BikeDenver is pleased to introduce you to Rocio Rowland, our February choice for Bike Hero of the Month!  Our Bike Hero awards help showcase the diversity of citizen-cyclists and the people who support them in Denver.  BikeDenver’s Bike Hero of the Month Program highlights one person each month, and helps encourage people to bike by telling their personal story.

Rocio says, “I ride for the freedom. I feel less constrained on the bike than in a car”.  She mostly rides her Trek FX 7.5 hybrid. But she and her husband Brian have 8 bikes so you’ll sometimes see her on a 1940′s era cruiser, or a Myata road bike. Rocio really enjoys the opportunity to ride here. She grew up in Mexico City, Mexico. She recalls the traffic there being horrible and a feeling of having a target on your back if you are on a bike, so she would only ride on her little neighborhood street growing up.  In fact, her first bike memory is of riding a little green bike on Azucena street in Tlanepantla, Mexico City.

Here in Denver she rides everywhere!  Rocio lives in Highlands and bikes 6 miles on the streets to her job as a catalog librarian in Wheat Ridge every day. Most years, she logs about 3500 bike miles (250 so far this past January).  She and Brian have 2 pet ferrets, Polly and Bolillo, and they bike everywhere they go, unless there is no way to go by bike. Even the ferrets travel by bike trailer!  Rocio is also a regular volunteer for a number of bicycle organizations, including BikeDenver.

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 who ride bikes and help others get out there and ride.  We will honor 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!”

To nominate a Bike Hero, please send a photo and a brief description of why you think they should be recognized (100 words or less) to info(at)bikedenver.org.

Our Bike Heros get a nifty certificate, the public notoriety of being named a Bike Hero, and a $50 gift card from supporter Bicycle Village!

BikeDenver is Denver’s bicycle advocacy organization. BikeDenver promotes and encourages bicycling in Denver and works to make Denver a better place to ride your bike. Why? Because it’s healthy for you, and healthy for Denver. www.bikedenver.org

Bicycle Village has been a Colorado owned and operated business for more than 30 years. From modest beginnings in an 1800 square ft. building in West Denver, Bicycle Village has grown into the largest bicycle retailer in the Rockies. www.bicyclevillage.com

See BikeDenver’s PSA’s and learn about the great reasons to ride in Denver: “Priceless” “Why I Ride”
You can help make Denver’s streets safer for people like Rocio by becoming a BikeDenver member: Join BikeDenver!

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