The Tour de Putnam held it’s 11th successful year. As I pulled into Veterans memorial Park there was a sea of cars with people reading their bikes. Many had already headed out down Gipsy Lane and onto Rt 301 by my 8:10 arrival. Here Yorktown cycling riders get ready t o head off.

The registration area was packed with day of arrivals, about 400 pre-registered while more than 200 others showed up to ride due to the near perfect weather. The added riders put a little stress on the organizers as they an out of t-shirts and under planned for the free lunch for all riders at the end of the day. The t-shirts will be ordered and mailed to all riders in the next few weeks.

As I pumped up my tires and pulled road food from my car I realized I had forgotten my two water bottles in the fridge. Luckly the route passed near my home and my wife, Julie meet me at the first rest stop. I set off for my 75 mile ride at 8:30 and enjoyed meeting many people heading out rt 301. The roads were well marked and made safe by volunteers from a number of local organizations.

Here’s 23-year old David Morgante of now of Stormville making the long climb up 301. He sent me an email after seeing his photo. He rode the Tour de Putnam 7 or 8 years ago after graduating high School. He then joined the marines and attened college. Welcome back David.

Part of the fun of rides like this is finding unknown roads that will become favorite training rides. While Dennytown is wonderful as it passes through Fahnestock Park, especially doing the descent as we did today, I really enjoyed the gentle climb on East Boyd Road onto Nimham Road. East Boyd was super rough and called for using the big ring to steady the chain and keep power in the peddles, much like the pros do when riding on the cobbles of Belgium.

Living in the Southwest corner of Putnam I’ve not ventured East past Carmel on my rides, but the route took us east to Patterson and Brewster showing me beautiful and flatter roads.

This comment from Paul Frank, “just finished my first 35.2 mile ride in 2 hours 57 minutes…this was a great test for a novice rider…the last hill on Peekskill Hollow Rd was a true test…great day for me and met some really nice people during lunch…I’m hooked… ”

The breakdown for the ride had over 100 riders planning on doing the century, that’s a great number.

The breaks came at the right points and had a terrific selection of food to fuel the riders. Bananas, watermelon, and Fig Newtons all hit the spot. These were all manned by volunteers who must be thanked. One comment from Ben Kaufman, ” I enjoyed the 50 (actually 46.5 according to my odo) mile ride. I found all of the volunteers to be very friendly and enthusiastic to help. I was disappointed that the energy drink was Tang rather than a “sport drink” such as Gatorade because the later also has vital electrolytes. The road turn signs were lacking or very hard to spot at a few points. This is my first participation in an organized ride so I can’t compare it to others but I would do it again.”

One group I met on the road and later at a rest stop was five riders who hail from Ecuador and now call Brewster their home. From left is Jorge Venega, Carlos Venegas, Rolando Torres, Christian Venegas, and Jonh Alvarez. They stood out in their matching liquigas team kits as they rode the 75 mile loop.

Photography from a moving bike of other riders is a little tricky. If you recognize yourself tap me a comment and I’ll gladly ad your name. Here’s more photos on LoHud.com

Overall this was a terrific day, my 75 mile ride came out at just under 72 miles on my bike computer with an average of just over 16. Not bad for covering most of the distance solo. Which was one surprise on my first large group ride. That with hundreds of people, many of the people rode alone.