Torie Giffin, cycling advocate in Colorado Springs, was presented with the Women's Mountain Biking Association's Le Patron award on Thursday at the WMBA's Season Kickoff event. Giffin was chosen for her work in the community as organizer of the Chick-Fil-A Patriots' Festival and Ride for Heroes, an annual bike ride that honors first responders and the military men and women of Colorado Springs. She was selected by last year's Le Patron winner Allen Beauchamp. Hillary Hienton, a founding member of the WMBA, created the idea of Le Patron.
"The Le Patron is the individual in a pack of riders who calls the shots and leads by example," Hienton said.
She chose Beauchamp in 2011 because, "He gives back to WMBA, Medicine wheel and advocates for all sorts of cycling causes and I appreciate everything that he does and I just thought that he needed to be honored for that."
Beauchamp passed the award to Giffin.
"I wanted to chose someone who has given of themselves selflessly and Torie has used her boundless enthusiasm to go out and look for opportunities to get people on bicycles."
Giffin said she doesn't know of a better way to spend the day than on a bicycle, riding with her friends and family.
"I'm just extremely honored to be able to, in my job (marketing director for Chick-Fil-A) , be able to create new cyclists, to invite families and start one of the area's first family rides and get a whole new generation of cyclists out there. It's an honor to put on a big event like the Patriots' Festival and Ride for Heroes."