Meet our wonderfully wacky September Bike Hero: Susie Wargin!

BikeDenver is thrilled to announce this month’s Bike Hero, 9News Morning Sports Anchor Susie Wargin! Susie, a longtime cyclist and multisport athlete, loves to bike. We love that she promotes Denver-area bicycle events like the Broncos Orange Ride, the Denver Century Ride, and Bike to Work Day! Susie also pushed 9News execs to sponsor last month’s super exciting Pro Cycling Challenge back when it was in its early planning stages. She says they didn’t really understand at first what a big deal it was going to be and even asked if she was going to ride in it. “I said, ‘No! You don’t understand! These are the world’s top riders!’ ” Susie laughs. Luckily, it seems they’re true to their motto: 9News listens. Not only did the station sign on, Susie and three of her coworkers were assigned comprehensive team-coverage of the weeklong event. She says that as far as personal career highlights, “It was right up there next to going to Fenway Park with the Rockies for the 2007 World Series.”

No sooner was the Pro Challenge over than Susie and her brother Ted’s company, Wargin Events, presented local riders with a new challenge of their own: the first annual Wacky W Ride benefiting Douglas County Schools. Since both Susie and Ted have kids enrolled in the district, they really notice the effects of the budget cuts public school systems are struggling with these days. “Teachers are using their own money to buy things like art supplies for the kids, and they don’t often have that much to begin with” Susie says. “I mean, we save toilet paper rolls and all that stuff, but we wanted to help in a bigger way.” Hence the Wacky W.  Held on September 10^th, the ride was a huge success with 444 riders and about $6,000 raised for the Douglas County PTO. “It was amazing, and we really learned a lot,” Susie says. “The best part was how enthusiastic people were. The local cycling community is great. Everyone’s so nice and always ready to help.” BikeDenver finds it no surprise, then, that Susie’s such a big part of it. Thanks, Susie, for all you do to make Denver a better place to ride a bike!

[Submitted by Erin Hilmer]

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Bike Hero of the Month Awards highlight different people each month, and help encourage other people to bike by telling the Hero’s personal story. The goal of the Bike Hero Awards Program is to showcase the diversity of citizen-cyclists and the people who support them in Denver.

BikeDenver’s Executive Director Piep van Heuven says: “We introduced the Bike Hero awards because we want to encourage a friendly environment for and public image of bicyclists in Denver. One of the ways we can do this is to showcase the different faces of and great stories about people in our community, like Susie Wargin, who ride bikes or help others get out there and ride. Through the Bike Hero awards, BikeDenver honors bicyclists of all ages and walks of life, from the first time bicyclist to the rain or shine bicyclist!  We all know people (our neighbors, co-workers, family members or community leaders) who inspire us to reach for the handlebars instead of the car keys. Take a moment to look around you and help BikeDenver recognize the people in our community who are making a difference for Denver, one ride at a time!”