The National Bike Challenge is on!

[SpokeGrenadeSR]

muahahaha, biking 3800 miles across the country june-august will surely give me a chance at some kind of a prize. right? or are there cyclist masochists who will beat that with ease..

[KLizotte]

muahahaha, biking 3800 miles across the country june-august will surely give me a chance at some kind of a prize. right? or are there cyclist masochists who will beat that with ease..

Evil plot! I like it. You'll surely be in the top tier and maybe there will be some real goodies to be had.

[PotomacCyclist]

Would be fun to get the DC area cyclists competing against, say, Portlanders. New Yorkers - pfftt. San Franciscans -double pfftt.

Competing against Amsterdam. We're toast.

But hey, if the World Series is only amongst American teams, there ain't no reason why we can't aim for world domination!

We now have Capital Bikeshare. That levels the playing field against the Dutch.

[americancyclo]

muahahaha, biking 3800 miles across the country june-august will surely give me a chance at some kind of a prize. right? or are there cyclist masochists who will beat that with ease..

If this competition is anything like the strava competitions, you'll be blown out of the water. as will I. Some guy in England climbed 15,000 ft in one ride. http://app.strava.com/rides/5389979 then again, he was in England, so maybe you have a chance!

[americancyclo]

Done. There is now a BikeArlington team. The team can have up to ten members.

Please join me!

Dana

I'm in!

[eminva]

If this competition is anything like the strava competitions, you'll be blown out of the water. as will I. Some guy in England climbed 15,000 ft in one ride. http://app.strava.com/rides/5389979 then again, he was in England, so maybe you have a chance!

I think the Strava competitions attract pros, maybe some of them sponsored by Strava? Hopefully this is geared more toward us commuter/recreational types.

I also signed up. Does anyone know how the points are calculated? I entered data for this week so far (but not today yet) and I only have 48 points. I'm letting my team down. You all have a bunch more points.

Liz

UPDATE: Wait a minute. It said 48 points and now it says 154 . . . well, maybe it's a moving target to keep things interesting.

Also we need a few more teammates! Join us.

[ronwalf]

I also signed up. Does anyone know how the points are calculated?

From the prize page:

Challenge Points accumulate based upon miles ridden with an additional 20 bonus points for each day that you ride.
Scoring: 1 mile = 1 challenge point
20 bonus points for each day that you ride

The warmup period started Feb 1st, and points will reset at the start of the challenge. Prizes are by drawing, so all you need to do is ride enough miles to qualify:

As you accumulate Challenge Points, you will achieve prize levels. This will automatically enter you in the
prize drawing at that level.

Prize Level, Challenge Points to Achieve Level, Prize Drawing to be held
Bronze, 50, At end of each month
Silver, 150, At end of each month
Gold, 500, At end of each month
Platinum, 1500, At end of Challenge

So, if you want to optimize your chances for winning the prizes with almost no miles, all you need to do is to bike 25 days in May (25*20 = 500), then bike 50 days in the remaining three months. If, instead you bike 10 miles a day, you need 17 days of riding in May and 33 in the remaining three months.

[elcee]

We now have Capital Bikeshare. That levels the playing field against the Dutch.

That might be wishful thinking! (Current population of the Netherlands is around 16.7 million.) I tried to find primary sources for statistics but there's very little that's in English.

Among the snippets of data cited in the article:

• The Dutch cycled 14.9 billion kilometres in 2009 ...
• The Netherlands has around eight deaths per 100 million km cycled ...
• The typical Dutch person cycles 800 km per year ...

Update: found a primary source.

[americancyclo]

write up of the BikeArlington team in GGW
http://greatergreaterwashington.org/...ike-challenge/

[Dirt]

Just out of curiosity... I'm late getting to this thread and to the National Bike Challenge. Do we need a 2nd Bike Arlington team? if so, what do we call it? BikeArlington B-team?