2013 National Bike Challenge
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@creadinger 47502 wrote:
I didn’t have any trouble signing up for Team Crystal City. Maybe try signing up for that team first, and then if you really want to you can switch over to the BA team. :rolleyes:
Haha, you’re on Crystal? Good luck with that. We have five riders who each have more points than your entire 28 member team, but the contest has yet to start and we’re all even until it does. Bike Arlington All Stars will let you know what’s up May Day.
Go Crystal Ride! I didn’t mean any harm by comparing their team size and number of points to the “greater” Arlington Team.
Yes Arlington is much bigger than Crystal City and furthermore Marylanders, Washingtonians and non-Arlingtonian Virginians have joined the Bike Arlington team! Last year some teams had brief descriptions on their Endomondo team page of what their team is about. I wanted to write something about promoting bicycling in Arlington, VA and the greater DC area to put in that space but this year I don’t see that option. I will write something in the comments.In this sense, we are allies not enemies with Crystal City and with ALL the teams in the National Bike Challenge. The purpose of the Challenge is to promote cycling, increase the number of cyclists in America and increase the use of bicycles in our daily lives. Except “Fish on a Bike” which has foreigners on it, which is against the rules. Bad fish! Haha, just kidding. Officially, entrance is restricted to people living in USA or working for a company that employs Americans, but I think it’s cool that they have members from, at last count, 26 different nations! I’m curious about how they came together as a team. I notice a lot of them did not choose bicycling as their favorite sport.
My favorite sport isn’t really snowboarding, by the way. Telemark skiing wasn’t on the list and while it’s very similar to alpine skiing, it’s not the same thing. Asking me to identify as an alpine skier, is kinda like asking a dedicated fixie rider to say his favorite sport is riding a multi-gear bicycle.
If this was a skiing forum, this is where someone replies “Nobody cares that you tele, Rod!”. A valid point that no one here would probably make, so I’ll do it myself. :pOK. I watched these sort of boring webinars. One for people who work for companies, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHo3hnucdqI&feature=youtu.be
and this one for people with bicycle advocacy organizations (AOs) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZRXllUgqX4
One thing I didn’t know was the local challenges are run by AOs and riders in some locales might not have a local challange. You should see the logo of the AO that started you local challenge above the LAB logo when viewing the NBC site after clicking on “local”. Mine is Bike Maryland and I’d assumed all local challenges were statewide but my situation maybe atypical. How is it in Nova?
I think you’ll like how the “communities” are set up this year. Last year we were in an odd position, having our community (Greater DC etc.) spreading our efforts over several of the Local challenges. To top this off a county or two counties in WVa were thrown into our “community”.
This year your community is your local town or city based on zip code.When they were showing how to view the leaderboard, they mentioned the leading communities in Class I, Class II and Class III
cities were Arlington, VA, McLean, VA (quote “…so Virginia is off to a good start!”) and Brentwood MD, (“…doing quite well”).A few other things I’d like to mention but I’m running late. Two speakers warn to “choose your team wisely!” Not sure what that means but it may be hard to change teams this year? (It was not last year.)
You can join or form both a “workplace” team and another “team” team such as Bike Arlington All Stars. Or you can choose your corporation as your “workplace”, and form a “team” of workers from your local branch or department, then challenge the other departments.
The NBC was created to increase bicycling among those who don’t ride often, getting people to find out how much fun it is, and converting them. If you want to create a team with people at work or church or your neighborhood, you should! But don’t ride solo! Join the existing Bike Arlington team if you don’t want to start or join another. It’s more fun to be on a team!
The BA team is doing great! Thanks everyone for joining. We have four among the top ten riders and we are way out in front among medium sized teams, but log your miles anyway! I don’t know if it’s easier to do so this year for smartphone users or not. It’s simple with my Garmin to log rides. Same process as with Strava or Garmin Connect.
No local challenge in NoVa!? Maybe Bike Arlington could host a challenge for Northern Virginia. Bike Arlington has a great history with the challenge, putting together three strong teams in the first year the challenge went national and currently with a highly placed team in the warm up period. BTW, I think the higher your company/community/team places in the warm-up period, the better you can sell it to coworkers, community leaders, friends and neighbors to promote or participate in the challenge and join your team or workplace. So it makes sense to figure out how to log rides and get into the practice of doing so now.
@eminva 48736 wrote:
Just like last year, I do not get a “Local” to click on. But I’m killing it in Vienna! (The only one who has posted any miles so far).
So, you can join both a workplace team and another team? Last year, the cyclists at my company formed a team which I was on; I was waiting this year to see if we do it again. But if I can do both — ?
This is all very complicated . . . the fact that they even need webinars should tell them it’s getting out of hand.
Thanks, Rod, for trying to decipher this.
Liz
Vienna rocks!
If it’s hard to understand, it’s because I’ve explained it badly. There are a lot of details but you needn’t trouble yourself with them. The webinars are directed to people who want to register workplaces or start Local challenges, not so much to help individual participants. I don’t know that the webinars are “needed” so much. I see them as promotional. On that topic YOU are totally getting your workplace involved, commenting on the team page, really good work, kudos! Sorry to hear that you’re reluctantly involved. It appears you are an inspiration to your co-workers from their comments.
Yes, you can join BA All Stars, or another team, or start your own and still remain on your workplace team. Minimum age is 13 so if your son starts a team with his Boy Scout troop members, the younger ones would have to work around that. The webinar speaker was being a little cagey about this but I think he was suggesting a parent sets ups his child’s entry (perhaps fudging DOB?) The NBC does not have a minimum age but Endomondo does.The boy scout troop team maybe a crazy idea. I don’t know. If you kid wants to join my team, I’m not checking IDs.
@Subby 48743 wrote:
I thought you and I were the only ones listed for McLean – at least the last time I checked.
You have twice as many as Brentwood. Quit whining.
I’m hoping to recruit some help!@rcannon100 48758 wrote:
I went round and round with the LAB contact about this asking (a) could I set up a federal agency challenge and (b) could we set up a local challenge. I cannot say I really understand the answer, but the short answer was that I was told that WABA would be the local AO setting up the local challenge. Have yet to hear from WABA about this – but that would be good (Mark? Mark? Rumors calling Mark?).
Does anyone understand the other Federal Agency Challenge happening in May? Did they ever put out info on who, what, where, why. I have contacted the coordinator several times but never received specifics.
Bob
You need to be a bicycling advocacy organization to sponsor a Local Challenge. My guess, the inclusionary nature of the NBC would not favor a Local Challenge that excludes non-governmental workers. The Local Challenges are based more on location than anything else. Is the Federal Agency Challenge on Endomondo? Hopefully you can get some answers to your questions about that.
28 members now, just two short of the thirty that joined BA teams last year. Thanks newest team members Karen and Shawn for signing up!
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