National Bike Challenge 2015-Washington Area All-Stars

[KLizotte]

NBC automatically syncs with Strava for me. I don’t have to do anything since I’ve given NBC permission to do so. Not sure why it is working for me but not others…..

[KLizotte]

How the heck does Wisconsin get so many people to sign up? It’s a rural state! Does that mean almost every citizen is out biking?!

[DismalScientist]

The National Bike Challenge originated from a Kimberly Clark corporate event. Why do you think a year’s supply of toilet paper is a prize? Trek Bicycle also has a lot of riders. With a lot of population in Milwaukee, Madison, and the Fox Valley, I don’t think Wisconsin is any more rural than Virginia.

[AFHokie]

From the US Census Bureau (2014):
Wisconsin Pop 5.7 million
Virginia Pop 8.3 million
Maryland Pop 5.9 million
DC Pop 658,893

One last population stat:
DC Metropolitan statistical area (2012) 5.8 million

[DismalScientist]

Am I to take from this that because DC has a smaller population that it is rural?

I would think that rural means a larger percentage of population outside of “urban” areas, however defined.

[dkel]

I just joined. Go All-Stars!

[AFHokie]

@DismalScientist 117099 wrote:

Am I to take from this that because DC has a smaller population that it is rural?

I would think that rural means a larger percentage of population outside of “urban” areas, however defined.

Realistically, I don’t think urban or rural has much bearing on who signed up for the challenge. I think you hit the nail on the head regarding Kimberly Clark & Trek. Between those two companies and subsidiaries whether through their various venders or friend/family association the percentage of the state’s population aware of the NBC is likely much greater than here. Most of the people I know who ride didn’t know anything about the NBC until I asked if they were participating.

However the current location of Kimberly Clark’s HQ is Dallas, TX, but according to their page they do still have a presence in WI but I do not know how large. I wonder what kind of participation bump (if any) exists in other regions with an NBC sponsor (3M, Wells Fargo, etc) or bike manufacturer?

[cvcalhoun]

The prizes for May are up, but it doesn’t look like any of the locals won one.

[DCLiz]

Does anyone know if you can look at your achievements from last year? It would be fun to compare where I am this year (points, badges, miles ridden) to the same time last year.

[Rod Smith]

@DCLiz 117473 wrote:

Does anyone know if you can look at your achievements from last year? It would be fun to compare where I am this year (points, badges, miles ridden) to the same time last year.

Not really but you can see how many points you scored for each month in 2014 or for the whole year by clicking on leaderboards, then 2014, then select any month or All, then search for your name.

[DCLiz]

@Rod Smith 117483 wrote:

Not really but you can see how many points you scored for each month in 2014 or for the whole year by clicking on leaderboards, then 2014, then select any month or All, then search for your name.

Thanks! I see I was doing more biking last year … at least to date. I wouldn’t have guessed that!

[dbb]

All,

Here is some analysis of the National Bike Challenge – specifically the competition between the Washington Area All Stars and the Gainesville team. While the graphs show the Plano team as well, I’m not going to discuss the Plano performance.

As of this morning, Gainesville leads Washington by 7,134 points. This gap has closed from their 9,252 point lead at the end of May.

For the first 10 days in June, Gainesville has received 45,568 points compared to 47,686 points for Washington.

Both Gainesville and Plano are beating Washington in the calculated miles per rider per day, where Gainesville has 27.0 miles per rider per day and Plano has 37.2. The All-Stars has only 22.2 miles per rider per day. Because the All Stars have many commuters, we are seeing the benefit of riding often.

If you look at the number of rider-days (determined by calculating the number of days ridden), we see the benefit of the All Stars’s commuter contingent. Washington has 282 more rider days than Gainesville (4,259 vs 3,977).

The dilemma we face is that as of yesterday, only 184 (74%) of the All Stars 250 members have logged miles with the NBC. This compares with Gainesville’s 228 (65%) of 350 members and Plano’s 172 (78%) of 221 members.

What are the key points here?

• If you are riding and logging your miles, please keep up the good work.
• If you are riding and not logging your miles, please log your miles so the All Stars earns those points
• If you aren’t riding, please start (and log your miles)
• If you know a fellow rider who rides regularly, please ask them to join the All Stars and log their miles

Thank you for your attention .

[DismalScientist]

Pardon me, but why do we want to log miles as we ride? It’s not like this is a friendly competition like freezing saddles. Sandbag the hell against Gainesville.

[cvcalhoun]

@DismalScientist 117822 wrote:

Pardon me, but why do we want to log miles as we ride? It’s not like this is a friendly competition like freezing saddles. Sandbag the hell against Gainesville.

Whether or not we log as we ride, we definitely need to log by the end of the month. Otherwise, the rides are not counted for that month’s prizes, and it’s unclear whether they are counted at all.

[Mikey]

Can’t we get that first place rider who is putting in something like 750,000 miles this year to join our team. We can offer him cool Bike Arlington Swag right?

[Author]

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