A Downpour of Support for Bike-4-Chai’s Team Tapestry Rockland

By M.C. Millman

Bike-4-Chai’s Team Tapestry Rockland members rode through much of yesterday’s downpour on roads that one by one washed out, but only after every rider returned home safely.

The day had been in the works for weeks, with the thirty Bike-4-Chai’s Team Tapestry Rockland dedicated riders looking forward to the pre-event, featuring an early breakfast followed by the 72 or 51-mile bike ride option. A barbeque was planned for the ride’s conclusion.

“The weather forecast went back and forth,” Rabbi Aaron Spivak, co-captain of Team Tapestry Rockland, shares with Rockland Daily. “Towards the end of last week, we discussed if we should hold the ride or postpone it due to the weather. We decided to reserve the call for later Saturday night. On Motzei Shabbos, the forecast showed no rain until 1:30 so we decided we would all do the shorter route at least. 

“On Sunday at 9:30, when the fastest group got to the eighteen-mile mark, where we split the 72-mile and 51-mile riders, we looked at the forecast. There was no significant rain coming until 1:30, so at that point, we decided that at the pace we were going, we would be back before the rain. But the forecast was drastically wrong. The rain came much sooner. As soon as my group crossed over the Bear Mountain Bridge back into Rockland, rain hit us, which continued for the last 18 miles. Most of us rode in the torrential downpour for the last hour or so in incredible spirits, proud of having persevered. We are all more motivated than ever to do great work for our cause.”

Both routes went over the Bear Mountain Bridge, which subsequently closed. Route 9W was also part of the route, as was Storm King Highway, which collapsed under a deluge of water an hour or so after the last Bike-4-Chai rider needed to ride through it.

“When we went,” Yossi Goldstein, first-year Team Tapestry Rockland member, tells Rockland Daily, “it wasn’t nice weather, but it wasn’t raining either. It was peaceful, but it was pouring an hour after we set out. It was a real nais all of us got home safely. Imagine if the rain would have started an hour before it did or if our ride would have been an hour later when roads collapsed and flooded along our route.”

“It was crazy!” Baruch Dovid Weitzman, Team Tapestry Rockland rider who made the attached viral video during the height of the storm, shares exclusively with Rockland Daily, “During the first half of the ride, the weather was threatening. We were drenched from riding through the pre-storm humidity. At first, when it started raining, it was refreshing - like going to a water park. But then, as it got more intense and was no longer refreshing. It was more like we needed to be careful. We were going through puddles that were six to seven inches deep. There were huge wakes behind every bike – like jet skis. The braking distance was now three to four times what it would normally be, and we had to be careful with every turn to avoid falling.

“There was thunder, but there wasn’t any lightning on top of us. The storm got much worse about an hour after we returned. We were very close to being out in the worst part of the storm and are very fortunate it ride worked out like it did.”Some of the riders at dangerous distances away from the finish line accepted car rides back as the storm continued to worsen. In the end, everyone made it back safely before the roads began to deteriorate. And even the barbeque took place, although it was moved indoors at KBY.

To root for Team Tapestry Rockland (renamed this year after the team’s sponsor, Tapestry Health, visit here. So far, Team Tapestry Rockland has raised $222,222 of their $310,000 goal for the year.

“We are definitely looking forward to the actual Bike-4-Chai ride on August 9 and 10th,” says Goldstein. “After what we experienced yesterday, it should be a walk in the park.”