This Bay Area Resident Was Named 2025 Bike Champion Of The Year

MARIN COUNTY, CA — A Marin County man has been named the 2025 Bike Champion of the Year.

Chuck Ford was named the bike champ by Bay Area to Wherever Days, an organization that encourages noncyclists to jump on a bicycle and get active.

Every year, this award recognizes people inspiring bicycling in their community. The public nominated the riders and then one from each of the nine Bay Area counties were selected for their commitment to making their primary mode of transport a bicycle.

Ford spent his career working for the Marin County Office of Education’s TEAM program, which is an alternative high school that focuses on outdoor education through rock climbing, hiking, mountain biking and more.

In order to get to work, Ford commuted 27 miles round trip, every day rain or shine, from Fairfax to Terra Linda.

Ford also played a pivotal role in the 1990s, launching Trips for Kids, a national program that gets underserved children on mountain bikes.

“They couldn’t get insurance,” Ford said. “But we had insurance through the County Office of Education, so I signed the kids up as part of our TEAM program.”

Ford led the very first ride.

In the 2000s, Ford co-founded a weekly Friday group ride with some of his friends, which has grown to be known as the Old Spokes.

Ford still rides his bike several times a week in his late 70s despite undergoing chemotherapy and cancer surgery.

“If I wasn’t in the shape I was in when I was diagnosed, I don’t think I could’ve handled the treatment,” he said. “Cycling helped get me through it.”

Ford hopes in the future more kids start biking to school, that there are safer routes for underserved neighborhoods, and more support for youth programs that connect them with the outdoors.