Join Westchester Cycle Club on Sunday June 7 for WCC’s Pedal + Party @ the Parkway, with a day of riding for all levels , bike-skills training from novice to racer, fun riding on the Parkway, sumptuous fresh offerings from friendly food vendors, and a free concert from noon to 4 featuring top Hudson Valley talent.
It’s a great day to wear your WCC colors and support our non-profit’s partnership with Westchester County, Friends of Westchester County Parks, Sustainable Westchester, and The Journal News. We’ll have a table up by the Westchester County Center, so be sure to stop by. The skills training workshop marks WCC’s increased commitment to bike training, with our freshly minted staff of League of American Bicyclists’ League Certified Instructors there to teach riders how to ride safer and with more confidence.
The day kicks off with retired pro racer Tyler Wren doing a workshop on cornering and group riding for experienced riders in the Westchester County Center’s East lot at 9 a.m. At 10, they will go on a 30-mile ride with WCC’s White Plains bike-safety activist Mark Lalloo, who plans to lead it at a B pace. Perhaps someone else could lead a contingent at a different pace. They’ll return for a victory lap or two before
settling in for lunch and some tunes.
The Parkway opens at 10 a.m. for the rest of us. I like taking a few loops, seeing who I meet up with. There are entrances galore from Mount Pleasant to Yonkers. Just those entrances are in towns that have 400,000 people, so it’s a great time for you to get a neighbor or two to come on down for the bike club party in the park.
The Bike Skills Workshop, free concert, and the food court will take place in the Chatterton Avenue lot, off the southbound lane of the Bronx River Parkway, right where it crosses Chatterton in White Plains. The Bike Skills Workshop with be what WCC Safety and Education Director Lisa Baker calls WCC’s ABC Quick Check. It’s for novice and developing riders - from kids to adults - who will learn how to fit their helmet for safety, start and stop, scan and signal, and ride in traffic.
The news staff from The Journal News/lohud.com will be there to bell the bikes of cyclists who want to be in compliance with New York state law. A bike bell is an effective and courteous way for cyclists to alert pedestrians of their approach.
The music kicks off at noon with the Michael Friedman Quartet, featuring singer Glenda Davenport. Michael Friedman fell in love with jazz 60 years ago and has been playing jazz piano ever since. Back in the day, he led a monthly jazz jam at Defemio’s in Yonkers for a decade. Mostly self-taught, he learned from listening to jazz masters such as Gerry Mulligan, Miles Davis, Russ Freeman, and Bill Evans, and then playing with strong professional players such as Jimmy Hill, Leo Corbie, and Cameron Brown, Abe Silverman and Bill Crow. Silverman and Crow will play with Friedman on Sunday.
Folksinger Dennis Power has been singing and playing guitar since the late 1960s when he first hit the folk scene, performing in New York City metro area coffee houses and pubs. In White Plains and southern Westchester he's known as the Irish tenor who sang at the annual Friendly Gathering for over 20 years.
The concert will conclude with singer-songwriter Christopher Brown, who has entertained Westchester audiences since he began playing at Iona frat parties and North Avenue bars in the 1970s. Brown’s band will rock your favorite hits and a few of his own.
See you there!
