2018 Bay Area Bike Challenge Upends All Previous Mileage Records

San Francisco … The results are in for May’s month-long Bay Area Bike Challenge, organized by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), 511, and Kaiser Permanente, with Santa Clara County walking away with this year’s bragging rights. Though Santa Clara County rode the most miles, all of the nearly 3,000 participants –from all nine Bay Area counties– were winners by biking for themselves, their health, the environment and their communities. 

New Approach Breaks the Record

Teams competed in pools of 10 through May 25. For the remainder of the month, the leading team in each pool was then entered into the “Final Sprint,” a weeklong dash to the finish. Participants were encouraged to go all-out this week to get them to the top positions in the competition. Using the “Love to Ride” platform — https://www.lovetoride.net/Bayarea — riders received encouraging messages, earned virtual prizes, tracked their progress and participated in friendly competition from May 1 to 31.

This new approach to the Challenge resulted in a big increase over 2017, an outcome everyone involved worked hard to achieve:

Winners’ Circle

Each year, the Challenge brings out the most serious bike commuters to take on the highways and byways of the region and rack up miles getting to and from work. This year, long-distance commuters were joined by more casual, but just-as-committed, bicyclists who were encouraged to pedal to work, school, errands or anywhere they need to go. Participating as individuals or on teams, winners were determined by accumulating points in three categories: 

1. Miles ridden – one point for each mile
2. Days ridden – 20 points per day
3. Encouraging others to ride (recruitment) – 50 points for encouraging existing riders, 100 points for encouraging new riders

Team Results

In the team competition, groups of eight cyclists vied with others across the Bay Area to take home top honors.

1^st place:  Team KT Riders(2)— (KLA-Tencor Corporation, Milpitas, Santa Clara County ) earned a formidable total of 18,975 points with 6,725 points for miles ridden, 4,400 points for days in the saddle and 7,850 points for encouraging others to ride.

2^nd place:  Team Tires Half Full (SunPower Corporation, Richmond, Contra Costa County), repeated their 2017 2^nd place finish this year by the narrowest of margins, earning a total of 18,790 points. The team collected 3,800 points for miles ridden, 4,240 for days pedaled and 8,750 for encouraging others.

3^rd place:  Team Pooches Speedily Pedaling (Labcyte, San Jose, Santa Clara County) rounded out the top 3 with a total of 15,604 points. The team tallied 2,474 points for miles ridden, 4,380 for days in the saddle and 8,750 for encouraging others to participate.

Individual Participant Results

1^st place:  Shelagh Fritz, member of Team Golden Gate National Parks (San Francisco County), earned a total of 8086 points, by riding 1,316 miles, encouraging 45 riders to join her in participating in the Challenge, and cycling 31 days.

2^nd place: Jun Abella, member of Team Tires Half Full (a SunPower Corporation team, Richmond, Contra Costa County), earned a total of 5777 points, with 607 miles ridden, encouraged 31 riders to join in the Challenge, and cycled 31 days.

3^rd place:  Andrea Symons, member of Team Flying Droplets (a Labcyte team, San Jose, Santa Clara County), with a total of 5568 points, with 1,348 miles ridden, encouraged 33 riders to join the Challenge, and cycled 31 days.

Presented by MTC, 511 and Kaiser Permanente, Bay Area Bike to Work Day encourages local residents to try commuting on two wheels for the first time and celebrates those who bike to work regularly. In addition to MTC (the transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area), 511 (the region’s traveler information system) and Kaiser Permanente, Bike to Work Day 2018 receives regional support from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), Clear Channel Outdoor, Clif Bar, Chipotle, Ride Report and Exodus Travels, as well as from many sponsors at the local level. Bike to Work Day’s media sponsor is NBC Bay Area-KNTV/Telemundo 48. Prizes for the Bike Commuter of the Year winners were donated by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), Chipotle and Mike’s Bikes. Day-of 2-for-1 BOGO promotion was provided by Chipotle. The event is made possible through the cooperation of thousands of volunteers, county congestion management agencies, local jurisdictions, local bicycling coalitions and MTC.