Where should the pro cyclists race on the streets of New York City to get a real feel for being a NYC cyclist?
We went to the Rapha Clubhouse to watch a stage of the Tour de France with readers of the Leg Day newsletter to find out.
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Hey, I’m Daniel Varis of Leg Day, a newsletter about pursuing joy as a city cyclist. And we’re asking people if there was a tour to France in New York, what would the stages be? Uh, we do the Jamaica Bay Loop, including the Rockaway boardwalk. So, instead of cobbles, you got to watch out for blown sand piles. Be super exciting to watch skate tires out there. If I had a stage on tour of France, I would take inspiration from the Alleycat bombing down Broadway and do a sprint stage. That’s the full length Broadway ending at the Wall Street Bowl. Open or close to traffic? Oh, definitely open. Yeah, you got to see how these guys navigate traffic for sure. I want to see them in the city streets. That’s really New York cycling right there. I think that they should go through all of the cobbles in Red Hook. None of the roads finished ending at IKEA for meatballs. They have to go from Grand Army Plaza all the way down to Mont. That’s a race we actually do and it’s coming up in September. And I want to see like a sub four hour time at the very least. I would say Hudson River Greenway ending with lap around Grant Tomb and a sprint finish up in Morningside Heights. Park Slope is notorious for having like 12 streets that are all next to each other that have just crazy uphill drags. I think it’d be a really fun punchy stage that would suit people like Matu Vanderpool. Could be cool to watch.