Get On Your Bike For Team Glasgow

Published: 13 April 2016

Glasgow wants everyone to get on their bike and record the distance they travel throughout May to help the city compete to be the best cycling city in Europe.

This will be the first time Glasgow takes part in the European Cycle Challenge. It encourages people from all over Europe to compete for the prestigious cycling prize where the city that "rides" the longest total distance wins.

The challenge is open to everyone.  Any journey that includes Glasgow as part of the route will go towards helping the city win.

As well as commuting and daily travel, we also encourage people to get on their bike at the weekend or on days off and enjoy a cycle ride and record their route.

By joining Team Glasgow, you can make every kilometre by bike count towards the city's place on the European leader board.

Andy Waddell, Head of Infrastructure Services at Glasgow City Council's Land and Environmental Services (LES), who is a keen cyclist and will be taking part in the challenge, said: "This competition will support the council's new cycling strategy which we hope will transform Glasgow into the most bike-friendly city in Scotland.
 
"Through this competition we will be able to map cycling journeys into and around the city as well as encouraging new cyclists to take their bikes to work. This will inform us where people are cycling on a day-to-day basis and help us target the investment in cycle routes across the city.

"Glasgow knows only too well the huge health benefits from active travel as well as the environmental advantages for the city. I know I'll be taking part in the challenge and encourage everyone to join Team Glasgow and help us win this challenge."

It is simple to register and subscribe to your City Team, by visiting www.cyclingchallenge.eu then download the free app Cycling365 for your smartphone and track your journeys by bicycle. Your routes will contribute to the total distance cycled by your team.

This information will then feed to a live European wide 'heat map' to show where everyone in the challenge, throughout Europe, is cycling. The app also provides individual heat maps for your routes and stats on how far and how often you have cycled.

In addition to motivating people to get on their bikes, the challenge allows Glasgow City Council to see where people are cycling. It will allow us to see what junctions, roads and routes are favoured by cyclists and so inform the development and improvement of city centre cycle facilities.

To offer a further incentive, a number of leading cycle brands have donated prizes for the top 100 participants. Details of the prizes and the challenge are on the council website.

If you don't have a bike but you want to help Glasgow get fit and healthy and win the European Cycle Challenge, then you can always use the city's distinctive hire bikes. There are 43 city-wide cycle hire stations across the city. The scheme is run by Next Bike.

Follow the challenge on social media using #glasgowcycling and #ecc2016eu.