National Bike Challenge 2015-Washington Area All-Stars

[cvcalhoun]

Just a reminder: The challenge begins two weeks from tomorrow. Sign up (and join the Washington Area All-Stars) now!

[cvcalhoun]

The National Bike Challenge begins this Friday! So far our team, the Washington Area All-Stars, has 180 riders. However, we’re competing with at least one team with 309 riders. While we’ve nevertheless been #1 in the country in miles ridden preseason, we’re facing a big handicap in terms of number of riders. Can we get as many people as possible from the DC area to sign up? As previously mentioned, once a team is over 100 members, standings are determined by total team points, not by points per person. So you’ll help, not hurt, the team by joining, even if you ride only a little bit.

[cvcalhoun]

The National Bike Challenge begins this Friday! So far our team, the Washington Area All-Stars, has 180 riders. However, we’re competing with at least one team with 309 riders. While we’ve nevertheless been #1 in the country in miles ridden preseason, we’re facing a big handicap in terms of number of riders. (Last year, we were also #1 in the preseason, but came in second to a team with 295 members in the actual challenge.) Can we get as many people as possible from the DC area to sign up? As previously mentioned, once a team is over 100 members, standings are determined by total team points, not by points per person. So you’ll help, not hurt, the team by joining, even if you ride only a little bit.

[cvcalhoun]

The National Bike Challenge begins this Friday! So far our team, the Washington Area All-Stars, has 180 riders. However, we’re competing with at least one team with 309 riders. While we’ve nevertheless been #1 in the country in miles ridden preseason, we’re facing a big handicap in terms of number of riders. (Last year, we were also #1 in the preseason, but came in second to a team with 295 members in the actual challenge.) Can we get as many people as possible from the DC area to sign up? As previously mentioned, once a team is over 100 members, standings are determined by total team points, not by points per person. So you’ll help, not hurt, the team by joining, even if you ride only a little bit.

[lordofthemark]

As long as I don’t have to do any friggin sleaze rides, I will join.

[cvcalhoun]

@lordofthemark 114533 wrote:

As long as I don’t have to do any friggin sleaze rides, I will join.

I can assure you, we’ll be delighted to have you, even if you aren’t sleazy!

[DCLiz]

OK, done. Rode with Women & Bicycling last year, but if my points help this team actually be competitive, happy to throw them into the pool.

Oh, hello there from your friendly fair-weather cyclist! Started riding again April 1, motivated by the #30DaysofBiking challenge, and am pleased to report that I’ve been on a bike every day for 25 days so far! Earned a silver badge in the Bike Challenge, which I’ll have to re-earn in May when they clear the slate.

FYI – the prizes for May have been posted. Really good prizes this year! https://nationalbikechallenge.org/prizes

[cvcalhoun]

@DCLiz 114535 wrote:

OK, done. Rode with Women & Bicycling last year, but if my points help this team actually be competitive, happy to throw them into the pool.

Oh, hello there from your friendly fair-weather cyclist! Started riding again April 1, motivated by the #30DaysofBiking challenge, and am pleased to report that I’ve been on a bike every day for 25 days so far! Earned a silver badge in the Bike Challenge, which I’ll have to re-earn in May when they clear the slate.

FYI – the prizes for May have been posted. Really good prizes this year! https://nationalbikechallenge.org/prizes

Welcome to the team!

[Supermau]

I’m in. Already logging miles but I guess they don’t count yet. Good practice anyway.

[cvcalhoun]

@Supermau 114541 wrote:

I’m in. Already logging miles but I guess they don’t count yet. Good practice anyway.

Great!

[Emm]

I just sent the invite out to my small federal agency @ HHS to join the challenge. We’ll see if anyone new joins.

If your an HHS-er, PLEASE add it as your workplace–I programmed the info in last year. I’m happy add your work location to the options if that helps. It’s kinda sad that the Department that’s all about health and wellness has such small workplace group on the NBC.

[rcannon100]

Has your agency joined the Federal Bike Challenge? A one month challenge inside the Cascade Bike to Work Month challenge. http://www.luum.com/challenges/88/bike-month-challenge

[Mikey]

I’ve signed up and I will get my wife signed up.

For those who signed up for Freezing Saddles, this is much different, even though the point system is essentially the same. For Freezing Saddles the teams are small around 10 people. The format for NBC is more total biking bragging rights for a town/metro area. There are three categories for teams, small – 10 and under, medium 11 – 100 and large greater than 100. The teams that get the most attention are the ones in the large group, and much like a heavy weight boxer where there is no upper limit on your size, the goal is to get as big as you can. More people means more miles and more points. There are no points for points/contestant, although Washington Area All Stars would win that. So sign up, even if you only log 1 mile during the challenge you are helping the team.

[cvcalhoun]

@Mikey 114658 wrote:

I’ve signed up and I will get my wife signed up.

For those who signed up for Freezing Saddles, this is much different, even though the point system is essentially the same. For Freezing Saddles the teams are small around 10 people. The format for NBC is more total biking bragging rights for a town/metro area. There are three categories for teams, small – 10 and under, medium 11 – 100 and large greater than 100. The teams that get the most attention are the ones in the large group, and much like a heavy weight boxer where there is no upper limit on your size, the goal is to get as big as you can. More people means more miles and more points. There are no points for points/contestant, although Washington Area All Stars would win that. So sign up, even if you only log 1 mile during the challenge you are helping the team.

Actually, there are five categories of teams:

Small Up to 10 riders
Medium 11 to 24 riders
Large 25 to 49 riders
X-Large 50 to 99 riders
Jumbo 100+ riders

However, your basic point remains. Washington Area All-Stars is already in the largest category, so extra riders won’t push us into a new category. And since we compete on the basis of total miles, not miles per rider, having more riders will help even if they don’t ride much.

[cvcalhoun]

And we’re up to 191 riders. Only 104 more riders needed to catch up with Gainesville (the team that beat us last year)! Okay, so maybe catching up to their number of riders isn’t realistic. But for the first four months of this year, we’ve already put in 201,386 miles to their 63,810. Now we’ve just got to make sure they don’t overtake us once the competition starts, the way they did last year.

[Author]

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