Hi Kanester,

I rode the 5 borough twice the first time being about 5 years ago. I live on Long Island and rode it with my brother. It is also the first organized I ever did.

We drove and parked in Staten Island. There was a line for the ferry, but we were on the ferry in less than an hour. The first time we made a mistake and stayed with the gridlock of cyclists. We didn't actually start riding until 9:30, I think the beginning of the line starts at 7 or something like that. This meant that everytime they stopped cyclists to let people cross, another gridlock was created.

The second time we rode it was so much better. We began at Staten Island again, but instead of waiting in the gridlock to begin, we made our way up side streets, passed the Stock Exchange for example. We were able to keep an eye on the the street where the event actually was and merged in when we saw everyone was cycling at a steady pace. We were never in any gridlock. They do stop you every now and then to let people cross throughout the 5 boroughs. It was nice. I feel like I out grew it as I did the Bloomin Metric last year and I ride a wonderful path in Westchester, round trip gets us a 50 mile pleasant ride. But is a friend ever asked me to ride it I probably would just because I don't think it was that horrible and going over the BQE and Verrezano Bridge was a challenge, for me anyway. I also used my mtn bike with smoother tires as opposed to my road bike as some of the roads are not the best and some are cobblestones.

This is just my view of the ride.

~ JoAnn