leisurely point of view of a bike. At times, the tour’s 34th edition was too “leisurely,” with enough delays to cause my companion to remint the event the “Five Boro Walking Your Bike Tour.”

I broke off from the ride before reaching Staten Island (to commute to work, of course), and so I rejoined the mixed-use bustle of the city. In scenes you won’t see on the tour, I exchanged friendly gestures with an aggressive cabdriver and an oblivious deliveryman on wheels.

Between the two rides, I had it all.

Max J. Dickstein (@Knickerbiker on Twitter and mdickstein [at] am-ny [dot] com) is amNewYork’s bike columnist.