One of the events that I hated to miss, but is on my bucket list, is the Tour de Bronx. When I was up earlier this summer, I was there during the Tour de Brooklyn, so I can only imagine what 6,000 riders would have been like this morning. This was their 15th year and it is the state's largest free cycling event, riders chose between 25 and 40 mile routes, both of which passed by the new Yankee Stadium, St. Ann's Church (the oldest in the borough), and the Historic Longwood District.
The event was capped off with a free end-of-ride festival at the Bronx Botanical Gardens, with live entertainment and refreshments. This year's Tour de Bronx is dedicated to the memory of Megan Charlop, a former Monetefiore employee who was killed while riding her bicycle on Crotona Avenue. Yet despite this tragedy, the event is meant to be a celebration of the ever-growing cycling culture in New York City.
The Tour de Bronx is not the only event of its kind in NYC, there's also a Tour de Brooklyn and a Tour de Queens, both of which are smaller and younger spin-offs of the original.
As the city that never sleeps becomes more and more of a cyclist's city,these type of events will become more common and more popular. Next year's Tour is destined to be even larger than today's, and the culture of cycling will have spread even farther through the city.