Saturday ASU Bike Event

Saturday (Oct. 22):

ASU Co-Hosts 'Glassner Autumn Bicycle Challenge' with Montgomery Bicycle Club from The ASU Stadium 

By Kenneth Mullinax/ASU 

Bicycles will be 'thick as molasses' at The ASU Stadium on Saturday (Oct. 22) as Alabama State University serves as both the starting-point and final destination of the Glassner Autumn Bicycle Challenge (Challenge), which is in honor of the late Dr. Jim Glassner, an acclaimed local bicyclist, who died of injuries sustained in a bike/car wreck in 2001. The event is hosted by the Montgomery Bicycle Club (MBC) and ASU. 

The co-hosted event will kick-off at 7:15 a.m. on Saturday beginning at the Stadium and encompasses several bike riding routes that are both mixed in difficulty and traverse throughout the Montgomery community from a beginner five-mile ride for novices to an expert-only 126-mile riding route, explains Walter Davis, MBC board member who is spearheading the event and an ASU veteran media technician at the Levi Watkins Learning Center.   

"Saturday is forecast to be sunny and to have a perfect bike riding temp, so we want to invite the public and the Hornet Nation family to all join us for a fun time," Davis said. "We have a bike ride for everyone to participate in regardless of their level of expertise, and all of those who participate will receive a lot of goodies, which includes a Glassner Autumn Bicycle Challenge medal, t-shirt, water bottle, a biking cap; a sense of well-being knowing that they will be honoring the memory of one heck-of-a-good man and are supporting the agenda of making bicycling more safe and accessible for the residents of the greater Montgomery area," said Davis.

 

 

Davis said the University is again following the great ideal of President Quinton T. Ross, Jr.'s mantra of CommUniversity in co-sponsoring the event because it helps out the community of Montgomery in promoting greater bicycle safety and a healthy lifestyle-hobby for its residents. He explained that students from ASU’s Physical Therapy (PT) program are volunteering to help participants on Saturday with any leg problems they may have due their exertions; with the PT students being stationed at various rest and hydration stops along the bike routes. Police officers will also be on hand to add to the participants’ safety.

 

PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN ASU & MBC - MORE THAN A BIKE RIDE 

Robert Traphan, a local computer guru with the Retirement Systems of Alabama, serves as the president of the MBC and explains that he is extremely proud of the partnership that he and ASU's President Ross forged in 2021, which made the memorial Challenge happen at the University. 

"Partnering with ASU is exciting for all of us with the Montgomery Bicycle Club and it happened out of a meeting that I had with Dr. Ross. I was subjected to his gracious hospitality and intuitive nature, which has allowed our two entities to work for the common cause of bike safety and education for two years now," Traphan said. "A lot of the credit for the Challenge is shared with ASU and Dr. Ross. We thank the University and its President for caring about the greater good of bike safety for Montgomery's residents." 

To learn more about the Glassner Autumn Challenge and the Montgomery Bicycle Club, please visitwww.mgmbikeclub.org 

News media contact: Kenneth Mullinax, 334-229-4104.