UC Davis is the venue for this year's U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame induction ceremony, an annual event being held in the western United States for the first time ever.
Organizers said the dinner event, scheduled for Nov. 2 in Freeborn Hall, is being hosted by the university, the city of Davis and the Davis-based California Bicycle Museum. (Read about the museum's inaugural exhibition, which opened recently in the basement of the Third and B Street Building in Davis.)
Organizers of the hall of fame induction ceremony said bike racing champion Levi Leipheimer will be the keynote speaker. He won the Amgen Tour of California in 2007 and '08, captured the U.S. National Road Race title in 2007, earned a bronze medal in the 2008 Olympics and finished third in the 2007 Tour de France.
The festivities at Freeborn Hall are set to begin at 6 p.m., with a reception followed by dinner. After that, guests are invited to participate in a silent auction and meet and greet the hall of fame honorees.
The Somerville, N.J.-based Bicycling Hall of Fame announced four inductees: Cheri Elliott, Mike Plant, Jeanne Golay and Jimmy Walthour. Read more about them here.
In a news release, hall of fame officials said they decided to hold the induction ceremony in California, in part, because so many living hall of fame inductees reside in the western United States -- and all of them have been invited.
"The hall of fame expects this ceremony to be the largest gathering of U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame inductees to date," according to the news release.
In choosing Davis as the dinner site, the news release goes on, the hall of fame is recognizing the community's strong connections with bicycling.
A list of those connections includes the city of Davis' pioneer role in the creation of bicycle lanes in California more than 40 years ago. Also, Davis is home to the Davis Double Century and Fourth of July Criterium, among the oldest races in the western United States.
The news release further points out that Davis has played host to competitive cycling events for decades, up to and including Amgen Tour of California stages in 2007 and 2008. Stage 2 of next year's tour is scheduled to start in Davis on Feb. 15.
The U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame also acknowledges Davis as the first Platinum Level Bicycle-Friendly Community, the highest designation from the League of American Bicyclists.
Tickets: Buy them or try to win them
Tickets are priced at $115 per person or $800 for a table of eight; they are available for purchase here.
UC Davis' Transportation and Parking Services, or TAPS, one of several event sponsors, is making three free tickets available to the campus community, by way of a drawing. Anyone interested in entering their name should e-mail Mary Maffly at TAPS (mlmaffly@ucdavis.edu) no later than 5 p.m. Oct. 27. Please put "Bicycling Hall of Fame Event Drawing" in the subject line.
On the Net:
Media Resources
Dave Jones, Dateline, 530-752-6556, dljones@ucdavis.edu