STATELINE, Nev. — The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and Lake Tahoe Bicycle Coalition in June teamed up to organize the 17th annual Tahoe Bike Month. 

Bike Month is a basin-wide celebration of biking and a friendly competition to see which individuals and teams can record the most rides. Over 300 Tahoe residents and visitors signed up for the online competition and even more participated in bike-friendly events throughout the month. 

South Lake Tahoe kicked off Bike Month with the annual bike path cleanup organized by the League to Save Lake Tahoe and Clean Tahoe. Over 60 volunteers picked up 220 pounds of trash, including thousands of cigarette butts and plastic pieces, along three miles of bike path in the city of South Lake Tahoe.

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The first week of June also marked the return of Bike to School week after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. Over 600 students rode their bikes to school at Lake Tahoe Unified School District elementary schools, South Tahoe Middle School and Lake Tahoe School to earn safety prizes during bike to school days.  

The Tahoe Bike Month website http://www.tahoebikemonth.org helped participants log their trips and miles during the month-long competition. Participants were entered into weekly raffles and winners received prizes donated from local businesses around the lake. Participants also competed for prizes and glory by recording the most rides, miles, elevation gain, biggest ride, and for riding every day in June. 

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Individual winner included:

Number of Rides – Dylan Hughes (131)

Elevation Gain – Julie Bacon (93,002 vertical feet)

Distance – Julie Bacon (1,618 miles)

Biggest Ride – Dan Deemer (121 miles plus 11,622 vertical feet)

Consecutive Days (all 30 days of June) – Dan Deemer, Natasha Buffo, Dylan Hughes, Slow Amy, Nick Speal, Jeremy Benson

In the team category, team “Friends of the Bicycle Coalition” won the challenge by earning 126 points over the course of the month. 

Check out the leaderboards at https://tahoebike.org/bike-month-leaderboard/.

“Bike Month has been so fun this year, bringing people together for a shared love of all forms of biking,” said Nick Speal, team captain of the winning team in a news release. “From big mountain bike rides to quick e-bike commutes, to late night jaunts around town, it’s been a great month for riding. I’ve been so inspired to see so many people out on the bike paths. Tahoe has so much to offer, just a short bike ride away.”  

In addition to the competition, residents and visitors gathered together for bike-friendly events all month long. Truckee hosted the 18^th annual Truckee Day Cleanup on June 4 encouraging participants to bike; the 29^th annual America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride around the lake returned on June 5; over 50 South Shore commuters stopped by the Bicycle Coalition booth for donuts on their way to work on June 14; the Tahoe Area Mountain Biking Association hosted another successful Mountain Bike Festival on June 18-19; 30 North Shore commuters biked for donuts on June 23; Lake Tahoe Pride hosted their first ever Pride Bike Ride on June 25; and the Lake Tahoe Bicycle Coalition rode out the month with a bang on June 30 during the Bike Month Celebration Ride.  

TRPA and its partners maintain a website dedicated to information about getting around Tahoe without driving at http://www.LinkingTahoe.com. An interactive bike map can be found at http://www.map.tahoebike.org and paper maps can be found at bike shops and visitor centers throughout Tahoe and Truckee. The Tahoe Bike Challenge will return in June 2023. 

For more information, visit http://www.tahoebike.org.

Source: Lake Tahoe Bicycle Coalition