5 Boro Bike Tour - May 5 2024

Mon, 06 May 2024 10:35:06 +0000

Yesterday my son (18) and I did the 5 Boro Bike Tour for the first time. Here are some notes and my thoughts.

2 weeks before the race, I bought parking at the parking garage next to the SI Ferry at 55b Richmond Terrace on Staten Island on Spothero.com for $11. I saw a lot of posts about parking on the street but $11 is cheap for a full day parking so this was a no-brainer.
I picked up my packet at Center415 on Thursday, May 2 at ~3:30 PM. It was basically empty at that time and picking up the packets for my son and myself took about 2 minutes. I walked through the merch area and bought 2 t-shirts, one that said “FINISHER” which I hoped to be! We were in wave 5, starting at 9:50 AM.
On the day of, I woke up at 5 AM and took a long hot shower.
Checked the forecast one more time, temperature was going to be 50-52ºF and showers/rain in the afternoon.
Clothing layers:
- Base layer was a DSG (Dick’s) thermal long-sleeve shirt. I went to the Under Armour store at the mall but since it’s May they only had 1 thermal shirt there (which I bought for my son), but the DSG shirt was fine.
- Next layer was the short-sleeved “Tech” (Polyester) 5 Boro Bike Tour shirt I got at the packet pickup.
- Next layer was the 5BBT jersey, short sleeve zip-up. I never had a bike jersey before and this was pricey but I wanted it for a souvenir.
- Outer layer was a light synthetic Gerry hoodie from costco. I think this cost like $15?
- Underwear was SAXX full synthetic
- 5BBT bike shorts with the padding in the crotch
- When I asked a guy at the bike shop about how to handle rain, he said just make one of your inner layers a 13 gallon trash bag. Around mile 20 of the race, I did exactly this. I took out a white trash bag, ripped holes for the head and arms, and wore it right over the jersey. I then put the hoodie back on. This served as a very effective windbreaker, kept heat in, and also kept my core pretty dry. A lot of people wore ponchos or full rain gear as their outer layer and they looked like parachutes on wheels in the wind.
- I wore my usual Brooks Adrenaline GTS 23 sneakers and merino wool socks.
- GIRO bike gloves
- Wore a merino wool beanie under my helmet
Food/Drink:
- We bought a box of Peanut Butter Clif bars and one of Chocolate Chip Clif bars. The Peanut Butter ones are far superior. We packed 7 or 8 total.
- I had 4 bottles of Kirkland alkaline water (Costco) in the car but I forgot to attach a second drink cage to my bike so I just had the 1 bottle of water, and my son had 1 bottle of water and 1 bottle of gatorade with him. Going over a bump in Central park the gatorade flew out and was lost to the ages so we just had the water, and despite the warnings about dehydration neither of us was ever really that thirsty. There were water fill-up stations at all the rest areas but we didn’t need them.
- At one of the rest areas there was a lot of food but a long line. It looked like they had bananas, oranges, and bagels. I managed to grab a banana and we split it.
- At another rest stop there were some PWR LIFT drinks and we each had one of those.
- The night before the tour I just had some frozen chicken strips and didn’t go crazy - didn’t want to worry about the bathroom during the ride.
Timeline:
- Left the house around 6:45 AM
- Driving from Long Island, Google apparently thought the Verrazano bridge was completely closed and wanted to route me up around Manhattan and said it would take nearly 2 hours (the night before, taking the Belt Parkway and the bridge, it was 41 miles and ~1 hour). I knew that only the bottom level was closed (for the race) so continued that way and as soon as I got on the onramp for the bridge the ETA went from 9AM to 8AM.
- The parking garage was a bit of a zoo but we got a spot and then finished getting ready. We loaded up the hip bag - backpacks with straps were apparently not allowed, so I bought an “evoc” hip bag on Amazon. In the hip bag I put the backup battery, a USB-C cable, 7 Clif bars, my wallet, 2 13 gallon trash bags, and my wool hat.
- At 8:50 AM we were on the line to board the SI Ferry. The ferry ride was fine but really windy.
- We walked/rode up to the starting line, following the crowds and the signs, and finally crossed the official Start line around 10:00 AM.
- 12:09 PM we were on the Queensboro bridge, top level. Great views, even in crappy weather.
- 12:33 PM we were in Astoria park for a drink break. I think they ran out of snacks here but they did have some PWR UP energy drink (or something like that).
- 1:40 PM we were at Commodore Barry park in Brooklyn (near Brooklyn Navy Yard) to pee
- 2:40 PM we were on the Verrazano
- 3:35 PM we were back at the parking garage and ripped off all our wet clothes. (Bring a change of clothes for everybody, including flip-flops or crocs, or another pair of sneakers, and towels and maybe blankets!)

Overall I thought the tour was extremely well run. The weather sucked but I still had a great time. If possible I highly suggest going with other people, I don’t know if I would have had as much fun if I went alone. Part of it was me keeping myself in good spirits just because my son wasn’t having such a great time, so I was hyping him up. Physically, I was definitely not warm but my core was very warm and my legs felt great, I never felt fatigued at all. Since it was raining there was no desire to go fast - my biggest worry was skidding out and eating the pavement, but fortunately that didn’t happen.

Bike-Touring on Evan Hoffman

5 Boro Bike Tour - May 5 2024