UK National Cycle Challenge 2016

Since 2007, we’ve been creating and delivering Cycle Challenges that get more people enjoying the benefits of riding a bike. Our Workplace Cycle Challenges have achieved some great results, including:

40% of new-riders take up cycling weekly

35% of non-commuting cyclists start riding to work

28% of driving commuters now drive to work at least two days fewer per week.

We have run 150 Cycle Challenges involving more than 7,500+ Businesses. We have engaged 165,000 people in our programmes and encouraged more than 43,000 new riders to push the pedals of change and give riding a bike a go.

Following from the success of the first National Cycle Challenge in 2015, we’re rolling out the 2016 National Cycle Challenge to even more towns, cities and counties, regardless of their budget. At the same time, we’re also rolling out Love to Ride in the US, Europe and Australia.

The National Cycle Challenge

We’ve achieved amazing results, but we’re not putting

the brakes on now!

It’s time to take this successful cycling programme to every corner of the UK and around the world.

Introduction

What’s new for 2016?

Click the image to see exciting new developments for the National Cycle Challenge.

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Behaviour change theory

Using behaviour change to achieve incredible results:Giving people a fun ten-minute cycling experience can quickly break down negative perceptions about riding a bike, and replace them with new, positive attitudes. When people experience what riding is really like (opposed to what they assume it to be like) they often find themselves saying: “Hey, this isn’t so bad after all. Riding a bike isn’t as scary or as hard as I thought. It’s actually quite easy and it’s fun too!” This is an ideal first step to encouraging more people to start riding.

We then provide tailored support and guidance to help people overcome their individual barriers to cycling and we encourage them effectively by focusing on the benefits they want to achieve and receive.

Watch this 2 minute video

Click the image above to check out our short animation explaining how we’re using behaviour

change theory to encourage cycling. (or visit www.lovetoride.org)

A Big Vision

We’ve recently set ourselves a target to get 1 million new people to take up riding. If we spread Love to Ride to 26 countries and achieve similar results to those in England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland and Australia, then we will see 2 million new people riding over 10 years. This analysis has given us the confidence to commit to this ambitious yet achievable target.

How many people do you think we can get cycling in your city?

Typically a Workplace Cycle Challenge involves between 600 and 3,000 people (largely dependent on population size and project budget). On average, 30% of participation is from new-riders and 82% of new-riders continue riding after the Challenge (54% take up riding weekly). So, every year, around 25% of participants in your Cycle Challenge will become new riders!

Our Goal

1 Million More People RidingTo achieve this goal we will work in thousands of towns and cities around the world. Partnering with councils, local cycling groups, businesses and millions of existing riders.

Our Partners

Local PartnersKey to the success of any Cycle Challenge is the involvement of our local partners. So far, we’ve worked with more than 80 local authorities, public health teams, grant schemes, national charities, Government departments and other funding partners in the UK. We’ve spoken to many more, and we know that finding the budget is often the biggest challenge to running a Cycle Challenge in a local area. Therefore, we have come up with a flexible approach that allows partners to benefit from having the National Challenge in their area with whatever budget they have available, from £0 to £50,000+.

We have worked with more than 80 local partners in the UK so far.

Ride a bike for 10 minutes or more

to take part.

Position Logo Company Participation

1st Australian Red Cross 59%

2nd GPA Engineering 49%

3rd Adelaide Festival 30%

4th Colliers International 24%

5th ASC 23%

The Challenge

A Workplace Cycle Challenge is a competition between organisations to see which can get the most employees to ride a bike. The organisations that get the highest percentage of their employees to ride a bike win a team prize. There are 6 size categories to level the playing field.

Staff only have to ride a bike for ten minutes or more for their participation to count. They can ride wherever they feel comfortable and whenever they like over the Challenge period.

Why is the Challenge based on participation, not distance covered?

A distance/mile focused Cycle Challenge appeals strongly to existing regular riders and motivates them to clock up more miles themselves and win prizes. A Challenge based on the % of people taking part motivates regular riders to encourage their non-cycling colleagues to have some fun by giving riding a bike a go. It shows that riding is a fun, enjoyable activity for everyone, not just a few people.

How does a Cycle Challenge work?

Example of a Challenge league table:

How can your city/town/county get involved?

Features:

Your local businesses compete on the nationwide leaderboards

Local Love to Ride website

Local ‘Where to ride’ information

National prizes (new bikes, bike gear, Kindles, cases of wine, mini-breaks, spa days etc)

National marketing materials

Summary:

With no budget attached to this option, it’s up to you and your colleagues to drive participation in the Love to Ride Challenge.

Potential Result:

1-5 organisations, 50-400 participants (depending on population size and local promotion)

Budget:

£0

Freemium

Challenge Options:

Option 1

Features:

- Everything in Option 1 plus -

Get a local leaderboard, so your local businesses can compete against each other. With 6 size categories and a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in each category – there will be 18 of your local organisations on the podium. With a higher chance of winning a place in the Challenge, your local businesses will be much more incentivised to take part, do well and encourage their staff to ride.

18 certificates for you to give out

Expert advice and guidance from the Love to Ride team

A project plan and a marketing plan for you to follow

Official local partner status and associated benefits, e.g. able to contact the participant database, your logo on the website, able to add content to your local Love to Ride website, etc.

Promote your other cycling initiatives through the website and within the emails we send to participants.

Get access to the GPS data of people riding in your area, where new riders vs existing riders are riding. Also, all the survey data, including what barriers and benefits people in your area perceive.

How can your city/town/county get involved?

Summary:

A local league table will certainly help get your local businesses engaged and competing. You and your colleagues will still lead the promotion of the Challenge in your area, but with our support and guidance.

Potential Result:

10-20 organisations, 300-700 participants (depending on population size and local promotion)

Budget:

£5,850 - £12,450

Challenge Options:

Now we are going somewhere

Local ChallengeOption 2

Features:

- Everything in Options 1 and 2 plus -

A local Challenge Manager who’ll work 30-40+ days to engage your local businesses, co-promoters, existing riders, bike shops, etc. Provide support to each ‘Challenge Champion’ within each business and to the non-cyclists taking part. This role will significantly boost the results of your Challenge.

We will project manage the Challenge for you and get your input throughout planning and delivery

Local or National marketing materials (you can choose based on your budget)

Two face to face meetings to develop the project

A topline evaluation report or a full report (you can choose based on your budget)

How can your city/town/county get involved?

Summary:

Having a Challenge Manager will significantly boost the results of your Challenge. This is the highly recommended option if you are serious about getting a great result in the Challenge and seeing more people on bikes in your area.

Potential Result:

20-70+ organisations, 400 -2,000+ participants (depending on population size and local promotion)

Budget:

£19,000 - £24,600

Challenge Options:

We are really on a roll now

Local Challenge + Challenge ManagerOption 3

Features:

- Everything in Options 1, 2 and 3 plus -

Choose your own Challenge dates

Custom marketing materials

Custom emails

4 x face-to-face meetings

Local ‘try-a-bike’ events - where we turn up to workplaces at lunchtime and make it easy for people to participate in the Challenge and give riding a bike a go.

Challenge celebration event

How can your city/town/county get involved?

Summary:

We’ve run more than 100 fully customised Cycle Challenges. If the dates of the national challenge don’t work for you, then this option will still give you a great local Cycle Challenge programme and enable full customisation of the programme.

Potential Result:

30-100+ organisations, 600-3,500+ participants (depending on population size and local promotion)

Budget: :

£25,000 - £50,000

Challenge Options:

Together we will grow your cycling community

Fully Customised ChallengeOption 4

We know bikes bring so many benefits to individuals, communities and our planet. That’s why we’re helping UK charity Re~Cycle (www.re-cycle.org) to transform lives in Africa through bicycle re-use. Across the UK, hundreds of thousands of bikes are thrown away or simply sit unused, while millions of people in Africa have no choice but walk for hours each day, just to get to school or work, make medical visits or carry heavy loads. By working with us, and encouraging participating people and organisations to donate surplus bikes, you will be helping to make a positive change both in the UK and in Africa through pedal power.

Re~Cycle - registered charity number 1063570

Bikes for Africa

Pedal Power

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Engagement

With the Cycle Challenge programme, the more you put into the project in terms of promotion, time engaging local businesses, time working with non-cyclists, prizes, incentives and the budget to do all of the above, then the more organisations, participants and non-cyclists you’ll engage and the better the behaviour change outcomes you’ll achieve.

The more you put in… ...the more you get out.

The CalendarA year round behaviour change programmeThe National Cycle Challenge isn’t just a month-long event in June of every year. It’s a comprehensive programme of behaviour change that rolls on right throughout the year and is always growing and developing to achieve great results.

Activity

National Cycle Challenge

Monthly Prize Draws

Profile Badges

Goal Setting Challenge

Cycle to Work Day

Addressing Barriers

Virtual Ride

Newsletter

Promote Local Initiatives

Surveys

Description

5 Months of pre-Challenge promotion engaging local businesses and riders, then the 3 week Workplace Challenge, including Bike Week promotions.

Monthly prize draws accessible to all, prizes to include: bikes; the latest bike gear; shopping vouchers; etc.

People will be able to earn all kinds of badges - from the ‘Ride to work’ badge, to the ‘Fix a flat’ badge. Badges don’t just reward the amount of miles ridden, but other behaviours we want people to do to address their barriers to cycling and move through the stages of change to becoming regular riders.

It’s a new year and time to make the most of people’s good intentions with a mini challenge to achieve a cycling goal – great prizes up for grabs.

We’ll be encouraging cyclists of all levels to ride to work, and encouraging regular riders to buddy up with newbies. There’ll be a prize draw for those who ride in on National Cycle to Work day.

Key to encouraging cycling is assisting individuals to overcome their barriers to riding.

We have 3 different Virtual Rides that people can choose to do at any time - by themselves, as a team relay, or as a race with up to 10 friends!

A regular newsletter to participants -including targeted articles relevant to the reader.

You can use the Love to Ride participant database to communicate with people of all cycling levels in your area – providing a real promotional boost.

Measuring changes in behaviour change is key. We’ve designed a series of short, focused surveys that get a high response rate and gather useful data.

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec

National Cycle ChallengePromotion

Baseline Survey at Registration 3 Week Survey 3 Month Survey

Choose how you participate in the UK’s National Cycle Challenge

Participation Options

Freemium Local ChallengeLocal Challenge +

Challenge ManagerFull Customised Cycle Challenge Description

Your local businesses compete on the nationwide leaderboards

Local Love to Ride website

Local ‘Where to ride’ information

National Prizes (Bikes, bike gear, Kindles, wine, mini-breaks, spa days, etc)

National marketing materials

Badges - earn fun profile badges as achievement rewards

Get a local leaderboard, so your local businesses can compete against each other

18 framed certificates for you to give out

Expert advice and guidance from the Love to Ride team

A project plan and a marketing plan for you to follow

Official Local Partner benefits, contact the participant database, logo on the website

Promote all cycling initiatives through the website and emails sent to participants

A local Challenge Manager for 30-40+ days to engage your local businesses

Dedicated Project Manager throughout planning & delivery stages

Local or National Marketing materials (you can choose based on your budget)

Two face to face meetings

A topline evaluation report or a full report (you choose based on budget)

Choose your own Challenge dates

Custom marketing materials

Custom emails

Local Try-a-bike events

4 face to face meetings

Option 1 Option 2 Option 3 Option 4

Understanding behaviour change

Cycling is a unique behaviour.

Riding a bike has very specific barriers and these need to be focused on to be successful. If you give a new-rider the option of trying cycling or walking to participate in the Challenge, many people will simply choose the perceived easier option of walking somewhere, as opposed to cycling, thus resulting in fewer people in your area taking up cycling.

We can use a health promotion analogy to explain the difference: Quitting smoking and getting 30 minutes of exercise daily are two very different behaviours, each with specific barriers that need to be addressed using different approaches. You would be hard pressed to find a health promotion expert who would design and run one intervention to try and simultaneously influence both these behaviours.

Cycling is a unique behaviour and we’ve designed an entire approach, a web platform, GPS smartphone app, communication plan, marketing materials and monitoring system that focus on - and are proven to be effective at - encouraging more people to take up riding a bike and/or to bike more often.

Why focus on cycling and not include walking or

public transport?

Interested in finding out more?

We can send you more information. Give Sam a call or send him an email:

Sam RobinsonGeneral Manager

sam@lovetoride.org07734 833451