Thanks to some great design work from the creative team at Giordana the new BTR Team kits have finally arrived.

Those who have already signed up for the team can contact team director Andy Schmid to pick up their kits. For anyone interested in joining the BTR team, contact Andy directly at andy@bikestorwanda.org.

And last, for anyone interested in supporting the cause but is either outside the Tri-State area or simply isn’t ready to make the full team commitment,  a we’ll have a limited number of team jerseys available for a donation of $90 apiece.

Bike Month has just wrapped and with the wrapping of four weeks of bike related revelry came the conclusion of the Globe Haul raffle. We ran the raffle the length of Bike Month with the support of our friends at Pedalr. Entrants have been eagerly awaiting news of the winner, promised to be announced yesterday. The announcement might be a few hours overdue, but rest assured me picked the winner on the appointed day.

Last night, with entrants names, paper, and scissors in hand, we got down to the business of randomly selecting the winner the old fashioned way: by plucking a name from a hat, or in this case, from a helmet. Filling a Team Sky Edition KASK Vertigo helmet–the official helmet of the Bikes To Rwanda Cycling Team–with slips of paper bearing entrants names, we gave them a good mixing, then drew the winner.

Pulling out the winner.

From the helmet came a name, a winner’s name: Tom Billionis. Tom Billionsihailing from Springfield, Missouri, you sir are the lucky winner of a brand new Globe Haul! Congrats Tom, a new steed for helping those in need!

In spite of his best efforts to load the raffle in his favor by purchasing a brazillion tickets, Shawn from the Twin Cities came up short. We like his tenacity, and the fact that he has come close to financing a new bike for a farmer single-handedly, so we’re going to send him a set of very limited edition Hold Fast FRS to keep him locked in while riding the frozen tundra.

Bike To Rwanda Cycling Team Limited Edition Hold Fast FRS

Thanks for your support Shawn!

A debt of gratitude is owed to not only the guys at Pedalr without whom we wouldn’t have been able to run the raffle, but also the fellas at Bicycle Coffee Company who lobbied Globe Bikes on our behalf. Thanks are also definitely due to Globe Bikes. Without a bike to raffle, there would have been no raffle.

Thanks again everyone. Your support is essential to our effort to improve the lives and livelihoods of coffee farmers in Rwanda.

Brian
Executive Director
Bikes To Rwanda

We’re very excited that the online bike marketplace pedalr is giving us so much great support. During the month of May, they’re donating profits directly to BTR. And not only that, but there’s also a sweet Globe Haul 1 Step Thru bike up for raffle, only $5 a ticket.

If you don’t know about pedalr, it’s high time you did. The concept is simple: Buy. Sell. Bike. The virtual marketplace is for individuals, bike builders, manufacturers, and shops to sell their new and used bikes, gear, accessories, and really anything cycling related in a common marketplace.

So check out pedalr, buy a raffle ticket and support BTR! And if you find a bunch of stuff you can’t live without, feel good knowing that any purchase over $40 on pedalr in May automatically enters you in the raffle!

New York City’s most exciting urban race to draw a talented field this Saturday night

3/26/11

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Red Hook, New York’sBikes To Rwanda, a non-profit organization that supplies custom cargo bikes to coffee farmers in Africa, is proud to announce that professional rider Neil Bezdek will be guest racing for the newly formed Bikes To Rwanda Cycling Team in the fourth annual Red Hook Criterium.

The event is happening this Saturday, March 26, in the industrial Red Hook section of Brooklyn.

The race marks a homecoming of sorts for Bezdek, who worked as New York City bicycle messenger before he started his career as a professional bike racer. Bezdek won the Red Hook Criterium in 2009, and although he didn’t compete last year he did race last fall in the international running of the Red Hook Criterium in Milan, Italy. Bezdek was heavily favored to win in Milan but was overtaken in a daring effort by Jon Ander Ortuondo’sa sour loss that Bezdek says stayed with him all winter.

I love the Red Hook Criterium because it seems to cut across so many different little segments of bicycling culture. You’ve got the roadies and the bike messengers and the cyclocross guys all coming out, says Bezdek, who started riding as a mountain biker in Colorado and says he has always put his love of bikes first, and bike racing second.

I just really believe in bicycles, he says. So when I get a chance to take bike racing, which sometimes seems like such a meaningless and selfish thing’sriding a bicycle around in circles’sand do something like help promote Bikes To Rwanda, it’s something I can really get on board with.

Bezdek comes to New York this weekend after an intensive two-week training camp with his regular race squad, Team Mountain Khakis, and although he’s heavily favored, he’s making no bold predictions. Being an excellent bike racer can only increase your odds of wining, he says. But this race, and this format’sit’s anyone’s game.

Indeed, Bezdek will face a field thick with talent. Jon Ander Ortuondo is flying in from Italy and last year’s winner Daniel Chabanov will be there to defend his title. The field also includes pro mountain bike racers Harlan Price and teammate Ruben Klein, a host of elite area road racers and an untold number of NYC bike messengers Some 85 racers will line up in Red Hook Saturday night at 11 PM in a bid to take home the coveted cobblestone trophy’sracing 20 furious laps around a dark and twisty one-mile urban course on brake-less, fixed gear bikes.

###

About the Red Hook Criterium: Organized by Trimble Racing, the Red Hook Criterium is entering its fourth year as New York City’s premier urban track race. Every past winner of the event has gone on to a pro contract, and the race has grown in size and popularity every year’sthis year selling out in less than 24 hours. Last year Trimble Racing expanded the event to Italy, which it will repeat this year, along with a new stop in Berlin. For more information go to www.redhookcrit.com.

About Bikes to Rwanda: Started in 2006, Bikes To Rwanda is dedicated to supplying farmers on coffee cooperatives in post-genocide Rwanda with tailor-made cargo bikes. As a 501 ( C )( 3 ) non-profit organization, Bikes To Rwanda is funded exclusively through donations and the sale of coffee and merchandise’ssuch as the team kit that Neil Bezdek will be sporting this Saturday night. Find out more details, merchandise and team information, go to www.bikestorwanda.org.

12.16.10 — Celebrated in backpacking circles for the tremendous fit and finish of their products, Colorado-based pack maker Osprey has been winning over cyclists in droves of late with hydration packs that incorporate the same fit and finish for which their larger packs are renown. Bike Blog is Osprey’s own cycling focused blog and their “Pedaling Change” segment posted earlier this week features an interview with Bikes To Rwanda’s own Brian Gilmore. To read the interview, click here.

11.19.10 — A Bikes To Rwanda supporter has pledged $60,000 to Bikes To Rwanda to purchase cargo bicycles, tools, spare parts, and building materials to support our program activities in Rwanda. There are two catches though; we need to be able to raise $60,000 to match their gift dollar-for-dollar and we have to do it by December 31st, 2010. This is an tremendous opportunity for BTR to acquire the resources it needs to reach previously unserved communities in Rwanda. Help us meet the challenge and donate today! For information on how you can donate, refer to our contribute page, or donate through Give! Guide by clicking here .