Adventure Cycling Seeks Award Nominations for 2009 Bicycle Heroes

Who has made your bicycle adventures possible?

Missoula, Montana — There are only two weeks left to nominate your bicycle travel heroes for the Adventure Cycling Awards. Adventure Cycling — North America’s largest cycling membership organization — will close award nominations on September 30th, 2009.

“Adventure Cycling’s national awards program recognizes the ‘above and beyond’ contributions made by individuals and organizations in America to improve conditionsfor bicycle travelers,” said membership and marketing coordinator Amy Corbin.

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What could be largest bike route network in the world showcased by Adventure Cycling

Missoula, Montana — Adventure Cycling Association — North America’s largest cycling membership organization — will showcase an emerging plan for a nationwide U.S. Bicycle Route System (USBRS) at the upcoming Interbike Expo, September 24-26, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The USBRS project is a multi-organizational effort lead by the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) with the support of Adventure Cycling. Part of an international trend to create extensive national cycle networks, the U.S. Bicycle Route System could become the largest route network in the world.

“Bicycle travel is a robust part of the resurgence in cycling,” says Jim Sayer, executive director of Adventure Cycling. Indeed, recent features in the New York Times, Newsweek, and USA Today underscore the growing interest in bicycle travel. Sayer continues, “There is a clear need not only for improved bicycle commuting infrastructure but for a national bicycle route system that connects urban, suburban, and rural areas.”

The goal of this effort is to create an interconnected system that would incorporate an expanding network of bike routes crisscrossing the nation, linking regions with important scenic, historic, cultural, and recreational value. The result will be a national network of bike routes that will connect communities and ensure opportunities for future generations to travel by bicycle throughout America.

The U.S. Bicycle Route System plan is emerging out of a four-year process. First, existing cycling routes and trails were documented and then a corridor-level plan for the system was developed and reviewed extensively. Now awaiting approval by AASHTO, the corridor-level plan outlines 50-mile-wide corridors that link destinations. This plan is a starting point for states to work together to establish multi-state bike routes, which will be numbered, and may be mapped and signed, by the state DOTs.

“This is a huge step forward for cycling in America,” says Adventure Cyclist magazine deputy editor Aaron Teasdale. “Imagine being able to ride from your hometown to any major city or region of the country on nationally designated bicycle routes. The nation will be ours to ride.”

Adventure Cycling Association is the premier bicycle travel organization in North America with over 44,000 members. A nonprofit organization, its mission is to inspire people of all ages to travel by bicycle. It produces routes and maps for cycling in North America, organizes more than 40 tours annually, and publishes the best bicycle travel information anywhere, including Adventure Cyclist magazine and The Cyclists’ Yellow Pages. With 38,158 meticulously mapped miles in the Adventure Cycling Route Network, Adventure Cycling gives cyclists the tools and confidence to create their own bike travel adventures. Contact the office at (800) 755-BIKE (2453), info@adventurecycling.org, or visit www.adventurecycling.org.

source: Jim Sayer

World’s Longest Mountain Bike Races Launch on Great Divide Route

Tour Divide and Great Divide Race offer ultimate challenge as racers travel solo and totally self-contained

Missoula, Mont.—Think you could do it? Race in less than 25 days from Canada to Mexico along the spine of the Rockies on a mountain bike? Solo? Carrying all your own supplies and gear? Facing snow-packed passes, unnervingly large carnivores, and no hint of a cell phone signal?

Two crews of riders are about to find out.

On June 13 the inaugural Tour Divide will set out from Banff, Alberta, for a 2,711-mile race along Adventure Cycling’s Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. The 16 riders signed up for the ride, or at least those who finish, will pedal the entire distance to the Mexican border along primarily dirt roads without any outside assistance. In classic touring tradition, they carry everything they need — food, water, shelter — on their bikes and backs, with refueling stops in small-town stores along the way. Riders are truly on their own, with no support crews, SAG vehicles, or massage-teams allowed, making the Tour Divide the longest, most-challenging cycling race in the world.

Exactly one week later, on June 20, at the Montana/Canada border, another group of riders will set off on the route’s original race, the fifth annual Great Divide Race. Ridden in the same self-supported style but only covering the 2,490-mile American portion of the route, the race’s winners typically finish in a jaw-dropping 17 days or less.

Both races promise to deliver high-quality human drama and unparalleled long-distance adventure. Fans can follow the Tour Divide on the Tour Divide blog: www.tourdivide.org/blog and check out who is in the lead on the race’s Spot-sponsored, Google-powered leaderboard: www.tourdivide.org/leaderboard. Information on the Great Divide Race can be found at www.greatdividerace.com. The website www.mtbcast.com will carry daily updates on both races for their durations.

Adventure Cycling supports all riders of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, but does not organize or officially sponsor either race. In fact, no one sponsors the races — both are grassroots by design, with exactly zero dollars in prize money for the winners.

A selection of high resolution images from past races are available, contact Adventure Cycling for details.

source: Adventure Cycling

Bike giveaway, two monster races, updated guidebook, and magazine feature showcase Great Divide Route

Missoula, Mont.—Adventure Cycling Association Adventure Cycling Association—North America’s largest cycling membership organization—and Dirt Rag magazine invite dirt lovers everywhere to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route (GDMBR). The longest mountain bike route on the planet, the GDMBR traces the spine of the Rocky Mountains for a whopping 2,711 miles in its entirety, following primarily dirt roads and tracks from Banff, Alberta, to Antelope Wells, New Mexico, at the Mexican border. Sound hardcore? It is, but there are lots of ways to be involved with the anniversary, whether your friends call you super dirt or you’re still on training wheels.

Enter to win an Old Man Mountain Boomerang bike, http://www.dirtragmag.com/GDR/. Join one of Adventure Cycling’s seven-day guided tours on sections of the route in Banff or Colorado. Interested in experiencing the route on your own? Peruse the freshly updated version of Cycling the Great Divide, a comprehensive guidebook to the GDMBR written by Adventure Cycling’s Michael “Mac” McCoy. Adventure Cycling also offers map sections for the route featuring turn-by-turn directions, campground locations, and the best re-supply points along the way. Information about the tours, the guide, and map sections are available at http://www.adventurecycling.org.

For superhumanly fit cyclists, check out the two, ultimate racing challenges taking place on the route this summer. The fifth-annual Great Divide Race (http://www.greatdividerace.com) kicks off on June 20 (at high noon), following the GDMBR from the Canadian to Mexican borders. (Last year’s winner, Jay Petervary, completed the route in a jaw-dropping 15 days.) The Tour Divide (http://www.tourdivide.org/) is new this year and, like the Great Divide Race, the Tour Divide is entirely self-supported, with riders carrying everything they need on their bikes or backs, but it ups the ante by starting a week earlier, on June 13, in Banff and includes the GDMBR’s Canadian section for an additional 221 miles of riding. Adventure Cycling is not officially involved in either race but encourages all riders of the route.

To cap off the anniversary events, Adventure Cyclist’s July 2008 issue will be devoted to inspiring stories from and practical advice for the route. Essays by Mac McCoy, the GDMBR’s principal architect, and other luminaries will look back at the route’s first decade, while Adventure Cyclist Deputy Editor Aaron Teasdale gives his account of riding the Canadian section and presents a special section, “Gear for the Great Divide.” Adventure Cyclist is the member publication of Adventure Cycling Association, http://www.adventurecycling.org/mag/index.cfm.

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Adventure Cycling Association is the premier bicycle travel organization in North America with nearly 44,000 members. A nonprofit organization, their mission is to inspire people of all ages to travel by bicycle. They produce routes and maps for cycling in North America, organize more than 40 tours annually, and publish the best bicycle travel information anywhere, including Adventure Cyclist magazine and The Cyclists’ Yellow Pages. With 38,158 meticulously mapped miles in the Adventure Cycling Route Network, Adventure Cycling gives cyclists the tools and confidence to create their own bike travel adventures. Contact them at (800) 755-BIKE (2453), info@adventurecycling.org, or visit www.adventurecycling.org.

source: Adventure Cycling

New Pedal Pioneers Course trains adults to lead overnight bike trips for kids

Missoula, Mont. - Adventure Cycling Association announces a fantastic new educational offering, the Pedal Pioneers Training Course(PPTC). Designed to get kids off the couch and onto a bicycle saddle, this is a leadership course for adults who want to take groups of kids on overnight bicycle adventures. The PPTC distills Adventure Cycling’s decades’ worth of experience in organizing and leading bicycle tours, and wraps it into a three-day package that will impart a wealth of knowledge and know-how on and off the bike. Continuing education credits are available.

“Our goal is to give adult leaders the tools they will need to take a group of kids on the adventure of a lifetime – whether it is an overnight outing or a month-long tour,” says Becky Douglas, Adventure Cycling’s outreach and education coordinator. “Three days of demonstrations, role-playing, lectures, and riding will hone participants’ leadership skills, and point them down the road to leading successful youth bicycle adventures.”

Craig Johnston, a teacher from California, led a weeklong bicycle trip with five kids along the Lewis and Clark Bicycle Trail. “We had a great multi-day bicycle trip! The kids learned so much, and found out what they could accomplish anything if they put their minds to it,” said Johnston. “This trip changed the lives of these five students, and of me. We literally could not have done it without [Adventure Cycling's] support.”

Douglas adds, “Overnight bike trips provide an great opportunity for youth to combine physical and mental challenges, hone social skills, learn about different regions of the world, gain confidence, and build a sense of self-sufficiency through experiential learning.”

Kids are less active today then they were thirty years ago. As a result, youth obesity rates are at an all-time high and many lifestyle-related illnesses such as childhood diabetes are on the rise. The shift to an indoor childhood has accelerated in the past decade, with huge declines in spontaneous outdoor activities such as bike riding, swimming, and touch football, according to separate studies by the National Sporting Goods Association, a trade group, and American Sports Data, a research firm. Bike riding alone is down 31% since 1995.

For more information about Adventure Cycling’s Pedal Pioneers Training Course, or to sign up, visit http://www.adventurecycling.org/tours/2008pedalpioneer.cfm.

source: Adventure Cycling