Sunday’s bike tour will close several streets Downtown.
BY COLIN MIXSON
The Five Boro Bike Tour kicks off on Sunday, and more than 30,000 cyclists are expected to hit New York City streets as part of the 42-mile-long challenge. To accommodate the hordes of riders, streets across the city are being closed off to car traffic, and Downtown is no exception.
While the race begins north of Canal, Lower Manhattan actually comprises the final stretch of the course, with riders setting off north, before doing a 180 that takes them on a very brief tour of the Bronx, after which they’ll swing back into Manhattan and head south down the FDR. From there, they’ll peddle over the Queensboro Bridge into Queens and head south into Brooklyn, before taking the Varranzano-Narrows Bridge into Staten Island and then hitching a ride on the State Island Ferry, landing at the Ferry Terminal and continuing on with the final, two-mile stretch of the city-wide loop.
To make way for the riders, the following Downtown streets will be closed from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on May 1. A full list of street closures, along with an interactive map of the course, can be found on the Five Boro Bike Tour website.
• Whitehall Street between South Street and Water Street
• State Street between Whitehall Street and Battery Place
• Battery Place between State Street and Greenwich Street
• Greenwich Street between Battery Park and Trinity Place
• Trinity Place between Greenwich Street and Cedar Street
• Church Street between Cedar Street and Walker Street
• White Street between 6th Avenue and Franklin Place
• 6th Avenue between Franklin Street and West 59th Street
The inaugural tour, an informal affair dubbed the Five Boro Challenge, occurred on June 10, 1977. It was then 50 miles long, and featured around 250 riders. It began and ended in Queens.
What was envisioned as a one-off affair became a tradition after former Mayor Ed Koch championed the tour, and the event became an annual occurrence, along with a few other revisions, including changes that led to the event’s current name and length.
These days, the Five Boro Bike Tour is sponsored by TD Bank and is touted as the largest charitable bike ride in the United States, with partners including Athletes to End Alzheimer’s, DetermiNation, the Cancer Research Institute, and Cycle for Life.
