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Bicycle battle of the sexes

Two of St. Louis’s top cyclists will go head-to-head Saturday in an indoor race for charity. The inaugural Rollin’ for Charity Indoor 100 Bike Race will pit man versus woman and mountain bike versus road bike in a race to raise cash and ride 100 miles on bicycle rollers at Alpine Shop’s Kirkwood store.

Chris Ploch, the reigning and four-time Missouri State NORBA Mountain Bike Champion, and Carrie Cash, the current Missouri State Cyclocross Champion, will be competing for more than four hours to raise funds for the ALS Association St. Louis Regional Chapter and the Vera Bradley Foundation for Breast Cancer Research.

The event begins at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Kirkwood store, 440 N. Kirkwood Road. The challenge is part of the store's Outdoor Fitness Festival.

According to a press release, Alpine Shop will give $350 to the winner's charity and $150 to the other charity. Both cyclists -- who work for Alpine Shop -- are hoping people will donate to their causes, and you can find links to them at the Alpine Shop site.

Ploch will be riding a mountain bike, while Cash will be riding a road bike.

Labels: charities, St. Louis

Roger 0 comments links to this post 9:07 PM

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Two rides for worthy causes

In recent days, I've received e-mails about two worthwhile charity rides.

The first is the Ride for World Health. R4WH is a national, nonprofit organization that advocates for improvements in the quality and accessibility of global health care. Each year, by utilizing a cross-country bike ride as a vehicle of communication, R4WH addresses this issue through political advocacy, fundraising and its unique Coast-to-Coast Lecture Series.

The riders currently are in Utah, and they're expected reach the St. Louis area in early May. Dr. Tracy Hall, the leader of the GEARS bicycle club in Greenville, Ill., asked me to pass along this bit of information about the R4WH stop in the Greenville area :

Ride for World Health, a charity cross country bicycle tour, will be stopping
at Greenville First Christian Church (1100 Killarney Drive, Greenville, IL 62246) on Tuesday, May 13, about 1 p.m., on the St. Louis to Kinmundy (Ill.) leg of their trip. The group is made up of doctors, residents and medical students. Please come and have a listen to the short presentation and meet the riders. Some of the GEARS riders are planning on accompanying the riders after the presentation.

R4WH is writing a blog about the journey, and the group is accepting donations.

The second ride is the 2008 Equal Parenting Bike Trek. Starting Aug. 7, five fathers will be biking 758 miles over five days between Lansing, Mich., and Washington, D.C., to raise awareness of a child's fundamental right to be loved, guided, educated and nurtured equally by both fit and willing parents. After the ride, the fathers will speak at the Family Preservation Festival.

Robert Peterson, one of the organizers of the ride, has been pushing bloggers throughout the country to write about this event, and he has done a amazing job in getting the word out. The site says more than 70 blogs throughout the world has written about the event, and now you can count mine among them.

The ride is seeking donations and sponsors for the event, and you can find out more at the ride's Web site.

Labels: charities, cycling, tours

Roger 0 comments links to this post 3:00 PM

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

More odds and ends

PROGRESS ON NEGLIGENT VEHICULAR HOMICIDE BILL: Last week, the Illinois House overwhelmingly passed a bill (115-1) that would create the offense of negligent vehicular homicide. The bill now goes to the Senate.

The bill is, at least in part, in response to the tragic death of Champaign-Urbana area cyclist Matt Wilhelm, who was killed in 2006 when he was struck by a car driven by a woman downloading a cell-phone ring tone. The woman was charged with a petty offense after Champaign County State's Attorney Julia Rietz determined that under current Illinois law, she could not have been charged with the felony charge of vehicular homicide.

The bill would create a middle ground for those accidents that rise above a petty offense but do meet the "willful and wanton" disregard for public safety standard required for a felony charge.

STUDENT BUILDS UP FOR BIKE AND BUILD: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports today about the efforts of 26-year-old Lindenwood University junior to raise money for Bike and Build, an organization that provides money for affordable housing projects throughout the country.

On May 25, David Gowryluk of Holland, Manitoba, and 30 other cyclists will begin a 3,600-mile journey from Manteo, N.C., to San Diego. Gowryluk and his fellow cyclists are scheduled to end the trip July 27.

CAUTION URGED ON MCT CONFLUENCE TRAIL: The U.S. Corps of Engineers will be working on the levee between Chain of Rocks Road near Granite City, Ill., and Cahokia Creek until 2009, creating rocky conditions for cyclists and runners on the Madison County Transit Confluence Trail. The Confluence Trail may or may not be closed during this period. Please ride with caution in this area until further notice.

Meanwhile, the MCT Nature Trail remains closed from Sand Road, near Edwardsville to Anderson Lane in Pontoon Beach for reconstruction. The trail will reopen June 1. Cyclists, runners, rollerbladers, etc. are urged to avoid that section of the trail.

Labels: advocacy, charities, cycling, safety, trails

Roger 0 comments links to this post 9:39 AM

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Rides for a good cause

As the weather slowly warms up and thoughts of great bike rides go through our heads, I'd thought I'd spread the word about these rides that raise money for worthwhile charities:

Tour de Grape: There's still plenty of openings for the first-ever Tour de Grape bicycle tour May 12-13 in Farmington/Ste. Genevieve, Mo. The ride is a major fund-raiser for HavenHouse St. Louis, which provides lodging for the families of children receiving treatment at St. Louis-area hospitals. Both days have routes of about 45 and 60 miles. Day One takes you through the scenic country around Farmington and Fredericktown, while Day Two takes you into the historic French Colonial region around Ste. Genevieve and Randolph County, Ill. The cost of the ride is $25, plus $250 in pledges.

Beautiful Southern Ride: This ride, a fund-raiser for the Carbondale Boys and Girls Club, will travel over hill and dale past the lakes, wineries, and orchards of Southern Illinois, through the Shawnee National Forest and the Southern Illinois University campus. Routes of 15, 30 and 63 miles are available. For more information, visit the ride's Web site.

Tour de Cure: Join hundreds of cyclists for the 16th Annual St. Louis Area Tour de Cure at the Raging Rivers Water Park on June 9 in Grafton, Ill. This scenic bicycle tour will take you along the Great River Road in rural Illinois. Cyclists will have their choice of a 20-, 50- or 100-mile route. For more information, visit the ride's Web site.

Ride to Cure Diabetes: On Wednesday, I had the chance to meet Emily Rapp, the St. Louis-area coordinator for the Ride to Cure Diabetes, which raises money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. The ride actually is a series of events in scenic locations such as Carmel, Calif., Whitefish, Mont., and Asheville, N.C. The cost of the event is $100, plus at least $4,000 in donations. That sounds steep, but people who reach their goal receive round-trip airfare to the ride location, three nights of hotel accommodations and other perks.

If you have know of any other charitable rides that are worthy of mention, please feel free to do so in the comments section.

Labels: charities, cycling, tours

Roger 0 comments links to this post 10:05 AM