Having signed up for the Gran Fondo New York coming up this May I got excited and decided to ride a section of the course on Saturday. It was a great day for riding. The sun was out and the temperature was a nice 50º, rather warm for being the end of December. I think everyone realized we weren't going to have many days like this and decided to hit the road, too. I ended up doing 60 miles and 5,000ft of climbing.
At the last-minute I met up with my friend Fred at the start of the George Washington Bridge. We had a miscommunication over time, and I ended up waiting for him for a while, which was cool because it made for good people/rider watching. He showed up on his Salsa full-suspension mountain bike. If I had known he was riding that I would have joined him on mine.
Going over the bridge. See yeah, NYC.
At the top of one of many climbs along Henry Hudson Drive.
A section of the road was closed to traffic. It's quite bumpy in sections with a lot of debris, good for honing in maneuvering skills.
One of many views of the Hudson River.
Nice wide shoulder along 9W. Plenty of room to ride and pass people safely. The halfway point for us was in Lamont, just past the New Jersey/New York borderline, and had a quick bite to eat before turning around.
It's such a unique and challenging place to ride. On my way back I caught a few groups, and someone trying to chase me down. He/she kept a good pace and pressured me to keep pushing all the way back to the bridge.
The view on my way home.