I received several questions on this topic; here’s the one from G.: “The signs for the bike race are still up in the neighborhood. Not cleaning up and removing the signs? That’s just not cool! Any idea who to contact?”

The folks in the press office at Bike New York, which organizes the race, got back to me immediately: “I connected with my colleagues — they relay their deepest apologies — the signs were simply forgotten. Someone will come through and take them down.

“We really appreciate you letting us know! If you spy anything else please let us know.”

Et voila!

And since I then got caught up on their site, here’s a bit about Bike New York: The organization was created in 1977 by leaders from American Youth Hostels’ Bicycle Committee and a member of the NYC Board of Education, who had been commissioned to develop a bicycle safety program. The devised a series of clinics on bike safety and repair that would culminate in a day trip around the five boroughs to allow the students to practice what they’d learned.

About 50 high school students from five schools and 200 members of bicycle clubs participated in a 50-mile ride that began and ended in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, wound south through Brooklyn, over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge into Staten Island, and then, after a quick ferry trip, up through Manhattan, into the Bronx, and over the Throgs Neck Bridge and back into Queens. Nathan’s gave out hot dogs and soda in the the Bronx at the ride’s one and only rest stop.

Ed Koch became mayor in 1978 and since his administration wanted to promote bicycling, the group took the Five Boro Challenge idea to City Hall, changed the name to “Five Boro Bike Tour” to make it more family-friendly and shortened the route to 40 miles.

Bike New York was established in 2000 and has since developed other rides and a robust and free bike education program. The Five Boro Bike Tour is always the first Sunday in May, and this year had 32,000 riders from every state in the nation and 65 countries.