Chuck Swanda

Chuck Swanda was the top men's individual miles competitor in the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) 2016 Bike More challenge. One of five riders to break 1000 miles, Chucks miles approached the sum of the other four. page

Chuck says, "I ride because it makes me healthy."

The Bike More Challenge is a fun, free competition to encourage your friends, family, and colleagues to experience first hand joys and benefits of riding a bike. There are lots of fantastic prizes to tempt your team, which we'll announce as the Challenge approaches. Show off your #bikemore pride with these awesome merch items. page

The points system has been carefully selected to ensure a fair and exciting competition, and to strongly encourage workplaces to engage new riders if they want to climb the leaderboard and secure victory.

Chuck was brought to my attention by the chatter on the pdx-bikes chat group at my company.

"How the heck does someone bike 4190 miles in one month?"

"Seems suspicious."

"Yeah. I'm not buying it. 115 mile day then two rides of 65 and 70 miles and then another 150 the next day. Even pros don't ride that much."

The reported numbers look like those of an experienced high mileage rider who threw himself into the competition every available hour.

I'm reminded of my friend John Hinke who rode 1,000,000 vertical feet in one year. He told me the last few months lacked much joy and that he had gotten climbing goals out of his system.