There were no places to put plastic bottles at the rest stops. everything went into regular black plastic garbage bags. Where were the blue recycleable containers to put an estimated 120,000 plastic bottles ?
also the wait was way too long at the ferry to get home, there were 2 ferries sitting at the dock in staten island just sitting there while 1000′s of riders waited 40 min in the blistering sun……
and next year could you enforce a speed limit, i saw way too many bikers speeding and cutting off other bike riders, its a tour not a race…
other then that it was excellent, i cant wait till next year…..

I, my wife and a friend thought the ride was a disaster. By 11 o’clock we covered a total of 6 miles most of it walking . The rest stops (some closed by the time we reached them) were horrible. Needless to say this was my first and last ny five boro ride. Also I’ll encourage anyone and everyone to avoid this so called ride at all costs. If the organizers can’t accomodate 32,000 riders they should have the common sense to lessen the numbers.

How about the morons funneling tens of thousands of riders through a 30 foot wide “exit” at the “Festival” just to make sure we all got to see the “Sponsors” tents. We waited for an hour just to get out on the street and walk again. Shameless and disgusting. We are out. I got your ride right here….

We enjoyed the tour, which actually started after the massive congestion point upon entering Central Park. Who would have thought that after several decades of organizing these events they still aren’t capable of doing it right? The least they could do is give people a good excuse to voluntarily ride a bike for 42 miles next year! The bike ride itself was fun and gave us an opportunity to see fascinating views of New York. But the mess getting out of the so called “festival” gave us less to desire about participating again. It was a mob scene. After riding for so long why not thank the participants with something less of a headache? Instead they deceivingly welcome us into Staten Island with a so called “festival”. This was NOT my idea of a festival. How about some Sausage and Peppers, or grills here and there?? Lines were 45 min to get a measly hot dog! Fughetaboutit! They also neglected to mention that the festival isn’t the end of the journey. After waiting to get out of the park for 45 minutes we endured another hour of congestion in the streets proceeding to the ferry. Upon getting there, we were a couple of the thousands of hungry, tired, and exasperated participants desperately waiting to get out of there. The finale to the tour left us fellow Americans with true disappointment and a very sour taste in our mouths.