Portland (Oregon, where else?) has just been designated Platinum level by the League of American Bicyclists Bicycle-Friendly Community program. Portland is also the first major city to receive the designation. Davis, CA was the first recipient with a population of 63,000. PDX’s population is much larger, which makes it even more significant. This provides an excellent example of what Denver would have to do to regain Silver status or even move up in the rankings to Gold. You’ll find a link in the BikePortland article to Portland’s 27-page application if you care to do some light reading and see what it takes for a major city to achieve Platinum status. So, congrats to Portland and let’s see if Denver can rise to the challenge.

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BikeDenver has been working on a big project the past few months with Bikes Belong, Humana, the City of Denver, and others to get 1,000 bikes to Denver for free use during the DNC Convention. Tim Blumenthal was recently interviewed by Westword about the details, read about it here.

The big news for all of us at BikeDenver, “the bikes will be available at six to twelve checkout stations at key locations around the city, and hundreds of volunteers will make sure that the bikes are distributed evenly among the stations and kept in working order.” Those volunteers will be us, and we need your help to make this program a success.

If you want to volunteer to be either a bike ambassador, a bike station agent, or a mechanic (roving and stationary!), contact us with the subject “DNC Volunteer”, and we’ll make sure you have the coolest job at the DNC this summer.

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On this Earth Day, what better message to send than to have your spending habits illustrate your inherent “green-ness.” See how it’s done.

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Free champagne for all female cyclists! No kidding. The only catch that it’s at a UK retailer. In addition to the bubbly, women get a 10% discount on Ladies Night. Sounds like a deal to me, but I won’t hold my breath for anyone in the U.S. (let alone Denver) to give this promotion a try. Guess I’ll just have to carry my own.

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BikeDenver will be providing bike parking at this event.

Location: City Park (2404 E. Colfax Ave.)

Free admission, live music, environment action and fun!

Live music: featuring The Neville Brothers, The Benevento/Russo Dou, Rose Hill Drive (Acoustic), and The Heyday

Speakers: TBD

For more information visit the Green Apple Festival website.

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Randy Van Zee was killed this week while riding his bike.  Randy was a well known endurance racer, cycling enthusiast, humanitarian and philanthropist.  This tragic crash reminds us all of our vulnerability to careless and distracted drivers.  We will honor Randy, and all other cyclists killed doing what they love, on May 21st during the Ride of Silence.  It pains me to see another of America’s finest citizens killed so needlessly.

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Recently there was some measure of controversy concerning a photoshoot of Victoria Pendleton, the 2008 sprint world champion.  The photo was based on a prior shoot of Lance Armstrong which, so far as we can tell, did not cause any controversy.  There’s a good article from the Times on the subject, but the whole controversy feels a bit redundant.  I certainly recall an entire issue of sports illustrated from the 1996 Olympics which featured male and female athletes artistically photographed sans clothes, and in Googling for it, I discovered this controversy extends as far back as 1972.  But why stop there when we can go back to the original games where, shockingly, all competition was done in the nude.

Controversial?  Hardly, I’d say this is completely in line with 3,000 years of athletic and artistic history.

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As you may have heard, Trek Bicycles and Greg LeMond have severed ties and will no doubt be exchanging lawsuits. Hang on to your LeMond, it could become a collector’s item. For some unconventional coverage of the goings-on, BikeSnob NYC has an interesting take on Trek’s future branding opportunities. Personally, I’m pulling for Grant Petersen.

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