Free Sunday bike ride through the Bronx offers 10, 25 and 40-mile routes to the Botanical Garden
The 32nd edition of the state's largest free cycling event leaves Grand Concourse on Sunday morning and ends at the New York Botanical Garden.
Cyclists gather at Grand Concourse and East 161st Street at 8 a.m. this Sunday, Oct. 4, for the 32nd Tour de Bronx. Organizers bill it as the largest free cycling event in New York state, and all three of its routes start from that same corner.
Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson announced this year’s ride at Lou Gehrig Plaza. Organizers say the goal is to get more people riding and to show off the borough’s neighborhoods and history.
Tour de Bronx routes: 10, 25 or 40 miles
Riders pick one of three distances. The 10-mile route is designed for families, and the 25-mile course is the intermediate choice. The 40-mile option is the longest, taking in waterfront parks along with the South Bronx, Riverdale, Wakefield and other areas. Parks and green spaces line the way, and from spots such as City Island and Orchard Beach, riders can look out over Long Island Sound.
The Bronx Tourism Council, which organizes the event together with Gibson’s office, says the exact routes will be published early on ride day, at 6 a.m. Whichever distance they choose, riders end up at the New York Botanical Garden. The routes finish there at 4 p.m., and a music festival and celebration follow.
A theme tied to America’s 250th anniversary
“Pedaling Through History: A celebration of America’s 250th Anniversary” is this year’s theme, which honors the Bronx’s past and its impact on the rest of the country. Julius Drake, the tourism council’s director for development, said organizers “invite riders to explore the Bronx from a unique perspective.”
The ride goes back more than three decades. Fernando Ferrer, who held the borough president’s job in 1994, launched it that year in partnership with the Bronx Tourism Council. Their aims were healthier living, other ways of getting around and a showcase for the borough’s waterfronts and greenways. That debut ride put a spotlight on the Bronx River Greenway, at the time only a proposal: 25 miles of green space and shared paths following the river.
Quick answers
When and where does the Tour de Bronx start?
The ride begins at 8 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 4. Every route leaves from Grand Concourse and East 161st Street.
How long are the Tour de Bronx routes?
There is a 10-mile family route, a 25-mile intermediate route and a 40-mile long-distance route.
Where does the ride finish?
All three routes end at the New York Botanical Garden, with a 4 p.m. finish followed by a music festival and celebration.
