Dozens of bikers braved the pouring rain and biked from West Sacramento through downtown and midtown, ending their soggy ride at the Bicycle Kitchen on 20th and I. Ed Cox, City Bike and Pedestrian Coordinator led this group ride Friday, May 1 to kick off Bike Month, a month-long event which encourages Sacramento-area residents to try bicycling as a mode of transportation.

The ride followed a press conference in which Davis Mayor Pro Tem Don Saylor and Roseville Councilmember Jim Gray, co-chairs of the event, spoke about the importance of cycling. This event, sponsored by Sacramento Area Council of Governments and various transportation management associations and organizations, also encourages people to log their miles at mayisbikemonth.com to reach a goal of one million miles.

In addition to having events and promoting cycling, the Bike Month organizers have created pedal pools, which are described on the website as "a group of two or more cyclists who meet at a designated location and commute together." Another benefit of pedal pools is the safety and fun factors when riding with a partner.

"The Million Mile May challenge is intended to remind us how fun and easy a bike ride is and how many of us could use our bikes as an alternative to our cars," said Gray. Saylor challenged Gray and the Roseville city staff to ride more miles than Davis's city staff, to which Gray replied, "We will kick Don's butt."

However, Saylor had already ridden across the Sacramento-Davis causeway by the time the kickoff event began, while Gray drove his car from Roseville to Sacramento.

Linda Khiev of the bicycle advocacy group Bikeramento was in West Sacramento on her bike, and said of the event, "I love it, and I'm really excited to see lots of bikes on the road." She added that Bikeramento is still waiting for city permits to hold the event Sac Sunday Streets, which is a "monthly fitness-based and family-friendly event revolving around the soft closure of Capitol Avenue from 3rd Street to 28th Street from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the first Sunday from May through October 2009," according to a Sacramento Press article.

At the Bicycle Kitchen, Sacramento Press caught up with local bicycle advocate John Boyer, who works as a mechanic at Carmichael Cycle and Sacramento Bike Kitchen, owns a bicycle delivery service for food called Edible Pedal, and cycles to his job at La Boheme.

"I get excited when I see massive amounts of bikes. [At the Bicycle Kitchen] we want people to not be afraid of their bicycles malfunctioning," he said. Boyer mentioned that he has all the tools in his house to start a bike shop, but he's looking for a place to rent to open it.

Sacramento Press has registered as a team for the race to one million miles. If you work for Sacramento Press (especially the bike riders) please visit mayisbikemonth.com to log your miles under the Sacramento Press team, and if you work for a small office (less than 100) we challenge you to log more miles than we do.

Please see this link for Bike Month events in the downtown area. For more information visit mayisbikemonth.com.