PLANET CHOCKO – art/music/movies/beyond » 2024 Tour De Bronx

2024 Tour De Bronx – 30th Anniversary edition

October 9th, 2024 by Mr. C

This Planet Chocko online journal is seemingly turning into a bike blog of sorts! It’s just because it seems to be the only major event I’ve been attending lately. Hopefully, we’ll come back ‘atcha with some more diverse content like we’re really known for. We have to wake up the other kaiju half of this zine blog! Let’s go Chocko!!!

In the meantime, last Sunday I joined in on the free annual NYC bike ride that tours the streets of the Bronx. It was the 30th anniversary of the Tour De Bronx and it was a gorgeous day for bicycling! As usual, riders can choose between the 10 mile, 25 mile, or 40 mile ride. I clocked in with my usual suspect of 25 and the rest was history! the 25 mile route this year seemed to be just a little bit different in a good way from what I remember from years past. Areas that we rode through included the South Bronx, Crotona Park East perimeter, Starlight Park, Bronx River Park & the Greenway, Castle Hill, Pelham Bay, Morris Park, & the finale at the NY Botanical Garden. The major rest stops remained the same at the Castle Hill YMCA and at Pelham Bay Park. Now that I think of it, the Crotona Park stop was 86’d out. As far as the ride, I noticed more green way path usage along the route which was great. I’m telling you folks, don’t sleep on the Bronx! It really is a beautiful borough. The Bx is insanely underrated and underappreciated. Rolling around the city streets, the quieter residential neighborhoods, the waterfront, & the park space gives me a different perspective of the Bronx. I would guesstimate that the rider count was about 3-4 thousand. Not as much as in years past from the looks of it. I’m not sure if it was capped off by the City to a max rider count or what. I pretty much still agree that it’s a family friendly ride but let it be known that the vehicular traffic in the streets remain open like a normal day unlike a ride like the 5 Boro Bike Tour in which car traffic is blocked off. Note that the 5 Boro bike tour is a paid event and the Tour de Bronx is free. I also noticed that there were less volunteers and NYPD on the streets to direct traffic unlike in years past of the Tour De Bronx. All in All, the ride was amazing! What wasn’t amazing was when I got back home, the NY Jets lost another game and the very next day the coach got fired! Better Sundays to come I hope! See ya all later! I included a 10 min YouTube video below that I compiled to give you a glimpse of the ride!