They call it the best holiday tradition on wheels… it’s the Wisconsin Bike Federation’s Santa Cycle Rampage and it’s coming to a community near you!
Wisconsin Bike Fed’s Jake Newborn says, “Well, the Santa Rampage is the world’s largest holiday-themed costume bike ride for charity. We are probably expecting about 1,200 to 1,300 registered riders.”
That’s no joke. Santa’s helpers will be out in full force for this record-breaking fundraiser.Â
Newborn explains, “Depending on the weather, we could get close to 2,000 people. If we hit 2,000, I think we’d break a record.”
This is a fundraiser after all, and those numbers will help with all the programs the Wisconsin Bike Federation offers.
“We have lots of great programs that are helping get kids and families on bikes. We do summer bike camps. We do a free mobile bike repair program in the summer where we train high school kids to fix bikes for free, and then we give them out. We have lots of programs that are really just, you know, making it safer and more fun and easier to get biking,” explains Newborn.
With so many folks on bikes out there, drivers will want to be careful since they’re not officially closing any streets.
“It’ll be kind of police-guided, but we won’t have any streets closed off, so we just kind of ask everyone to just have a little bit of patience,” says Newborn, “The ride will leave our headquarters here in Bayview off of Beecher and KK at 9.30 a.m. and it will travel north up to Hollander on Downer Avenue, and then loop back on the west side of the river, coming back towards Bayview and kind of ending there.”
Now, you can just jump on your bike and go after registering, but if you want the full holiday effect, there’s a little bit of preparation involved.
“We really love when people dress up, and not just as Santa, reindeer, elves, Mrs. Claus, dreidels, Jesus, and Krampus outfit, which was pretty scary, actually. So that’s really part of what makes this ride unique and fun, so I encourage everyone to dress up for sure.”
If you can’t make the ride this weekend, the Santa Cycle Rampage is coming to Madison on December 9th too.
So if you’d like to partake in this wonderful holiday tradition, they do take walk-up registrations, but you can also sign up and find out more information here.
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