River rides

I've had a lot of posts here about rivers.  This is another one, but a little different.  Sunday, I'll be riding my bicycle along the west side of the Hudson River from the George Washington Bridge up to Bear Mountain, then back down to Weehawken, New Jersey.  I'll be riding in the 4th annual "Grand Fondo New York."  The route is on the map below.  This is a semi-competitive race/ride modelled on similar events in Italy, France, and several other European countries.  Unfortunately, even though we're following a route whose challenging ups and downs were more or less created by the river, the event organizers have said virtually nothing about that body of water on our shoulders.  I suspect most of the time I'll be riding, as the wonderful French phrase has it, le nez dans le guidon (literally, "my nose in the handlebars"; figuratively, my nose to the grindstone).  But I'll try to report back later on whatever scenes along the way I'll be able to recall.