TRPA, Keep Tahoe Blue and area schools log big miles during Tahoe Bike Challenge

Staff with the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and the League to Save Lake Tahoe (Keep Tahoe Blue) took the top prizes in the 2017 Tahoe Bike Challenge, while hundreds of Tahoe youth rode in increasingly large bike-to-school events.

Each year, for the first two weeks of June, hundreds of Tahoe residents and visitors participate in the Tahoe Bike Challenge. In teams or as individuals, participants join a friendly competition to see who can replace the most car trips with trips by bicycle.

This year, students from North Tahoe School in Tahoe City and South Tahoe’s Bijou Community School, Lake Tahoe Environmental Science Magnet School, Sierra House Elementary, Tahoe Valley Elementary School, and South Tahoe Middle School participated in bike to school days. Over 430 students rode their bikes, completing 837 bicycle trips. Bijou Community School took the lead with the most trips.

Here are the school rankings:

Bijou Community School: 326 trips
South Tahoe Middle School: 189 trips
Magnet Elementary School: 180 trips
Sierra House Elementary: 87 trips
North Tahoe School: 58 trips

“It was so impressive how many elementary and middle school students rode this year,” said Morgan Beryl, chair of the Tahoe Bike Challenge’s planning committee. “The students deserve a lot of credit for their efforts, as do the teachers, faculty, and volunteers like Gianna Leavers who made it all possible.” Beryl is a senior transportation planner with the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and an advisory board member to the Lake Tahoe Bicycle Coalition.

“We are so grateful for all the community members who came out to support their passion for cycling and in turn educating and opening opportunities for our students," said Dave Alexander, a teacher at the South Tahoe Middle School.

For the team prizes, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency dominated the long game to handily win the 2017 prize for most total trips, with 545 bicycle trips and a whopping 1,476 collective miles, while staff from the League to Save Lake Tahoe edged out a tight competition for the prize for most trips per employee, at 13.7 trips per staff member.

Top five teams for each category:

Most total trips:
Tahoe Regional Planning Agency - 545 trips
League to Save Lake Tahoe - 233 trips
South Tahoe Refuse - 182 trips

Most trips per employee:
League to Save Lake Tahoe - 13.7 trips per employee
Tieslau Civil Engineering - 13.5 trips per employee
Environmental Incentives - 9.3 trips per employee

The Tahoe Bike Challenge planning committee and the Lake Tahoe Bicycle Coalition will be presenting plaques to the winning teams in the weeks ahead.

Winners for individual categories:

Most total trips:
Amy Fish: 54 trips
Larry Green: 50 trips
Scott Cecchi: 44 trips
Jason Briedis: 42 trips
Steve Froyum: 40 trips

Most total miles biked:
Gianna Leavers: 311 miles
Jennifer Capistran: 214 miles
Patrick Johnson: 187 miles
Sally Loomis: 180 miles
Mike Niccoli: 160 miles

Most elevation gain:
James Kayser: 23,820 feet
Gianna Leavers: 20,201 feet
Jim Marino: 19,064 feet
Mark Frisina: 18,690 feet
Bob Albrecht: 15,004 feet

“We congratulate all the winners and everyone else who rode their bike during the 2017 Tahoe Bike Challenge,” said Chris Carney, president of the Lake Tahoe Bike Coalition. “We hope everyone had fun and that we see you on your bike all summer long.”