Tour de Pink Finale

In what was possibly the hairiest quarter-mile stretch of our entire 220 mile ride, the Tour de Pink battled its way through Manhattan commuter traffic to our grand finale outside the Fox studios this morning. A balloon arch, free massages and friends and family were there to greet us. As this is television, things weren't necessarily as spontaneous as they had been on the ride ("Group 2, we're gonna need you to ride around the block one more time...and again...") but they were possibly more photogenic, as many of the female riders realized that we weren't working up enough of a sweat to ruin our makeup, so it was a brighter-eyed crew than you might have expected for 7:30 on a Monday morning after a long three day ride (seen here: Jennifer and Jason, both looking rosy, although I'm certainly implying that either had cosmetic assistance!).

The enthusiasm of the crowds and the volunteers also helped add to the festive mood - as did the Au Bon Pain coffee and pink Panera bagels (which were actually really good!) The Fox anchors came out to greet us before the interview, and one even hopped on the chair for a quick pre-interview massage, nuch to the dismay of her makeup woman, no doubt. Although I have not been able to get the video link to work on the Fox & Friends site, Tour de Pink and YSC co-founder Lisa Frank's interview is available there to anyone who is more tech savvy than I am.

After much cheering for the cameras, riding of bicycles around the block and through the balloon arch and taking of official and unofficial photographs, we grabbed our bikes and headed back to the hotel. Having narrowly escaped a few close scrapes with cabs and delivery trucks on our way to the studio, most of us chose to walk our bikes the 5 blocks up Sixth Avenue back to the Hilton for brunch.

Tour de Pink Finale

I promised a lot of people a lot of photos, and I am gradually getting them loaded up. But although some of my fellow riders were witness to my obsessive-compulsive Blackberry checking from the rest stops, I still have a mountain of emails and voicemails waiting for me back at the office that feels only slightly less intimidating than the Grade 3 Eagle's Nest from Day 1 of the Tour. Therefore I am hoping the link to my online album from today will work - check back later this week for more photos from the rest of the ride, and to see if I ever get around to sharing more stories from the road!