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This year's participation in the Tour De Cure event was again special. Dennis and I woke early and started out at 5:30 am in the morning. We rode the "R" subway train to from Brooklyn (Bay Ridge), NY to Manhattan near West 54th St & 12th Streets. We arrived to Pier 94 and I promptly turned in my donations, signed in and got my bib number. I picked up my rented Bianchi rode bike from representatives of Chelsea Bicycles. A funny situation occurred in that I had a tricky time figuring out how to shift the gears on the bicycle. I ride two bicycles at home that date back to 1982 and 1983. Today's high tech bicycles have their shifter levers located at the end of the handle bars. I was embarassed to ask one of the shop techs how to shift the gears. The group of cyclists gathered around 7:50 am for some last minute announcements and the singing of the National Anthem. The ribbon was cut and we started off on the ride under clear blue sky skies at 8:00 a.m.
The roads were smooth in most areas and the green rolling country sides were beautiful. I rode up to Palasides State Park area on Highway 9 West through the cities of Englewood Cliffs, Palisades, Sparkill, Piermont, South Nyack, Orangeburg in Northern New Jersey and New York. Highway 9W is among the nation's most traveled cycling routes. The temperatures during that day were in the mid 60's to high 70's. I got lucky with the weather until the last 20 minutes of my bicycle ride. A storm hit Manhattan just after I rode across the George Washgington Bridge with high wind custs. I managed to carefully ride the main boulevards amongst light traffic to Pier 94. Dennis, Denise (Dennis' sister) and I took a cab to Kats Delicatessen for dinner to celebrate the ride. I recommend that restuarant if your ever in Manhattan. In 1888 what is now known as Katz’s Delicatessen was established on Ludlow Street in New York’s Lower East Side by the Iceland brothers. A special thanks to everyone for supporting my ride with your donations to the American Diabetes Association. 25.8 million Americans are living with diabetes. The donations will help continue the important work to prevent and cure diabetes and improve the lives of all people affected by diabetes. I raised a total of $1,730.00. I was surpised to find that I landed on the Top Ten list of individual fundraisers for this event on July 3rd, 2012. A total of $167,499.34 was raised at the New York City ADA Tour de Cure event this year. |
