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

[DaveK]

@eminva 23186 wrote:

Right — it’s a huge resort (or so it appears from the website), so I was hoping there would be some trails I could ride around on without even going out into the larger world. As a side note, I took my son to Walt Disney World late last summer and was impressed with the wide roads throughout the Disney property (which was as big as some small cities I’ve been to). Though traffic moved fast, it was somewhat sparse when we were there, so cycling through would have been doable. Nonetheless, I only saw a couple people cycling while there. They may have been employees, because there really isn’t anywhere to go around there besides the parks and hotels. It makes sense that they don’t have any infrastructure — I’m sure the only people interested would be a tiny percentage of their employees and diehard fitness fanatics because not many people want to exercise while on vacation (aside from wandering from Space Mountain to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad).

But they will probably be keeping me too busy to think of recreation. Plus it will be hot. Oh well.

Liz

Cycling around the roads of the Disney empire is possible and relatively safe, I’ve done it. It will be brutally hot since there’s virtually no shade anywhere though.

My advice?

All of the Disney properties have very large, very nicely appointed pools.

[consularrider]

@DaveK 23208 wrote:

Cycling around the roads of the Disney empire is possible and relatively safe, I’ve done it. It will be brutally hot since there’s virtually no shade anywhere though.

My advice?

All of the Disney properties have very large, very nicely appointed pools.

So your recommendation is a waterbike?

[dbb]

Just looked at the local leaderboard. BikeArlington is rocking!

Of the riders in the top 20 locally, consularrider is number 1 and 10 of the 20 spots are occupied by a rider from one of the three BikeArlington teams. There are three solo riders, two from Feam Finra, and one each from Crystal City (go Arlington!), Oxon Hill, IDD, Coffee Club and Federal Cyclists Commission.

Nationally, the BikeArlington teams are placed 14, 15 and 32 out of 2534 teams. Pretty good for America’s smallest county!

[DaveK]

@consularrider 23224 wrote:

So your recommendation is a waterbike?

They have those too!

But I prefer jet skis.

[eminva]

The place I am staying is not on Disney property. I did a Google Maps search and looked at Streetview — DaveK is right; there is no place inviting to bike there. The website advertises the mother of all pools, if you can even call it that (more like a series of interlinked football field sized bodies of water). Not that I can swim, or aqua bike, or anything of that nature.

Yes, my colleagues and I from Team Finra are doing pretty well, if not up to Bike Arlington standards. We are divided by jurisdiction as are some other local teams. However, our #1 and #3 cyclists both reside in America’s smallest county (is it really?).

Liz

[consularrider]

@dbb 23243 wrote:

Just looked at the local leaderboard. BikeArlington is rocking!

Of the riders in the top 20 locally, consularrider is number 1 and 10 of the 20 spots are occupied by a rider from one of the three BikeArlington teams. There are three solo riders, two from Feam Finra, and one each from Crystal City (go Arlington!), Oxon Hill, IDD, Coffee Club and Federal Cyclists Commission.

Nationally, the BikeArlington teams are placed 14, 15 and 32 out of 2534 teams. Pretty good for America’s smallest county!

Actually, Dirt is the number 1 rider in Virginia, someone named Tom Lepore is number 2, and I’m 3rd (just like the good old YMCA motto – although Dirt as the deity?).

[rcannon100]

Several of us on Federal Cyclists Commission are from Arlington & Alexandria! One served on Arlington BAC I believe.

Go Arlington!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1236[/ATTACH]

[dbb]

@consularrider 23251 wrote:

Actually, Dirt is the number 1 rider in Virginia, someone named Tom Lepore is number 2, and I’m 3rd (just like the good old YMCA motto – although Dirt as the deity?).

It is unclear why Pete doesn’t show up on the local side of the ledger. I suppose it is a software “feature”. I assembled the top 20 based on the local leaderboard and that neglected to include Dirt. No offense was intended. I think if you look at team Finra (and FCC as rcannon100 pointed out), you would find BikeArlington folks as well.

[PotomacCyclist]

@consularrider 23224 wrote:

So your recommendation is a waterbike?

I recommend this:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1237[/ATTACH]

[KelOnWheels]

@PotomacCyclist 23258 wrote:

I recommend this:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1237[/ATTACH]

Properly labeled for safety, of course:
[ATTACH]1243[/ATTACH]

[Mikey]

The Killer Bees are fully platinum, 10 riders all above 1500 points. Go team! Although, the platinum drawing is only at the end and I think most of us will above 1500 pts by then, but still great going guys/girls!

[Dirt]

@essigmw 23762 wrote:

The Killer Bees are fully platinum, 10 riders all above 1500 points. Go team! Although, the platinum drawing is only at the end and I think most of us will above 1500 pts by then, but still great going guys/girls!

I’m not platinum for June yet. Hopefully will be by Saturday night.

[americancyclo]

Just squeaked over 1500 points!

[Megabeth]

Also, we hit another milestone, the Killer Bees have ridden over 10,000 miles since the beginning of May. (10,124 to be exact).

[dbb]

Maybe the “feature” that keeps Dirt from showing up as local is a way to keep the race fair. Anybody that can get to platinum each month is out of my league! Well done, Pete!

The A team has 7 or 10 platinum and the C team has 6 of 10 platinum. No question that all 30 team members should be there before the final drawing where that matters.

[Author]

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