San Diego CA— Lighting up the streets tomorrow night, the San Diego County Bike Coalition will spread holiday cheer at its 5th annual Holiday Joy Ride before recognizing its Golden Gear award winners for their two-wheeled dedication in 2015.
The fifth-annual, family-friendly ride will begin at 5:30 p.m. in Balboa Park at Panama 66. The spectacle of bikers encourages festive costumes for the tinsel-wrapped, light-strung, two-wheeled parade.
The ride will conclude at 6:30 p.m. with a celebration at Panama 66 to recognize top bicycle achievements of 2015 and honor five recipients of the Bike Coalition’s Golden Gear Awards. The only regional bike advocacy organization, the Bike Coalition awards recipients who went above and beyond to make San Diego County bike friendly in the past year.

2015 Golden Gear award winners include:

• Volunteer of the Year: Mike Samyn, Alpine resident, for being the first to show up and the last to go home with admirable enthusiasm and passion for everything bikes
• Advocate of the Year: Monique Lopez, South Park resident, for her tireless dedication and community involvement to improve bike safety and accessibility in the region for all people, particularly urban communities south of the I-8 freeway
• Public Partner of the Year: City of National City for making groundbreaking improvements to the city’s infrastructure and implementing its first Safe Routes to School program to encourage children to walk and pedal to school
• Community Partner of the Year: REI for its commitment to the outdoors and supporting bicycling organizations and eventsREI is also a founding sponsor of the Bike Coalition’s annual ride across the Coronado-San Diego bridge, Bike the Bay
• Bike-Friendly Business of the Year: TREK Bicycle Superstore for its dedicated nationwide to supporting bicycling and locally supports the Bike Coaltion. It’s local San Diego store in the company’s largest dealer in the country

“We had a significant year for bikes in 2015, including a record-breaking Bike the Bay in August and increased momentum for local bike projects. Residents want safe communities for themselves and their children, and we saw this bring people together across the county,” says Andy Hanshaw, executive director of the Bike Coalition. “Today’s celebration recognizes the people supporting our vision for making San Diego a safe place for anyone who chooses two wheels instead of four.”
Regional bike lovers can expect more momentum toward this biketastic goal in 2016 as the Bike Coalition has plans to bring back the city’s beloved CicloSDias; an open-streets celebration for people to rediscover their neighborhood up close and personal, instead of from behind the window of a car.
To purchase tickets to the Holiday Joy Ride on Thursday, December 10, please click here. To learn more about or join the San Diego County Bike Coalition, visit http://www.sdbikecoalition.org/.