Stratford, CT to Yonkers, NY - 53 miles - 2418 ft of elevation gain

Early mornings have been the thing this week, so this morning I set the start time for 10am. This gave us some extra time to sleep (not really for me) and have a leisurely breakfast. We missed the “cool” of the earlier morning start, but it was still worth starting later. It was certainly a hot day!

Our route took us along the coast of the Long Island Sound on the CT side. We wound through neighborhoods with mansions, small towns, and larger towns like Greenwich. There were a few busy roads in the towns, but lots of quiet neighborhood roads that were freshly paved (my dream surface).

We added two rest stops because we were sucking down the water. At our first stop we met, Paul, a fellow cyclist asking us the direction to NYC. He was out riding with a buddy, but because of a mechanical the buddy stopped riding, so Paul was on his own. We gave him some ice for his water bottles and he rode off. Later we met up again and he decided to join us for the rest of the ride to the hotel. He appreciated the water and food stops, as he was rolling over 100 miles today.

We got to the hotel and most of the team hit the pool to soothe the sore muscles. After the pool, we met in the lobby at 5pm to head to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. These guys have earned a good dinner! My friend, Jon, met us for dinner. I met Jon in 2014 in Africa where we climbed Kilimanjaro for Compassion International. Jon is going to help us out tomorrow, which is super nice of him.

Tomorrow we had south to Manhattan, where we cycle on the greenway along the Hudson. The boys are going to see Grant’s tomb, the 9/11 memorial, and several other sights along the route. Then we will take a ferry ride with our bikes to NJ. It’s going to be a 68 mile day.