By Tara Kyle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER WEST SIDE — Hundreds of bicycles got a dose of holy water Saturday morning, at a time when cycling has sparked a city-wide debate.
The blessing, offered at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine at 112th and Amsterdam Ave., is a 13 year-old tradition. But this year, it offered a special bit of relief to cyclists under fire from anti-bike lane activists and an NYPD ticketing crackdown.
"I'm just really tickled pink to be here," sadi Grady Benford, a 62-year-old retiree from The Bronx, who said he is particularly fond of the bike lanes along the Hudson River.
Another cyclist, Midtown resident Annamaria Ferencz, 28, said she hoped this year's blessing would help send an important message.
"We do need these bikes lanes," she said, "because they make it a lot safer for the bikers as well as the drivers."
Morningside Heights resident (and car owner) John Calderone, 53, said he had been ticketed recently for riding his bike along one block of sidewalk in Harlem.
"I think they're just purposefully harassing people," said Calderone, who started biking to his job as a social work administrator a few years ago. "Why should cars be privileged?"
