About ten miles from the finish line in Soho, we arrive at the last pit stop in the Bronx, in a park near Bronx Science High; I got there around 11:15. The excitement in the air is palpable; these cyclists want to party! A van from a New York radio station is in the parking lot, blasting out tunes; at one point, they put on the Macarena, and cyclists converge from everywhere to dance. I stay here longer than I need for lunch, since I know we don't need to reach the finish staging area until 2 pm.
Finally, I roll out at 12:30, and tackle the last ten miles. They're nearly board-flat, of course, and straight, since we're on New York City streets. On the other hand, we have to stop a lot; unlike Boston, New York has not closed its streets, so we have to deal with normal traffic and traffic signals. The Big Apple has turned out a large contingent of New York's Finest on bicycles to patrol the streets, however. Even with the traffic, rolling into the finish (a warehouse on the Hudson) before 1:30 is easy enough; time to sit around and wait some more.
When we get there, we are all given new shirts, which we are to wear during the closing ceremony. They are long-sleeved T-shirts, and come in about half a dozen different colors; the idea is the cyclists ride into the closing ceremony in groups by color, making for a visually dramatic entrance. While we're hanging out in the warehouse, the sky quickly turns an ominous black.
Around 3, we roll out and head over toward Soho. About halfway there, we stop for a bit while they get the timing right. Then, once again, the skies let loose. And because of that, they hold us there for over half an hour, getting soaking wet; we later find out that they were hoping the rain would subside so they could do the ceremony properly! (For one thing, the rain had shorted out the PA system that was feeding most of the speakers they had set up; in addition to the ones on the stage, there were speakers lining the sides of two city blocks, so all the cyclists would be able to hear what was going on. But they never worked.) Finally they gave up, and let us poor soaked riders come to the finish, where we weren't able to hear the speeches.
After not hearing the speeches, I stand in one line to check my bike with the shipping company, and in another line to retrieve my duffle bag. Then I walked up to Penn Station to catch the Amtrak train back to Boston.
The train left at around 7:45. Shortly after leaving New York, we have an electrical problem in the train; the power feed from the third rail to the passenger cars isn't working, so there are no lights (except the dim emergency lights) and no air conditioning. About half the people in my car are cyclists going home from the Ride, and we don't care; it's hot, but after being drenched at the closing ceremony, the heat is welcome. The mood on the train is festive; the cyclists talk to each other and to the poor trapped non-cyclists about their experiences. After New Haven, and the switch to a diesel locomotive, power in the cars is restored, and we travel the rest of the way to Boston uneventfully. I slept through most of that part.