Allen County bicyclists have banded together for the National Bike Challenge, raking up over a combined 5,000 miles through May to become the 88th ranked community in the country.
“At the most basic level it’s just a way for people to keep track of their miles that they’ve ridden during the summer and compare themselves against each other,” Randy Rasa, 51, an avid bike rider, said.
Out of all the people in the county, Rasa led the way peddling 862.7 miles. Lori Stottlemire had the second most with 605.1 miles, followed by Terry Broyles with 556.4 miles. All three ride their bikes primarily for the sport of it, not necessarily as a means of transportation.
Rasa believes that the challenge encourages people to ride their bikes.
“People see their friends, their neighbors and their coworkers logging miles and it encourages them to give it a try as well,” Rasa said. “In addition to just competing against each other, the other main purpose of the challenge is to get more people riding bikes more often.”
Iola is the fifth-ranked city in the entire state, while in cities in a similar size (5,000 to 49,999 people), Iola leads the state and is 18th in the country.
“Any type of riding is perfectly fine,” Rasa said. “If you want to ride on the trail just for fun that’s great. If you want to ride for exercise, that’s wonderful. If you want to ride to work, if you want to ride to the store, if you just want to ride around the block, those are all just fine. Anybody can ride no matter their age, what kind of bike they have, it doesn’t matter, just ride it.”
Rasa has ridden in the challenge for the last three years.
“I find it an encouragement to keep riding,” Rasa said “I enjoy seeing my friends log their miles. A little friendly competition is fun, I think.”
The challenge began in May and ends in September. Signing up for the challenge and recording miles is easy. Sign up on nationalbikechallenge.org. During registration, the website will ask for a participant’s zip code. This will place a rider in Allen County’s group. So far, through June 5, there are 44 people riding for Allen County.
