Sallyportal: Madly Blogging Reed

Reed Wins Bike Challenge—Again

By Lauren Cooper ’16 on October 08, 2015 10:26 AM

Captains Claire "Chainstomper" Michie and Josh "Shazam" Shalek led the Reed cycling crew to its third straight victory in the Bike Commute Challenge.

Led by a flying wedge of pedaling professors and mud-splattered staff, Reed College dominated its division in the Portland Bike Commute Challenge, taking first place for the third year in a row.

Reed clocked in with a participation rate of 10.2% in September, thanks to 81 riders who together logged 8,265 miles. An impressive 23 of those riders pedalled their way to campus every single workday.

Organized by the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, the annual challenge determines which workplace can log the most commuting trips made by bicycle during the month of September. (Student trips don’t count, unfortunately.)

The category Reed participates in is the “Non-Profit or Business with 500+ employees” and the college's perennial rivals for the winner’s crown are the admen and adwomen at Wieden+Kennedy.

Alumni volunteer coordinator Todd Hesse logged the most miles— a whopping 280. Another strong rider was Prof. Wally Englert [classics]. “One of the things I love best about Portland is how many people bike and how much has been done to make biking in the city as easy and attractive as possible,” he says.

The Reed squad was organized by captains Claire Michie, associate director of donor relations in college relations, and Josh Shalek, systems specialist in the admission office.

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