September 30th marked the end of the 2014 National Bike Challenge, a free ride-tracking initiative sponsored by the League of American Bicyclists.
The purpose of the Challenge was to inspire people to ride more often and to engage in friendly competition at the individual, team, city, and state level.
Participants could log their rides manually through the NBC website, or they could upload rides that they tracked through one of several eligible smartphone apps. Sport and fitness rides, bike commutes, and mountain biking trips were all eligible to earn points. For every mile of bicycling entered per day, riders received 20 points. Every additional mile earned 1 point per mile. This scoring system allowed those who ride daily (but perhaps not very far) to keep up with weekend fitness cyclists who rack up lots of miles in a few outings. Once certain point benchmarks were achieved, Challenge riders became eligible for monthly prize drawings.
Below are stats from Georgia for the entire Challenge period, May 1- Sep 30. Congratulations to everyone who participated and helped make this year the biggest, most successful Challenge yet! Watch for announcements this spring about how to participate in 2015.
- GA came in 4th place out of 14 southern states and placed 23rd nationally
- 1,075 Georgians particpated in the Challenge, logging over 482,000 miles, the equivalent of a round-trip journey to the moon!
- 19% of rides logged were for transportation
- Among statewide teams, the Bicycling Club of Milledgeville eked out a win over the Camden County Cycling Club by just 618 points
- The always impressive Pecan City Pedalers of Albany were close behind them with over 87,000 points