The National Bike Challenge is on!

[KLizotte]

Start your Pedals, America – The Get Up & Ride

National Bike Challenge Is On!

New online competition will engage and connect bicyclists from coast to coast.

Washington, D.C. – March 21, 2012 – Launched today by a powerful alliance of the Kimberly-Clark Corporation, the League of American Bicyclists, Bikes Belong and Endomondo, the National Bike Challenge aims to inspire and empower millions of Americans to ride their bikes for transportation, recreation and better health.

The Challenge is simple: Sign up as an individual or as a team, log your miles, share your stories and encourage others to join you. Riders will compete for prizes and awards on the local and national level, including a Grand Prize trip through California wine country from Trek Travel. Already, organizations in 26 states have committed to participate and have started warming up for the May 1 start date on the Challenge website: nationalbikechallenge.org.

“The League is excited about this unique opportunity to share the many benefits of bicycling and offer a fun, engaging entry point for new riders,” said Andy Clarke, President of the League of American Bicyclists. “There’s nothing like riding a bike with your friends and colleagues and the National Bike Challenge will create a new social network of cyclists stretching from coast to coast.”

The online initiative was piloted by Kimberly-Clark (K-C), Endomondo and the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin in 2011. The idea was sparked by K-C research engineer, Rob Gusky, and Kimberly-Clark extended the competition to its 57,000 global employees. The Challenge proved to be a great team building and wellness activity for K-C’s sustainability efforts globally. Participating K-C employees logged 357,739 miles globally, with U.S. employees pedaling 182,210 miles. The success in Wisconsin led to a bigger vision: Taking the challenge to the national level.

“We’re pleased to be the national sponsor of the Challenge as it supports the wellness of our employees and the communities we serve, while contributing to improved air quality by replacing car travel with clean, healthy bicycle trips,” said Jan Spencer, K-C’s senior vice president of continuous improvement/procurement/ sustainability. “This year, K-C is providing an extra incentive for our global team members: The Kimberly-Clark Foundation will donate 10 cents to the League of American Bicyclists for every mile logged by a K-C employee during the 2012 Challenge.”

The platform for the National Bike Challenge was created by Endomondo, a social fitness network with 7.5 million users worldwide. “Riding a bike for transportation is among the top five activities for our European users, and we look forward to helping expand this kind of biking in the U.S. with this campaign,” said Mette Lykke, Co-Founder of Endomondo. “Logging your miles is easy and the social interaction with co-workers, family and friends really makes it fun and motivating to get up and ride.”

“Bikes Belong is delighted to be a part of the National Bike Challenge, which provides all the tools to help more people ride bikes more often,” said Bruno Maier, vice president of Bikes Belong. “We’re looking forward to seeing all the different types of riders who participate. The Challenge is a great way to encourage people to live healthier lives.”

The Challenge runs from May 1 to August 31, 2012, but the public is invited to sign up now and get warmed up. For more information, visit http://www.nationalbikechallenge.org. Join us at facebook.com/nationalbikechallenge.

Topic

[consularrider]

@vvill 21467 wrote:

Good to see almost all the A team checking in!

It’s interesting to see combined daily miles in the team, and the daily variations. I don’t think you can see them for other teams, so here’s some recent days from the A team:

May
27 – 128
28 – 242
29 – 208
30 – 173
31 – 195
Jun
1 – 52
2 – 34
3 – 171
4 – 180
5 – 201

The highest I’ve seen is 488 miles on May 20.

What happened last Friday and Saturday? Just about all of those miles were mine. Did nobody other than me ride on Saturday, it was a seriously beautiful day to be out on the bike and I enjoyed looping around Arlington!

[eminva]

@consularrider 21469 wrote:

What happened last Friday and Saturday? Just about all of those miles were mine. Did nobody other than me ride on Saturday, it was a seriously beautiful day to be out on the bike and I enjoyed looping around Arlington!

I did ride on Saturday. But I’m not on the A Team. It was nice, but there was a 18-22 mph wind from the west as I headed out past Ashburn.

Liz

[vvill]

@consularrider 21469 wrote:

What happened last Friday and Saturday? Just about all of those miles were mine. Did nobody other than me ride on Saturday, it was a seriously beautiful day to be out on the bike and I enjoyed looping around Arlington!

Friday did have the storm but I thought the dearth of Saturday miles was odd too. I guess it was a conflagration of non-biking events/duties. I was busy with my son’s 4th birthday party.

[Certifried]

I have 615 points, and should be logging many more (hopefully) soon as I start commuting on a more regular basis. I’m still team-less if anyone needs another member

[Dirt]

@consularrider 21469 wrote:

What happened last Friday and Saturday? Just about all of those miles were mine. Did nobody other than me ride on Saturday, it was a seriously beautiful day to be out on the bike and I enjoyed looping around Arlington!

The B-Sample Positive team had similar reductions in mileage for Friday and Saturday, though not quite as severe. We’re usually in the low to mid 200’s and we had 89 and 111 respectively. People were prepping for the weekend, I guess.

[Mikey]

Remeber the weather forecasts for Friday were very dire, I think many people didn’t bike in for fear of not being able to bike home. I usually do 50 miles on friday but had to cut my afternoon short because of the Stormmageddon (R). Maybe people on Saturday woke up and their houses were entirely surrounded by water and could only bike in circles for so long before they got bored.

Makes me think, “What would Piglet do?”

[dbb]

@consularrider 21469 wrote:

What happened last Friday and Saturday? Just about all of those miles were mine. Did nobody other than me ride on Saturday, it was a seriously beautiful day to be out on the bike and I enjoyed looping around Arlington!

Speaking as one of the slackers, I was on my way to Virginia Beach. Been trying to pick up miles there. Nothing to compare with consularriders miles and consistency.

[rcannon100]

I rode on Friday and Saturday. I was in first place for about 15 minutes :p That wont happen again any time soon. My personal goal is to stay with the second page peloton (riders 11-20). I like the days where the weather dude forecasts the end of the world as we know it; cheap way to pick up a few spots on the leaderboard :rolleyes:

[KLizotte]

@Dirt 21494 wrote:

The B-Sample Positive team had similar reductions in mileage for Friday and Saturday, though not quite as severe. We’re usually in the low to mid 200’s and we had 89 and 111 respectively. People were prepping for the weekend, I guess.

I thought the weather on Saturday was absolutely *fabulous* and took advantage of it by biking to the East of the Anacostia trails via the MBT and Northeast DC for the first time. I took some back roads in NE to avoid RI Ave. I ended up biking the length of the paved portion of the NW Branch trail and the Anacostia Trail (it’s very short). Stumbled across a Carribbean festival on the waterfront.

Note to all: unless you are a very intrepid MTB rider, you can’t do a loop of NW Branch trail to Wheaton Regional Park to the Sligo Creek trail. The NW Branch trail stops at about the 7 mile mark without warning and turns into a hiking trail (though I did see a few tire marks). I was disappointed since it looked doable according to the official MD Bike Trail map. Aside from that, the NW Branch trail is quite pretty and shaded.

The other cyclists I met on the Anacostia trails were all like me, refugees from the crowded west of DC trails.

[PotomacCyclist]

I remember when Capital Bikeshare sponsored the Winter Weather Warrior contest last year, to encourage members to keep riding the bikes over the winter. On adverse weather days, participants would get double credit for their miles that day. Of course, riding in a light snowfall is not the same thing as riding in a summer thunderstorm.

[rcannon100]

30% chance of rain today. Best not to risk it; recommend taking the bus :rolleyes: [getting the bike bag ready]

[Certifried]

@rcannon100 21534 wrote:

30% chance of rain today. Best not to risk it; recommend taking the bus :rolleyes: [getting the bike bag ready]

I purposely strayed from my previous routine (driving my car down the day before, Metro home, bike in the next day, drive home with bike) today. I spent $120 on a bontrager rain shell, and going to see if it was worth it today. Of course, I didn’t pick up booties or a helmet cover, so I’m kind of screwed LOL

[DismalScientist]

@Certifried 21552 wrote:

I purposely strayed from my previous routine (driving my car down the day before, Metro home, bike in the next day, drive home with bike) today. I spent $120 on a bontrager rain shell, and going to see if it was worth it today. Of course, I didn’t pick up booties or a helmet cover, so I’m kind of screwed LOL

Well, I spent almost $200 on two sets of studded tires for last winter. Used them exactly never.:rolleyes:

[Certifried]

@DismalScientist 21558 wrote:

Well, I spent almost $200 on two sets of studded tires for last winter. Used them exactly never.:rolleyes:

good thing winter comes around every year! (well, except last year, right…)

[rcannon100]

What would be the fun of a rain storm if you didnt get wet and get to go splashing through the puddles??

[Author]

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