EWI won the latest EWI-MDK Bike to Work Challenge by a score of 60 to 48. The Challenge started Monday, June 2, 2014 and ended Friday, June 13, 2014. The scoring was one point per day of commuting to work by bicycle during the work week, regardless of distance (you didn’t need to ride the full distance). Tracking of rides was done on RideNet | Home. Our challenger is a locally-based law firm, Home : Manley Deas Kochalski, LLC (employer of Blake McAllister’s sister and Jim Tighe’s sister-in-law). Several of us from each team met for a Happy Hour last week to celebrate (or lick our wounds, as the case may be).
On a larger scale, Thursday, May 1 was the start of the National Bike Challenge. This covers all types of riding and will continue until the end of September. EWI has a team in this event. Information can be found at Home | National | National Bike Challenge.
A bit of history: The first Central Ohio Bike to Work Week was held in 2008. Five EWI Associates participated that year and Team MDK won the 100 to 499 employee division. I looked at the numbers and realized that we could have won if we doubled our score. With a bit of a push in 2009, EWI had 17 riders and won our division. Team MDK was second. The photo below shows most of our team that year, including Jim Tighe holding our trophy.
The third year of the local Bike to Work Challenge, Jim’s sister-in-law said in an email “You may also want to spread the word around your office that the bike to work week cheating that costs us our title last year will not be tolerated. God sees all, and I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and believe that you had nothing to do with it. Prepare to be schooled in the correct way to win. Let me be your guide.” With this extra motivation, we had 33 people (nearly 25% of our workforce) ride at least once and won our division a second time. Team MDK was second. The end results were the same for the top two of our division in 2011, the last year of the local challenge.
EWI and MDK have held our own Bike to Work Challenge the past two years. EWI has continued to prevail. The power of innovation…