Polish your pedals and pump up your tires. The Tahoe Bike Challenge, to work, school, and play, gets underway May 24th through June 4th.

This year's event is an expanded version of the highly successful Bike-2-Work, School, Play Week and Challenge of recent years. For 2010, the event is expanded to two weeks and reaches out to more people throughout the Tahoe Basin to ride their bikes in lieu of driving their car to work, school or recreationally.

During the two week challenge, several coffee houses and restaurants around Lake Tahoe will become official "Coffee Stops" where participating riders can show their bike helmet for free coffee throughout the challenge. For a list of participating Coffee Stops, visit www.tahoebike.org.

Individuals,  students,  and  teams  can  register  online  at  www.Tahoebike.org  for  the  Bike  Challenge and  return to log  their  daily  miles. Registered  riders  can  win prizes  from  random  drawings,  calculate  their  carbon reduction, and compete for awards.  The awards will be given out at the Tahoe Bike Day Parade and Festival on June 5th, which caps the challenge week and kicks off Bike Month in Tahoe.

Tahoe Bike Day
The Tahoe Bike Day Parade and Festival, being held at the Ski Run Marina in South Lake Tahoe, is a one-day family-centric festival created to celebrate the fun and benefits of cycling in Lake Tahoe. Coming on the heels of the Bike Challenge and launching the Bike Month, the festival will include exhibitors, a Kids Bike Rodeo and Safety Check and 'Decorate Your Bike' booth, and a bike ride/parade on a two-mile loop around South Lake Tahoe and the marina area. Festival exhibitors will include a Kids Expo, Eco-Village, Bike Community and Tahoe Life area.

 The Mayor of South Lake Tahoe, members of the City Council, and department leaders will officially declare June 5th as Tahoe Bike Day in an official ribbon-cutting ceremony is planned just prior to the parade.

The Tahoe Bike Challenge coincides with the national Bike-to-Work Month public awareness campaign to get people out of their cars to reduce air pollution, traffic congestion and increase the benefits to public health. For every mile ridden on a bicycle prevents 1.9 pounds of carbon from being emitted into  the atmosphere from the exhaust of an automobile. Nearly 25% of all automobile trips are less than  two 
miles.

The Lake Tahoe Bicycle Coalition, TRPA and event sponsors are working together to help increase public awareness about the value and benefits of helping move the Lake Tahoe region toward a more livable and  sustainable  bioregion - socially, environmentally, and economically. 

Tahoe Bike Month is presented by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and the Lake Tahoe Bicycle Coalition. For more information about the Tahoe Bike Challenge, Bike Day, and Tahoe Bike Month events, visit www.tahoebike.org.