Originally Posted by
jwalther
My wife and I are planning to ride this year, and are trying to decide whether to bring our road or hardtail mountain bikes. While I understand you can push the pace if desired, I'm curious what the "average" pace of the ride is? With 30k riders, I've got to believe it's pretty slow, meaning the mountain bikes make more sense. . .
The front of the first wave is constrained to 15 mph. The rear of the last wave must maintain a 6 mph speed. Riders can ride at any safe speed between the tour's front and rear.
Faster riders will experience bottlenecks on major uphills that are caused by slower riders in front of them. The major climbs are: Cat's Paw Hill in Central Park; from the FDR Drive to middle of the Queensboro Bridge; the Pulaski Bridge; Hamilton Ave Bridge on the BQE; the Verrazano Bridge.
There will be unforeseen bottlenecks due to evacuating injured riders. Other unforeseen bottlenecks or delays in previous years were caused by: a gas leak along the route; a steam main break that turned the road surface into a tar pit; an inability to clear the route of vehicles and many more.
There is a shortcut that bypasses 4 miles in Queens, including Astoria Park. You must cross over the Queensboro Bridge before 11:30 to avoid this shortcut. There is a cutoff that eliminates the Verrazano Bridge and Staten Island, if you don't go past DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) by 2:00.
If you do decide to forego the start area and join the tour along Sixth Avenue, stay on the sidewalk until the front of the tour passes. The front of the tour is scheduled to enter Central Park at 7:45. The tail is scheduled to be there by 10:35.