Ride bikes to work in San Diego County on May 15

The annual Bike to Work Day returns on Friday, May 15 with six local pit stops among the 100-plus available countywide for the event.

According to organizers, the pit stops will be providing a variety of free goodies to thousands of bicyclists, such as T-shirts, refreshments and other items between 6 to 9 a.m.

Participants who register in advance also become eligible to win one of two adult commuter bikes provided by Bicycle Warehouse. Additional prizes like gift cards and San Diego Zoo tickets will also be awarded to those who log their bicycle trips throughout the month of May. For details, go to tinyurl.com/bikepledge15.

The local goal is for bicyclists to collectively log 25,000 miles on May 15, which officials said is “the equivalent of one trip around the world and 1 million calories burned.”

A map of all pit stops in San Diego County is viewable at tinyurl.com/BikeToWork-2015map. The local pit stops announced as of Monday were:

4S Ranch — The south side of Dove Canyon Road near its intersection with Camino Del Norte. The host is On-Ramp Wireless.

Rancho Bernardo — The intersection of West Bernardo Drive and Via del Campo. The hosts are Sony Electronics and Northrop Grumman.

Poway — Pomerado Hospital, 15615 Pomerado Road. Refreshments will be served. The host is Palomar Health.

Poway — Twin Peaks Plaza Shopping Center, 14757 Pomerado Road. There will be a drawing for a pair of Oakley cycling sunglasses. The host is Poway Eyeworks (between Twin Peaks Dentistry and Verizon).

Rancho Penasquitos — The State Route 56 Bike Path. The pit stop will be open from 5:30 to 9 a.m. and 3 to 5 p.m. It will provide coffee in the morning plus banana shakes for the morning and afternoon commutes. The pit stop will be near the Carmel Mountain Bridge, between Black Mountain Road and Camino Ruiz. Hosted by Ride Across California for fifth graders.

Rancho Penasquitos — Camino del Sur off State Route 56. Hosted by Intuit.

According to San Diego Association of Government officials, last year’s Bike to Work Day had a record-setting number of riders and pit stops in San Diego County. That day more than 8,700 people biked to work and stopped at one or more of the 96 pit stops. In addition, throughout May 2014 more than 272,000 bike commute miles were logged through TripTracker. The distance, nearly 11 trips around the world, equated to nearly 11,800 gallons of gas saved and 8.3 million calories burned.

For more information about the more than 1,340 miles of bikeways in the San Diego region, go to GObyBIKEsd.com, call 511 and say “iCommute” or send an email to biking@sandag.org.