Meet the man who created World Bicycle Day and has kept the ride going
As cyclists cluster on a small side street near Union Station, preparing for a six-mile communal ride, Leszek Sibilski steps off his trusty road bike in a red-and-white suit that evokes his years representing Poland on its national cycling team.
“Happy World Bicycle Day!” he yells into a megaphone, and the gathered diplomats ding their approval via a chorus of high-pitched bike bells.
“You are ambassadors not only for your own nations, but also for the values of the entire world,” Sibilski adds – things like sustainability, accessibility and freedom.
A line of annoyed motorists starts honking, and Sibilski cuts his speech short.
It was time to ride.
More than eight years before, Sibilski stood on the floor of the United Nations as all 193 members unanimously adopted the resolution he had been pushing that designated June 3 World Bicycle Day.
It included a call for countries and communities to organize rides like the one that snaked through the U.S. capital on Wednesday, including an early stretch squeezed into a bike lane along First Street Northeast.
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser marked the day by touting the District’s progress on social media, noting that the city has 123 miles of bike lanes, about half put in place since 2015.
But getting around on a bike can still be daunting and dangerous, especially for less experienced riders. Exposed on all sides, bikers are vulnerable as cars zip past, sometimes impatiently. Only about one-third of bike lanes are protected, the mayor noted, with the rest separated from cars with mere stripes of paint.
The bikers cruise with purpose down 15th Street Northwest, taking advantage of one of the District’s coveted protected bike lanes.
Earlier this year, the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, which helped organize the ride, filed a lawsuit in federal court to prevent the Trump administration from removing the bike lane from that stretch of 15th Street. In April, a federal judge halted plans to remove the bike lane, calling the administration’s effort “arbitrary and capricious.”
“We were successful in beating back the challenge, making our streets safer, and we hope that today’s ride is additional evidence there’s widespread support for biking locally and around the world,” said Peter Gray, a Washington Area Bicyclist Association organizer.
The group noted that the government still has time to appeal the decision. The administration had argued that removing the lanes would restore “common sense” and improve traffic flow ahead of commemorations celebrating the nation’s 250th birthday.
Once the bikers hit Pennsylvania Avenue, they pedal along a bike path in the middle of the road. It’s a route that offers little room for error – hemmed in by cars headed both ways – but one with majestic views of the federal city.
Sibilski spent a decade on the Polish National Olympic Cycling Team, starting out as a teenager in the 1970s, then became a physical-education teacher. He moved to New York with his wife, then back to Poland, before settling in Montgomery County, Maryland, about 30 years ago. He got a doctorate in sociology and taught at the college level.
Cycling hasn’t always been a respite. After riding professionally, he quit biking for a while.
“Cycling became a cage for me,” he said. “After I was done with cycling, I hated it. I believe that cycling is the art of dying. You push yourself to the limits, and if you hurt yourself it catches up to you – and you pay the price.”
He went on to work for the World Bank, where he tackled problems related to sustainability. There, he was drawn back into the world of biking. In a meeting discussing sustainable transportation, he suggested a campaign promoting cycling. Someone shot it down. “That’s what kicked in my competitive nature,” Sibilski said.
From that point on, everything became about World Bicycle Day. He started meeting with different world ambassadors, before finally getting the chance to pitch the idea to the U.N., and seeing the resolution adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 2018.
Sibilski is now retired, but cycling has wiggled its way back into his life. When Sibilski isn’t cycling, he’s talking about cycling. He went from loving the sport, to hating it, to being the father of World Bicycle Day – always looking for ways to make it even bigger.
The group keeps hitting red lights on Pennsylvania Avenue, then turns and makes its way toward the Washington Monument, where the cyclists stop for a photo. Everyone squeezes in tight to fit in the frame. From the middle of the pack, Sibilski shouts, “We have a full ambassador here!”
Lithuanian Ambassador Gediminas Varvuolis is riding on this day, though he isn’t much of a cyclist. At home in Lithuania he used to bike to work. Now that he’s in D.C., it’s much easier to drive, which he almost always does.
“I’m pro bike infrastructure for sure, but mostly I am pro active way of life,” Varvuolis said. “This makes you healthy. This makes you sane.”
During the ride, Sibilski secured a handful of meetings with diplomats, part of his quest to expand the commemorative day’s reach.
The ride ended near the Tidal Basin, at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. Riders stashed their bikes along the outside of the walking path and gathered in a circle under the towering statue of the civil rights leader.
Riders representing different countries took turns shouting out their nation’s name.
“Sweden!” “Nepal!” “Belgium!” “Germany!”
And, of course, “Poland!” along with many more. The ride had managed to break down borders.
Sibilski walked to a nearby bench and leaned his bike against the wooden slats. Peering at the Jefferson Memorial, he said cycling doesn’t just cross geographic lines, it crosses party lines. To him, the bicycle is more than a mode of transportation, it’s a catalyst of community.
“When two politicians go for a bike ride, they’re going to end up as friends. They cannot scream at each other,” he said. “They cannot fight, because they are going to fall down. They have to keep hands on the wheel, and they have to keep pedaling to keep balance.”