Bike NY was pretty fun. I signed up to marshal in the front line (MASI) to hold back 30,000 bicyclists. Diane, Pat, Greg and Eddy were there too. There were about 60 total marshals. I'd heard horror stories of idiots bouncing over curbs and around the front line in years past, causing all sorts of accidents and ill will. Our job was to physically block all other riders from getting past us and up into the tail end of the police motorcycles and cars.
We rode up 6th Ave at around a 15 mph pace, and there were hundreds of bicyclists trying to cut in to our left and right. We yelled loudly at them to stay back and amazingly - almost all did! This kept up till we got into Queens. There were no major mishaps of mention. We waited in Astoria park, munching on tasty Peroigies. I told the lady serving them that peroigies got me through college - she replied "everyone tells me that". After some samples of power drink concoctions, we lined again to start out leading everyone. We wound our way down into Brooklyn. On the BQE, a large group went down behind us. There was an even height of helmets, then twisted scraping sounds, then a big hole in the group as the unlucky cyclists ate some concrete. The riders nipping at our heels taunting us shut up for a bit. Then we made our way by the Navy Yard. Looking back, another group of riders went down hard. Back up onto the Belt Parkway. A fellow marshal Cidney hit the dust in front of me after tagging another riders wheel. I inched up so no body was in front of me. Finally the last few turns up to Verazzonno bridge. Whoosh - there goes another guy off onto the sidewalk. He managed to not take any one else out - nice job! The last stretch down the bridge I was praying no body would go down, as we cruised along at over 25 mph. Amazingly Cidney had gotten back on her bicyle, cracked helmet and all, and caught back up with the MASI group!
All in all the MASI experience was a bit nerve wracking. But it was certainly a good way to get some yelling in and satisfy a power trip. The accidents were scary, but the bad ones were behind us. If I'd do it again, I do the MASI, but probably on my mountain bike instead. The free lunch, no wait for the ferry, and T-Shirt were nice perks.
I'm in this picture at the start, next to a monstrosity of a bicycle. . I'm in the top left corner with the suglasses and red collar. Eddy is next to my right, then Greg.