Five Boro Bike Tour returns for first full-capacity ride through car-free Big Apple streets

Tens of thousands of pedal pushers took to the streets for the annual TD Five Boroughs Bike Tour on Sunday, May 1. 

Some 32,000 cyclists signed up to ride through 40 miles of car-free streets in every borough of the Big Apple, and the sold-out tour operated at full capacity for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The charity ride, organized by the advocacy group Bike New York together with the city, for the first time added an extra hour for bikers to complete the course, allowing them more time to take in the sights along the course that runs from Lower Manhattan uptown to the Bronx, back downtown and across the East River to Queens, Brooklyn, and ends on Staten Island near the ferry terminal. 

The proceeds from the steep $112 entrance fee go toward funding free bike education programs for kids and adults in the city, according to the organizers. 

The tour offers access to parts of the city usually off limits to bikes, such as the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge between Brooklyn and Staten Island, and parts of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. 

The annual pedaling palooza launched in 1977 but was called off in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year, the event returned at a reduced capacity of 20,000 participants, but a week late due to Tropical Storm Henri forcing organizers to postpone the initial August date.