San Diego CA— Want the best view of San Diego County? Grab your bike and join more than 3,500 San Diegans for the 8th annual Bike the Bay – the only opportunity to pedal across the renowned San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge followed by a loop on the famed Bayshore Bikeway; San Diego’s premiere bike attraction. Participants in this causal 25-mile ride experience some of the county’s most breathtaking waterfront views and a vivacious after party on Sunday, August 23.
The San Diego County Bike Coalition, a host and beneficiary of Bike the Bay, organizes the event to encourage biking as a fun and efficient alternative to automobiles in what it says should be the premiere bicycling destination nationwide.
“San Diego has potential to become the quintessential place to ride a bike, nationwide,” says Andy Hanshaw, executive director of the Bike Coalition. “The Coronado-San Diego Bay Bridge and the Bayshore Bikeway provide some of the most incredible sight-seeing opportunities in San Diego, best viewed in the open-air, from outside an automobile. The ride is, in a single word, picturesque.”
Bike the Bay presents an opportunity for folks of all bicycling levels to pedal through five San Diego neighborhoods—Coronado, San Diego. National City, Imperial Beach and Chula Vista—at a casual pace. The event begins with two waves of riders, one at 7 a.m. and one at 8 a.m., at Embarcadero Marina Park South on Harbor Drive in San Diego.
Riders journey over the 2.1-mile Coronado Bridge in one lane of the bridge closed to cars in order to accommodate thousands of bicyclists. After crossing the bridge, riders cruise on the completed parts of the Bayshore Bikeway, including a newly reconstructed portion in Chula Vista between J Street and Palomar Street.
Riders continue on dedicated bike lanes and bike routes, ending at Embarcadero Marina Park South for post-ride activities, entertainment, food trucks and a New Belgium Brewing Beer Garden. Most riders can expect to complete the fairly flat course in two to three hours.
As well as refreshments and bike repair stations along the route, participants receive a commemorative t-shirt and entry into the post-ride festival. Exclusive Bike the Bay cycling jerseys are available for purchase, as well as a 2015 pink jersey that benefits the Breast Cancer Fund. Helmets are required and regular rules of the road apply.
Registration, course maps and other information can be found at www.bikethebay.net. Registration is required and should be done as early as possible as previous years have sold out. A portion of Bike the Bay proceeds benefit the San Diego County Bike Coalition, an organization advocating for and protecting the rights of all people who ride bicycles.
For information about this year’s corporate sponsors and sponsorships, please email info@bikethebay.net. For more local bicycling opportunities, please visit http://www.sdbikecoalition.org.