Every February, the Abley team take part in the widely recognised Aotearoa Bike Challenge. This challenge encourages workplaces across the country to earn the most points by riding their bikes and encouraging others to do the same. In short, it aims to get those who have dust covered bikes to use them and those who already bike to ride even further than before!
Abley employees from our Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch offices took part this year, but it was Christchurch who were most determined to exceed all previous efforts, with the 2021 New Zealand title to retain. And for me as the bike challenge champion, it was my job to help keep us at the top of the points table.
Before the bike challenge even started, the goal was to sign up as close to 100% of our employees as possible. Fortunately since many of our team are passionate transport engineers and planners, sustainability enthusiasts and/or fitness fanatics, most people were keen to get involved in the challenge.
February was a slow start to the challenge. Our working arrangements had just changed to a bubble format due to COVID, which removed the much-needed commute every second week as we were working from home. Despite the challenges, most of us stayed committed to the challenge and managed to replace the commute with a daily bike around the block and beyond.
We quickly learnt that this was going to be no one horse race with Calibre – Christchurch hot on our tails in the 20-49 staff category, much like Taska Prosthetics were the previous year. The tactics had to be deployed to push for more points, which included adding encouragers and convincing those who hadn’t signed up or logged a ride.
In the final week we started to push for the distance points, with some doing the big rides to finish. We wore our new Abley cycling shirts proudly and we finished strong. The results came in and we had cleared our rivals by almost 3,000 points, taking out the 20-49 staff category title not just for Christchurch but for the whole of New Zealand. A well deserved second title with over 7,000 kilometres cycled. Special mention to Chris Blackmore and Kate Salmon for clocking in over 1,000 kilometres each, massive effort!
Competitive commentary aside, we love this annual challenge and the way it promotes cycling for transport, recreation and health. Thanks to the organisers of Aotearoa Bike Challenge, our team look forward to taking part again next year!
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