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TRANSACTIONS NEWSLETTER ONLINE

July/August 2006

Photo Album:
Participants in Bike to Work Day 2006 and Team Bike Challenge Discover the Joys and Benefits of Cycling

 

 

Photos: Noah Berger, Lawrence Migdale, Cole Portocarrero

More than 50,000 commuters pedaled to work on Bike to Work Day, according to MTC and the Bay Area Bicycle Coalition, which sponsored the May 18 regionwide event. Business was brisk at the region’s more than 170 “energizer stations,” where passing cyclists could refuel with drinks and breakfast treats, and pick up bicycle messenger bags stuffed with freebies. Even San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom (top photo) heeded the call, bicycling from the Ferry Building to his office at City Hall.

And after Bike to Work Day had come and gone, a core group of dedicated bicyclists kept on pedaling in an effort to win the Team Bike Challenge. Best described as a cross between “Survivor” and the “Tour de France,” this month-long Bay Area-wide contest sparked fierce, good-natured competition as 109 five-member teams across all nine counties bicycled to and from work and errands in an effort to log the most points. Teams earned bonus points by including novices or “Big Wheelers” (corporate executives, elected officials, celebrities and the like) on their roster.

The winning team was the “Critical Macs” of MacDonald Architects in San Francisco (second photo from top), whose 253 points earned them a bicycle rack to be placed in a public location of their choosing, along with a plaque. Their key to success? In the words of the team leader, architect Edward Pais, “obsessiveness.”

“We checked our score every day to make sure we were still in the lead,” he said.
— Brenda Kahn

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