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Entries tagged: Lance Armstrong

For many, the 2010 National Bike Summit had a clear highlight. Ray LaHood, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, didn’t just show up and give lip service to the assembled bicycle advocates. He literally jumped on a table, broadcasting in enthusiastic form his commitment to elevate biking and walking to equal status as the automobile. Not surprisingly, LaHood’s message — and theatrics — drew media headlines and made an impression in the halls of Congress.

Now you can broadcast your message to Congress in dramatic form, too — no table-leaping required.

The National Bike Summit was also the start of the PeopleForBikes.org campaign. The ingeniously simple idea came from the Bikes Belong Foundation, an organization funded by the bicycle industry to improve funding, infrastructure and policies related to biking. The reality: Social and political change are built on strength of numbers. The idea: Unite one million voices across America to show Congress there’s a big, broad, vocal constituency that cares about bicycling.

“Every day, millions of Americans ride for their health, for the environment, for their communities, and for the pure joy of bicycling,” the group’s president, Tim Blumenthal, said in a press release launching PeopleForBikes.org. “But until now, only a fraction of riders have stood up to help improve bicycling in America. PeopleForbikes.org is going to change all that. We’ll build on the expert work of existing bike advocacy groups – our partners – to develop a powerful movement with the clout and influence to get things done. That means promoting bike-riding on an individual level, but also sending a unified message to our elected leaders, the media, and the public that bicycling should have their full support.”

And here’s the beauty of the Bikes’ Belong campaign. It’s not complicated. To be part of this tidal wave of public opinion, you don’t even have to change out of your pajamas. You don’t need to travel to the nation’s capital. You don’t have to write a letter or buy a stamp. Just surf on over to the Web site. Give your name and email. Take the pledge.

That’s it.

Over the past six months, PeopleForBikes.org has built an army. Lance Armstrong signed the pledge and even sported the campaign’s decal on his bike during the Tour de France. The beer makers at New Belgium Brewing Company invited PeopleForBikes.org to join their popular Tour de Fat festivities in cities across the nation. Even beyond the bicycle world, marketing magazine Fast Company took a shining to the campaign, touting PFB’s “ingenious bike branding campaign that presents a refreshingly sunny view of life on two wheels.”

With more than 7 million media impressions, the PFB movement is building. It took the campaign more than four months to hit 50,000 signatures. But then, last week, this announcement hit my inbox: “PFB tops 100,000 pledges in support of bicycling!”

“Only a month ago, we were at 60,000 pledges,” Blumenthal wrote in the message. “We’ve nearly doubled in the last 30 days — that’s major momentum!”

Which begs the question: Are you for bikes? Can you spare 20 seconds for safer streets that accommodate bicyclists? Will you add your name to this Million Cyclist March?

It doesn’t matter if you ride a mountain bike or a city commuter; if you bomb down remote dirt trails or carefully navigate crowded urban streets; if you use your bicycle as your primary means of transportation or just dust it off for the weekend joy ride. Even if — no, especially if — you don’t ride a bike at all, because you don’t feel safe two-wheeling around your community, this campaign is for you.

Sign the pledge now.

The first time was impressive. The second time was gigantic.

The third time? Off the charts.

In June 2009, the City of Madison hosted the inaugural Ride the Drive, with lead sponsorship from Trek and plenty of help from the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin. Closing off major roads for car-free fun, the open streets extravaganza drew 10,000 participants. A year later, in June 2010, the second event turned out nearly 25,000 bicyclists and pedestrians.

So what happens when you add Lance Armstrong to the mix? An eye-popping crowd of more than 50,000 riders.

“Every time we hold it, it doubles or triples,” says Amanda White, the Ride the Drive coordinator for the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin.

This past Sunday, the cycling celebrity addressed the gigantic crowd and led a loop on the six-mile course through the heart of Madison. Dressed in gym clothes, Armstrong mingled with the thousands of bicyclists. “I led a bike parade after the big ride with Lance and he stopped by and signed our Feet in the Street, where kids were stenciling their feet with sidewalk chalk,” White says.

But the Tour de France champion isn’t the only reason the Bike Fed’s open streets events have taken off. According to White: “The messaging for the event is very inclusive: ’Come out with your kids, with your friends. Whether you want to wear spandex or blue jeans, come out and enjoy the day.’”

“And we’re very focused on a more mainstream crowd,” she adds. “We have a lot of unique activities along the route. We have kite flying. We have a bike parade. We have the wheelmen group with huge old bikes, and an art bike group with all these beautifully decorated bikes. And there are different areas along the route, like the Family Drive area, which is a little festival in itself directed at families.”

A well-chosen course has also enticed participants. “The roads we have closed off — or, as the mayor says, have opened up — for bicyclists are six-lane streets with very heavy traffic volumes,” White says. “They’re streets most people would never think to bike on, so to be able to bike on those streets is such an amazing thing.”

Click here to check out some amazing pictures from the University of Wisconsin cycling team.

To save a professional bicycle race that could bring Lance Armstrong to the Show-Me State, bicycle advocates in Missouri are leaning hard on Democratic Governor Jay Nixon.

The Tour of Missouri — an annual, week-long, staged race that started in 2007 — has drawn more than 1.2 million spectators from 40 states and 20 countries to the Show-Me State. That kind of tourism means big money for Missouri — more than $75 million in economic impact over the past three years. It also means big exposure for bicycling.

But, despite the prospect of Lance Armstrong joining the Tour this fall, the 2010 event is on the brink of death.

Though the Missouri General Assembly specifically allocated $1 million in state support for the Tour, the Division of Tourism and the Governor Nixon are balking at that commitment and insisting the state simply doesn’t have the cash. Brent Hugh, executive director of the Missouri Bicycle and Pedestrian Federation and vice-chair of the Tour, is rallying cyclists to make Nixon reconsider.

“The Tour is Missouri’s premier bicycling event, an event of global importance, and one that Missouri’s bicycling community — and many others — care deeply about,” Hugh said in a press release last week.

Already, more than 2,200 supporters have signed an online petition urging Nixon to retain funding for the Tour. That’s in addition to the nearly 9,000 Facebook fans on the “Support the Tour of Missouri” page.

Thus far, both the Division of Tourism and the Governor’s staff have refused to meet with Hugh and other Tour officials, despite repeated and written requests. Those political shenanigans have caught the attention of the media. The Riverfront Times in St. Louis has started investigating the dicey politics underlying the decision.

Stay up-to-date on developments and read all about the fight — now dubbed Tour of Missouri-gate — on MO Bike Fed’s Web-site.