By tradition, mass bike rides in Turkmenistan celebrate the global holiday - World Bicycle Day. And it appeared in 2018, when the UN General Assembly, by its resolution, supported the initiative of our country and declared June 3 World Bicycle Day.

Being a universal means of transportation, the bicycle has been accompanying mankind for over two hundred years. Of course, modern models differ from their predecessors, but the purpose of the vehicle remains the same. The word bicycle comes from the Latin words vēlōx - "fast" and pes - "leg". The fast "metal horse" in the modern era is associated with an environmentally friendly mode of transport and a healthy sports lifestyle.

Today in many cities of the world you can find unusual monuments to a two-wheeled friend of man.

For example, the visiting card of Ashgabat is the monument-monument "Bicycle" installed at the intersection of Chandybil and Bekreve avenues. The magnificent architectural ensemble was opened in June 2020 in honor of the aforementioned holiday. It personifies the connection of times - the past and the future in the very heart of the Great Silk Road. Every year, thousands of participants in a mass bike ride through the white marble capital of Turkmenistan start from here.

Bicycle monuments are also installed in the USA, Belgium, Russia and Latvia. In 2011, a giant bicycle sculpture appeared in the Georgian capital Tbilisi. The metal structure, 8 meters long and 4 meters high, installed on the Rose Revolution Square, has two rudders on one side and the other. The monument is dedicated to people who maintain a healthy lifestyle and prefer a bicycle as the most convenient means of transportation.

Another of the most famous bicycle monuments is the monument to cyclists of the Tour de France multi-day road cycling race. It was installed in France in 1996. The height of the sculptural composition, made of steel and aluminum, is 18 meters. The monument represents a cycling marathon, where the leader of the race is highlighted in bright yellow paint.

The Californian city of Santa Rosa is famous for its bicycle obelisk. The four-sided stele, 19 meters long, was created using more than 300 bicycles, compressed in a chaotic manner. Once in active use, two-wheeled beauties were donated to the monument by the cycling community.

And in Russian Yekaterinburg, a monument was erected to the inventor of the first Russian bicycle scooter, Efim Artamonov. According to legend, in 1801 the inventor traveled from Verkhoturye (a village in the Urals) to Moscow.

All these sculptural compositions, monuments and monuments prove that the bicycle has not lost its value in the modern world. A popular and economical mode of transport is chosen by both the older and younger generations.