And Feds who get furloughed have an advantage over those who don’t.
Etc.
Steve O’s point a few posts back made me realize there were a number of odd variables this year. My typical commute is 30 or so miles a day. When I was furloughed I lost that base and had to balance biking against a long list of projects at home. The 100 mile cap pushed me to get out and ride during January. Without it I would have done a lot more sleezing.
Also, the snow and furloughed NPS trail crew rendered my usual commute (down the CCT) impassable so on days when I was called back my commutes were much shorter and again the cap became a goal.
All in all, whatever system is used is going to have it’s own set of unintended consequences. I enjoyed this year (and not just because I got to captain team 7) considerably more than previous years because the goals for the teams were achievable. Really (aside from the pointless prizes) FS is two competitions. A team competition, which provides me with a lot of motivation to get out there and ride, and and individual competition, which really does noting for me personally.
The individual competition remained essentially unchanged and those who wanted to spend a lot of winter miles in the saddle were recognized for it.
Regional teams might be nice but my first years in FS I was stuck on a random MD team that was almost as geographically spread out as my team this year which made group rides or get together nearly impossible. So not much changed for me this year.
