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By Will Bredderman
Brooklyn Daily
These cyclists are pedalling into the future!
Some 750 bike lovers skirted the edge of the borough from Greenpoint all the way to Rockaway Beach in Queens, in an effort to promote a unified Brooklyn waterfront bike path.
“It’s for our supporters or our would-be supporters to see our potential,” said Brian McCormick, co-founder of the Brooklyn Greenway Initiative and the Brooklyn Waterfront Epic Ride.
McCormick started his organization 15 years ago, with the vision of filling in the gaps between Brooklyn’s waterside cycling strips — and thus creating a single route linking Greenpoint to Bay Ridge. Five years ago, the group kicked off the Epic Ride, to give cyclists a foretaste of what could come. McCormick said the tour has doubled in size each year. Where bike paths do not yet exist, cyclists ride on the streets closest to the water.
“We want to really introduce this larger system, the connectivity of the entire waterfront,” McCormick said.
The wheels are in motion for the Initiative’s dream to come to fruition. Community boards One, Two, Six, and Seven have voted in favor of plans that would add vital pieces of the plan in Williamsburg, Brooklyn Heights, Red Hook, and Sunset Park. Until then, McCormick expects his event to continue to grow, giving more and more bike riders the chance to glimpse parts of their borough they have never seen before — and parts that do not yet exist.
“It’s not a race. It’s about discovery, it’s about adventure, and it’s about having fun,” said McCormick.
Reach reporter Will Bredderman at wbredderman@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-4507. Follow him at twitter.com/WillBredderman.