Sunday, May 13, 2012

Becoming an Urban Cyclist



This morning I found myself actually in New York City and without work for the first time in over a month. Since it is spring and the day was warm and sunny, there was only one thing to do: get on the bike.

I was a bit nervous heading out for today’s ride because it was my first time exploring NYC by bike outside the confines of Central Park (I refuse to count last year’s 5-Boro bike ride as exploring by bike because I walked at least half of it due to crowd congestion). I am afraid of bridges, and it turns out I live on an island, and thus any serious bike riding is going to involve at least two bridges. But more than the bridges, I was nervous because I am used to throwing the bike on the back of the car and driving to a ride start out in the open where the roads are wide and contain few stop lights.

I chose a New York Cycle Club ride from City Hall to Rockaway Beach that would be a total of 45 miles. I had been wanting to check out the group for some time now, and today’s ride was billed as a slow, social trek, perfect for my first long ride of the season. And indeed, it was. We headed out over the Williamsburg Bridge and then came up into Park Slope and Prospect Park. Then into Ditmas Park, which I was surprised to learn is a rather suburban neighborhood full of gorgeous houses.  Much of the first 10 miles was stop and go through the streets of Brooklyn, but I did not mind the extra time in the sunshine.

We wove out through Sheepshead Bay, and there I got my first glimpse of ocean for the day. Then over the Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge and we were in Rockaway. Rockaway is, apparently, a peninsula to the south of Brooklyn, home to miles of beach that I had no idea existed in New York City proper. We rode north a bit, grabbed food at a bagel bar, and enjoyed delicious sandwiches overlooking the ocean, watching surfers try to ride tiny waves.  The scene was absolutely perfect: sand, water, blue sky, that amazing ocean smell.

After lunch, we headed over the bridge into Howard Beach, then enjoyed a tour of scenic Queens. Howard Beach was not exactly as nice as Rockaway, but I did enjoy seeing a few new Queens neighborhoods and particularly liked riding through Forest Park. We took the Queensboro bridge back into Manhattan and the views of the city skyline were just beautiful. The group disbanded at 60th and 1st, and then came the real challenge: biking through Manhattan streets to get home. Luckily, despite the best attempts by tourists in Central Park to stand clueless in the bike path, I made it. 

I loved today’s ride because it epitomized everything I love about biking: spending warm days outside, learning new things about the area in which you live, and the feeling of accomplishment that comes from taking yourself so far on just your little bike.  Though at points I longed for the open roads of Concord and Lexington, I also appreciated the unique things that one can see by cycling through city streets.

The one downside on the day (well two if you include the awkward sunburn on the lower half of my arms) was that smelling the ocean air reminded me of the “Lobster Roll ride” that the PMC crew and I did the last two years, which in turn made me really “homesick” for biking with them. In particular, for two years, Jen has been right behind/ahead of me on the roads almost every summer weekend, through hundreds of miles of hills, in heat waves and rain storms. Even though we’ll still do the PMC together, training without Jen and the rest of the gang is going to be sad, because that is the essence of summer to me. I am glad to have made new friends today and explored new areas, but I can’t wait to see the old ones on August 4.