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It’s time again for the annual National Bike Challenge, a free nationwide event that promotes recreational and transportation bicycling through friendly competition between riders on local, state, and national levels. The challenge starts May 1 and runs through September 30, and is hosted in Houghton and Keweenaw counties by local advocacy group Bike Initiative Keweenaw (BIKE!).
Last year, the local challenge finished in second place nationally, with 377 riders logging more than 127,000 miles. Nationally, 45,000 riders covered more than 25 million miles. Local challenges are ranked in points per capita, which makes it possible for less populated areas like Houghton and Keweenaw counties to compete with big cities.
New this year is the national challenge website, built on Strava, a robust platform used by over a million fitness enthusiasts and athletes. This year’s local goals include signing up 200 riders on the new challenge site and logging a total of 150,000 miles.
“We invite everyone to join in helping us reach our local goals and again achieving a national ranking,” said a local bike challenge coordinator Josh Myles. “Whether you ride roads or trails, commute or ride for recreation, log your miles on Strava manually or with GPS, it’s fun and easy to take part.”
Visit bikeinitiativekeweenaw.org for more information on the challenge, sign-up instructions, events including a sign-up help session and a midnight kick-off group ride, and news during the challenge. BIKE! can also be found on Facebook and Twitter. Find out more about the National Bike Challenge at nationalbikechallenge.org.
