A "Pivot" to Video
But really just a list of great bike events you should attend this July
Leg Day is a newsletter about the pursuit of joy as a city cyclist.
The rumors are true: Leg Day has dipped its toe into the terrifying world of YouTube. Last Friday, I published a dispatch from a recent Summer Friday ride to my personal channel, my first upload since the Ice Bucket Challenge. Making the video was an enjoyable exercise/learning experience, and I certainly plan to make more over the next few weeks and months. But rest assured, if you subscribed to Leg Day for essays about cycling culture, updates about Brooklyn’s biking infrastructure, and profiles of amazing riders and teams, I’m still planning to do them! Hopefully, you can get past the fact that those pieces are being written by someone with two GoPros to their name.
In any case, July is shaping up to be a super fun month for New York City cyclists. Anyone looking to experience the city’s DIY racing scene should convene a team of four to tackle Ride Hard, an alley cat themed around the 30th anniversary of the third “Die Hard” movie. If roadie culture is more your thing, Australian cycling clothing brand Attaquer is using its monthly NYC Swarm group ride to promote … something? (It says it’s “CONFIDENTIAL”, but I would assume it’s just new kit.) Interested in the chiller side of cycling? Check out this month’s “Breakfast Outside”, a regular bike-adjacent gathering in Prospect Park hosted by the squad at 718 Outdoors.
It’s also time for the Tour de France! The men’s tour starts this Saturday and the women’s tour starts in a few weeks on July 26th. The men’s tour might be a bit of a dud—I’ve seen no indication anyone will be able to challenge last year’s winner Tadej Pogačar and his devoted super team1 —but the women’s tour is shaping up to be incredible. Last year’s winner Kasia Niewiadoma of Canyon-Sram-Zondacrypto hasn’t been in great form for the past few months, but she could have just been holding her cards close to the chest. Meanwhile Demi Vollering, who almost certainly would have won last year had her former teammates on SD Worx-Protime not abandoned her on the ground after causing her to crash last year, spent her first spring on the FDJ-Suez team absolutely cruising to victory in basically every race she did with a big hill. That is, at least, until last month, when Vollering lost the Tour de Suisse to Movistar’s Marlen Reusser, who funnily enough is also a former SD-Worx rider also in her first season on a new team. Weirder still, SD-Worx’s best hope to win the race might be someone who wasn’t even racing last year: Anna Van Der Breggen, who returned to the sport this season after being one of Demi Vollering’s coaches from 2022-2024. I also wouldn’t count out Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease-a-Bike), who rode to an amazing victory at Paris-Roubaix earlier this year, or Italian national champ Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ).
If you want a bunch more information about the men’s race, my favorite cycling news outlet Escape Collective has a bunch of super detailed previews worth perusing to learn about the course, racers to watch, and it’s unwritten cultural rules. (I imagine they’re holding off on publishing the ones for the women’s Tour until after next week’s Giro d'Italia Women and when all the teams have confirmed their full startlists.) Stories on the site are usually paywalled, but they’re unlocking the gate this week ahead of the sport’s biggest bike race. Pretty sick!
I’m going to try and host a watch party for some of the more decisive stages of both races this year—likely for stage 14 of the men’s tour on Saturday the 19th and stage 2 of the women’s Tour on the 27th (which would also be the finale of the men’s tour). If you might be interested in joining for either of those, hit this button!
ONE MORE THING … As I mentioned last month, I’ve made Leg Day stickers! My goal was to make something that promoted biking and cities, without being too mean to drivers. (Just a little mean.) I decided to do a flip of the “Thank You for Not Smoking” signs with a car instead of a cig.
If you want one, you just need to become a paid Leg Day subscriber. If you’re local, I’ll hand deliver some to you when I get back to the city weekend after next! If you aren’t, I’ll mail them to you later this month. There are other benefits to the Leg Day subscription too, including access to the Leg Day google calendar, WhatsApp group, and special invites to secret friends and family ride invites, including one in this very post!
Breakfast Outside
Thursday, July 3
7:30 am
Last month, I watched a video highlighting Ottawa’s Coffee Outside ride, where people ride their bikes to a park together and make coffee outside. I immediately went to see whether there’s already a group doing this in Brooklyn. Instead, I found out that 718 Outdoors, organizers of regular bikepacking trips, host a monthly “Breakfast Outside” meetup. People ride (or walk!) to a designated meetup spot in Prospect Park to cook and eat breakfast outside with other people. Seems like a lovely way to spend a morning!
Ride Hard
Saturday, July 19th
11 am (but probably later, given that this is an alley cat)
The New York City Bike Messengers Association is doing a bunch of events this month, starting with a 13-mile race down Broadway this Friday. But none caught my attention like Ride Hard, an alley cat themed around the Bruce Willis vehicle. To participate, you’ll need to create a team with three other people, choose a team name, and create an Instagram profile page for your team that you’ll use during the event. Pre-registration will open a week before the event, which gives you about two more weeks to create your team!
Attaquer Swarm Confidential Collection Launch Ride
Saturday, July 26th
8 am
I’m a big fan of the Attaquer aesthetic, which feels slick without being staid, so I was happy to learn that the Australian company has started to host group rides in cities across the world. I wasn’t able to make it to the first of the New York City ones last month, but I am definitely going to try and attend the one this month. A bunch of the details about it are hush hush—I imagine they’re using the event to launch a new collection of kit—but you can sign up to get updates using the Eventbrite link here.
Yatch Rock Ride
Saturday, July 26th
12:30 meet up, 1 pm roll out
I got to meet NYC Bike Zeen while waiting for the Bike Plant alley cat to start last April. He’s a very very nice guy, who is also a freaky fast cyclist devoted to extremely weird and fun routes. Case in point: he made this one that looks like a horse.
As far as I can tell, the NYC Bike Zeen guy doesn’t often host big group rides to share his fun routes, so I was happy to see that he had made a plan for a ride through Brooklyn, Governor’s Island, Manhattan, and Queens, that includes several ferry crossings. Given that some of these ferries cap the amount of bikes that can be brought on each trip, I’m not exactly sure how this will work. I’m sure he has a plan!