Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Minneapolis Bike To Work Day

One month from today, Friday May 19th, is the Official Bike to Work Day! So mark your calendar now and plan to join up! The 2006 Bike-to-Work event will be bigger than ever! The event is being sponsored by Ameriprise Financial, Birchwood Cafe, Caribou Coffee, Peace Coffee, Penn Cycle,Trailhead Bike and Fitness, and a number of others......

Recruit your friends & co-workers, your boss & your boss's boss!

Win Prizes! Get free stuff!

The 6 official Minneapolis routes and their starting points are listed below:


Bike Routes

1 North Minneapolis
Starts at Webber Park

2 NorthEast Minneapolis
Starts at The Quarry Mall

3 Midtown/Cedar Lake
Starts at the Midtown Greenway Trailhead

4 South Minneapolis
Starts at Bryant Ave S & Minnehaha Pkwy

5 Southeast Minneapolis
Starts at the Minnehaha Park pavilion

6 Park Ave Bike Route
Starts at Park Ave S & Minnehaha Pkwy

7 Make your own route!
Starts wherever you want!


If these routes do not run near you, you can still participate. Just bike into downtown taking whichever route you choose and make your way to the Government Center Plaza. Once there you can mingle with other cyclists, enjoy complimentary coffee and snacks and maybe even get some free schwag.

The routes will leave their designated starting points at 7:00am and should converge at the Government Center Plaza (6th Street South between 3rd and 4th Avenues) around 7:30am. The celebration at the Government Center Plaza will be from 7:00-8:30 and include freebies and prizes from the sponsors.

Each ride will meet at the designated starting point at 6:45am. The rides should all leave their starting point by 7:00am and be at the Government Plaza at approximately 7:30. Stay for the entire program, or just as long as you wish (you may want to let your boss know you're going to be a bike slacker in advance).

There will be several prize giveaways at the Government Center between 7:30 and 8:30am, so if you can plan some time to hang out and catch the drawings. I know that there are several nice gift certificates from the sponsors available, in addition to various other items. Many of the sponsors will have tents set up. Expect complimentary coffee, snacks, water and sports drinks. In addition, last year I ended up with a water bottle, t-shirt, and a really cool Park Tools multi-tool. Expect similar goodies again this year.

And, if all that wasn't enough, this won't help. I'll be leading the Southeast Minneapolis route for the second year in a row. Consider riding in with us. I promise we won't ride like this guy:




If you have questions about any ride specifics, leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail.

Date: April 19
Mileage: 23
Ride type: Commute
April mileage: 288
Year to date mileage: 992

3 comments:

hereNT said...

I don't agree with the newscaster - somehow I think that guy DIDN'T go to the bike shop for a helmet next...

Why do they always put these bike to work 'official' type things so early in the morning? I'd be downtown 6 hours early for work!

Frostbike said...

You could go back home, take a nap, and then actually bike to work! ;-)

hereNT said...

Nah, that wouldn't happen. Maybe I'll try for a random 6 hour ride or something...

Or, hey, I have enough time, I could request that day off and have it be one of the few work days where I don't bike to work...