How about sharing some more stories about your experiences with the
5-Boro Tour? Here's mine:

Bike New York 2005 (my 21st consecutive year).

It rained for the first 2 hours. Riding 2 blocks downtown on wet
Belgian blocks was challenging, but, aside from the usual surface
irregularities, the roads were okay. Any time another bike was in
front of you, which was most of the time, there was a spray from their
tire coming up in your face (a good time to be on the right side of
the road in Central Park, as opposed to those on the left side, which
is the horse path). The rain slowed everyone down in the beginning,
which got me to Astoria Park later than usual. But they hold everyone
there until 10am, so I just had a shorter stop, and was back on
schedule from there on. My shoes and socks got soaked, and with the
windy 53 degrees, I lost so much feeling in my feet that I had trouble
walking when I got off the bike in Brooklyn. There was the usual
assortment of morons spread throughout the crowd, but I didn't see one
accident, in spite of the wet roads and people riding so close
together. I arrived at the ferry 8 minutes ahead of my best time yet
– the record was 12:10, new time is 12:02. I ended up on the car
deck on the ferry instead of the passenger area (with seats), which
means standing in a dark area on the boat, packed together with about
1000 other bikers, and enjoying the diesel exhaust from the boat's
engines. Jeremy's Ale House moved to a new location, and the new one
is smaller. A few of the other patrons today were apparently rejected
by Wrestlemania, and came to Jeremy's for some liquid refreshment and
to discuss things of importance (most of which sounded like f__ this
and f___ that, and the f___ing whatever). I had my obligatory beer,
burger, and fries, and took a walk to the Seaport. By now, the sun
was bright and warm, and my toes were thawing out. There was a guy
doing really contorted yoga poses, and even put himself into a small
plastic box. I had some fresh lemonade, some really good ice cream,
and went back to Jeremy's to meet some of the other bikers. Overall,
it was a really good day.

George (Trail Boss)