SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif. (BRAIN) — Interbike has announce the first round of categories and nominees for the second annual Interbike Awards (IB Awards), including product, retailer and supplier designations.
Pivot, 6D Helmets, Lazer, Stromer and SRAM are among the list of brands with products nominated for the 2015 IB Awards. The award is presented by Hi-Torque Publications, the publisher of Mountain Bike Action, Road Bike Action, Electric Bike Action, and BMX Plus!. Categories include Mountain Bike of the Year, Road Bike of the Year, E-Bike of the Year and several others. The complete list of awards is available from the Interbike website.
The People's Upgrade Choice Award nominees will be announced this summer, and the Best in Show Award nominees will be chosen at the end of the first day of Interbike 2015. Products nominated were chosen by the editorial teams at Hi Torque after testing and review during the 2015 product year, from July 2014 through June 2015.
Bicycle Retailer & Industry News has completed its list of retailer nominations based on entries submitted via the NBDA America's Best Bike Shop applications and by a nominating panel. Categories for the retailer awards include Best Urban/Lifestyle Shop, Best Pro Road Shop, Best Mountain Bike Shop, Best Women's/Female Friendly Shop and 2014 Retailer of the Year. There are six nominees within each category, including Bicycle Space of Washington, D.C., Strictly Bicycles of New Jersey, A Road Bike 4 U of California, Absolute Bikes of Colorado and Bryson City Bicycles of North Carolina, among others. Winners will be determined by an open industry online ballot and vetted by BRAIN editorial staff.
The National Bicycle Dealers Association will also handout supplier/distributor awards under several categories, including Highest Brand Profitability to the Local Bike Shop, Best Brand Value to Consumers, the NBDA Signature Award and more. Nominees listed for the supplier/distributor awards include Efficient Velo Tools, Lizard Skins, Finish Line Technologies and Highway Two. All nominees and winners will have been voted on via the NBDA's Supplier Scorecard program that ran from September through December 2014. Retailers were asked to rate suppliers in a variety of different categories and the nominees represent the companies that received the highest ratings.
Advocacy and triathlon nominees are scheduled to be announced on July 15, and athlete nominations will be announced Aug. 3. 
The awards Gala event will be 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 17 2015 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas. Tickets for the Gala can be purchased during the Interbike registration process. Advanced ticket pricing for the event is $100 per person, and includes the evening reception, beer and wine, a sit-down dinner along with the awards show entertainment. A $10 donation from every ticket sold will be donated to World Bicycle Relief.
A limited number of private tables and sponsorship opportunities are available and can be purchased directly through Interbike. Contact Andria Klinger at (949) 226-5745 or andria.klinger@emeraldexpo.com for more information.
