June 15, 2006

Adventure Cycling Calls For 2006 Bicycle-Travel Award Nominations

Missoula, Montana – Adventure Cycling Association, the nation’s premier bicycle travel organization, is accepting nominations for its four annual awards, including the new Bicycle Travel Champion Award.

“The Bicycle Travel Champion Award will honor individuals or groups who have shown a longstanding commitment to advancing bicycle travel in the United States,” said Adventure Cycling outreach and education coordinator Becky Douglas. “Their achievements could include things like mapping new bicycle-touring routes, shepherding a rail-trail from conception to completion, or leading physically challenged youth on multi-day cycling adventures.”

The three other awards presented annually by Adventure Cycling include the June Curry Trail Angel Award, the Sam Braxton Bike Shop Award, and the Adventure Cycling Volunteer of the Year Award.

“The June Curry Trail Angel Award goes to individuals who have gone out of their way to help touring cyclists,” Douglas explained. “The award is named in honor of June Curry, the famous ‘Cookie Lady,’ who for thirty years has been hosting cyclists traveling through her hometown of Afton, Virginia, on the TransAmerica Bicycle Trail. June was the recipient of the inaugural Trail Angel Award in 2003.”

The Braxton Bike Shop Award honors a shop that goes above and beyond the call of duty in serving bicycle travelers, Douglas explained. The award was inspired by its namesake, the Braxton Bike Shop in Missoula, MT., which for many years lived up to its motto, “An Oasis for the Cycletourist.”

“Finally,” Douglas said, “the Adventure Cycling Volunteer of the Year Award is the organization’s way of saying ‘thank you’ each year to a volunteer who has helped the organization further its goal of inspiring people of all ages to travel by bicycle.”

Nominations for 2006 awards will be accepted through September 30. For further details visit www.adventurecycling.org/outreach/awards/ or contact Douglas at (406) 721-1776 ext. 235, or bdouglas@adventurecycling.org.

Adventure Cycling, a 501(c)(3), 42,000-member nonprofit, is America's largest cycling organization. Dedicated to inspiring people of all ages to travel by bicycle, Adventure Cycling’s services include bicycle-route development and mapping, periodical publishing (Adventure Cyclist magazine and The Cyclists' Yellow Pages resource directory), and a guided bicycle-travel program. Adventure Cycling’s National Bicycle Route Network comprises 34,061 miles of mapped, on- and off-road bicycle routes. For more information visit www.adventurecycling.org.