Justin and Brian from our Downtown store, showing off their “winner” plaque, which is getting a bit crowded.

Yesterday, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance wrapped up its record-breaking 2008 Bike Commute Challenge with a mini-bash (including free beer and pizza) and awards at a warehouse in SE Portland.

Among the hundreds of hungry and thirsty bike commuters who showed up, we counted a dozen or so Bike Gallery staffers, eager to celebrate what was by all measure an exceptionally bike-commute-friendly month of September and to congratulate the two Bike Gallery locations who took first place in two of the three bike shop categories.

Darrin represented the Hollywood store, but forgot to bring their plaque. He still got to take home a nice glue-on “2008″ tag.

For the fifth year in a row, our Downtown store took top honors in the “Bike Shops with 9-15 employees” category, with an astounding bike commute rate of 98.4%! I guess that someone must have disobeyed the team orders and accidentally walked to work one day. In the same category, our Division store took second place and our Lake Oswego store ended fourth.

In the bike shops’ major league (16+ employees), our Hollywood flagship store took first with an equally impressive 92% of days biked. Bike Gallery Operations – which I bike commuted for myself – finished third, though our commute percentage (39%) paled in comparison with that of our brethern and sisters next door. However, they better not rest on their laurels, because an evil plan is already in the works to ensure Operations will prevail next year, involving the construction of private cycle tracks from each of our homes all the way to our warehouse/office compound. Not to speak of those nifty electric-assist bikes that Joel is planning to demo throughout the month of September to each employee in Operations. En garde, Amy & Co!