MTS – Tour de New York
Although we can not say that our tour lasted for 21 days, we did ride 21 miles starting out in the Tavern on the Green in Central Park West.
From there we followed the Westside Highway bike path all the way down to Brooklyn bridge – which proved to be the “Hors-categorie”* for many of our bikers. The bridge is steep and on a Sunday afternoon overcrowded with people, so we had a few obstacles to overcome on the incline. No one got hurt in the process…
Safety first!
The girls were confident before departure
To avoid bonking*, we made a stop at a Williamsburg Mediterranean bistro. Even the most experienced bikers need a pit stop to re-fuel.
We stopped at Lokal, a Mediterranean bistro in Williamsburg that serves delicious fresh food and organic juices and smoothies. My calculation is that we burned an average per person of 1000 calories on the tour, and consumed about 5000 calories each during brunch!
French toast, fruit salad in honey, spicy Guacamole with homemade chips, Eggs Benedict, loaded egg white omelets, juicy sandwiches and delicious salads. Mmmmmmmmm….
This post was supposed to be about biking… Sorry – I will continue with the tour, I got a little sidetracked.
The trip back was piano*, as we took the Williamsburg bridge back to Manhattan. No drafting* needed, as we cruised up 6th avenue in high cadence* between aggressive cabbies and not so friendly New York drivers. What is it with cars and bicycles? Are they natural born enemies, or is this just a New York City thing?
We were lucky, as the humidity levels were low sunday and the temperature bearable – compared to previous days. The tour was a success, mainly because everyone was able to complete and returned to the park in fine form. Although I can really only speak for myself as the bike enthusiast that I am – but I believe everyone had a blast!
*Tour de France Glossary
Hors-categorie: Mountain peaks/hills where the difficulty in climbing is beyond categorization.
Bonking: A rider who has completely run out of glycogen (the carbohydrate that fuels the muscles) is referred to as having bonked.
Piano: Riding at a gentle pace, as in the less rushed parts of a stage. Often used as a gentle admonition to a rider who is going hard for no good reason – “Eyhh… piano!”
Drafting: When riders shelter behind each other in the other riders slipstream, which is called drafting. It requires less effort to maintain the same pace when you draft.
Cadence: The number of times during one minute that a pedal stroke is completed.
