National Bike Challenge – Washington Area All Stars team

[cvcalhoun]

Looks like WAAS finally had a winner on the August prizes! Bikeeveryday won a Podiumware Active Tech Tee.

[Judd]

@cvcalhoun 164854 wrote:

Looks like WAAS finally had a winner on the August prizes! Bikeeveryday won a Podiumware Active Tech Tee.

The fix is in. Ricky also won something last year. I can’t remember if it was a t-shirt or socks.

Our own Fast Snuggly Guy was also a winner of a Project 529 Garage Registration Kit, described thusly:

This kit allows you to quickly capture critical information about your bike and register it with the 529 national network, making it easy for law enforcement to trace and reclaim your bike if stolen. This prize is made possible courtesy of Project 529.

[Judd]

I’ve been having a lot of trouble getting into the National Bike Challenge this year. It’s never seemed as fun as two years ago when the North Central Florida Crackers were neck and neck with the All-Stars. I think the amount of ways that you can slice the leaderboards this year also has diminished the fun a bit.

It’s still really nice to look through the individual leaderboard and see so many DC area folks near the top. Bob James is in fourth place, three places behind the HAMR holder. Ken Ray is in 9th place after biking across the entire U.S. this summer. The Enthusigator is in 50th place. Rod Smith is at 72nd. I’m hanging in at 129th and cursing all those weeks that I didn’t push myself a little bit more to break into the Top 100 this year. Eric Williams strategy of riding a short commute and then doing 380 mile bike rides has put him in 178th.

[dkel]

@Judd 164914 wrote:

It’s still really nice to look through the individual leaderboard and see so many DC area folks near the top.

A cool 5047th here. Suck it, losers! :rolleyes:

[Judd]

@dkel 164922 wrote:

A cool 5047th here. Suck it, losers! :rolleyes:

5,047th out of 24,105 riders, which puts you in the 20.9% of all riders in the nation. If it was run like Freezing Saddles you’d probably be in the top 1% for some pointless prize involving pancake consumption.

[huskerdont]

Every time I tried to log in the last few weeks it would just sit and spin, but it worked today. Apparently 1,377th. Whatevs. There will always be someone who does more or goes faster, and someone who does less and goes slower. I’m tempted to just make all the Strava rides private so I can resist competing with random people, but so far there has been no OCD to speak of. We’ll see about Freezing Saddles. I mean, I don’t want to end up like Judd Snugglejack.

[MFC]

worked for me today, although I have not checked it for a few weeks before this. I seem to be either 1823 or 1929, depending on where you look.

[Judd]

@huskerdont 164934 wrote:

We’ll see about Freezing Saddles. I mean, I don’t want to end up like Judd Snugglejack.

Having been me for 37 years, I wouldn’t recommend it.

Freezing Saddles has been both the best thing that I’ve ever done and also the worst thing that I’ve ever done. I’m grateful for all the friends I have and all of the adventures that I’ve gone on, but I sometimes grind myself too far down by being competitive.

[bentbike33]

Team Friday Legs is still the number one team with fewer than 10 members.

[consularrider]

I’m currently 286th on a 150 day streak. Somehow the NBC couldn’t manage to snyc my April 11 from Strava.

[Judd]

Congratulations to our own Bob James who finished in 4th Place in the National Bike Challenge.

I’m still taking up a collection to relocate Bob outside of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

[streetsmarts]

@Steve O 161612 wrote:

Hey!! Look at this
[ATTACH=CONFIG]14981[/ATTACH]

It’s Mr. Kitty! Congratulations!

Mr. Kitty!!

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[Kitty]

Well! Now that life has settled down for a brief moment, and the NBC website isn’t going into convulsions, I’ve finally been able to sit down and crunch the numbers:

Final numbers:
Distance: 2,968 miles (2016: 2,681 | 2015: 2,300 | 2014: ~1,300)
Days: 146 (Everything but the one-week nautical vacation)
Points: 5,888
Rankings:

• Arlington: 8th (Women: 4th)
• Virginia: 28th (Women: 8th)
• National: 887th, 3.7 percentile (Women:102nd)
• MSU Spartans: 3rd (Women:1st)

So for the 5th year in a row, I’ve managed to increase my miles over last year’s NBC total (by 287.2 mi). I’d say that’s not bad considering I rode 6 fewer days than last year, got doored (leaving my hand out of commission for 5 weeks), and had to take the bike in for major repairs twice (something I try to avoid during the challenge).

This isn’t the real story though. That’s the tale of “Mr. Kitty.” Last year we had only just gotten him the first bike of his adult life. This year he resolved to ride everyday he could of the NBC, even doing “sleaze rides” when sick/teleworking. Here are his numbers:

Final numbers:
Distance: 444 miles (2017 prior to the NBC: 50)
Days: 145 (Everything but the one-week nautical vacation)
Points: 3,444
Rankings:

• Arlington: 24th
• Virginia: 115th
• National: 4557th, 13.7 percentile
• MSU Spartans: 8th

This NBC alone has accounted for 58.2% of all of his adult lifetime miles (Yes, we got him on Strava the day he got his bike. I have the data.) In this challenge he’s had his longest ride to date (a modifed Arlington loop, 1st time!), AND has had to luck to win both an NBC price and a Car Free Day prize! I’m not sure how long he’ll continue after the challenge, but I couldn’t be happier with this start.

@Judd 164914 wrote:

I’ve been having a lot of trouble getting into the National Bike Challenge this year. It’s never seemed as fun as two years ago when the North Central Florida Crackers were neck and neck with the All-Stars. I think the amount of ways that you can slice the leaderboards this year also has diminished the fun a bit.

Yeah, sadly this seems to be the 2nd year in a row when the website has gotten into the way of fully enjoying the NBC. Last year it was buggy as all-get-out and wouldn’t load half the time. This year, because of the clean-slate wipe of everything, I feel like we lost a lot of participants: both in the individual groups/teams and in the aggregate. The fact that teams/groups/schools etc. were tied to Strava groups messed with a lot of stuff. I always had the niggling feeling of what was on the screen was only a fraction of the story, and that teams in the lead were because they were able to get more people onto the new platform. (case in point Washington Area All Stars)

On the plus side, Arlington just barely beat Alexandria for #1 in Virginia, so that’s fun. *highfive*

@streetsmarts 166129 wrote:

Mr. Kitty!!

We’ve decided until such a time he joins the forum and asserts his own identity, he will be referred to as such henceforth.

[Author]

Posts