As the world’s handlebars turn towards France this July for the Tour de France, British cycling apparel brand Le Col will challenge cyclists of all abilities to ‘compete for their local area and prove they belong to the strongest cycling county’ by signing up to its new challenge on Strava.
For the first time ever, throughout three weeks of the Tour de France local areas in the UK will be ranked, based on live rider activities logged on the Strava platform during Le Col’s Tour Challenge.
Strava, the social network for athletes with over 42 million members worldwide, allows cyclists to log and share their rides.
To encourage UK riders to keep pedalling throughout the challenge, the live distance data will be broken down and screened on outdoor leaderboards (through media partner, Clear Channel) across the UK. The screens will show riders how they can affect their county’s standing on a daily basis.
The data will allow cyclists to see, in real time, how their cycling efforts compare to local rivals. For example, the famous cycling county of Yorkshire will be able to see, via the live updates, how much they need to pedal to stay ahead of riders in Lancashire; and cyclists in Cardiff will be able to see how far ahead/behind they are, compared to their neighbours in Swansea.
“Cycling brings out the competitive nature in people, whether it’s going faster or further than the riders you meet on the road,” explained Le Col founder, and former pro-cyclist Yanto Barker. “That’s why we wanted to give people a new way to interact with the stats from their ride. This July, riders across the UK can represent their local area and go head to head with other regions.
“Over the past year, over 1.2 million cyclists have signed up to our Le Col Strava Challenges, so the Tour Challenge, along with our live billboards, will prove once and for all who the best and most active cyclists in the country are.”
Richard Bon, Clear Channel’s Managing Director said “Campaigns like the Le Col Challenge are a delight to see on our streets. As an avid cyclist myself, it’s great to see a brand encouraging millions of people to get on their bikes throughout July. The innovative use of Strava data, combined with a bit of competitive spirit and local pride, is a masterclass on how to use out-of-home to its optimum.”
Cyclists will only have their kilometres counted if they sign up to the challenge via Strava. The challenge will be live from the 6th to the 26th of July and all rides within that time period count. Live update data will be provided at outdoor locations in Aberdeen, Bournemouth, Bristol, Brighton, Cardiff, Devon, Derby, Dorset, Durham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Gloucester, Lancashire, Liverpool, Lincoln, London, Manchester, Nottingham, Portsmouth, Southampton, Tyne & Wear, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire.
After signing up, all that remains for competitors to do is to get the bike out and push their local area and country to the top of the leaderboard, claiming the bragging rights as the ‘strongest cycling region in the UK’.
In addition to the outdoor platforms, there’ll also be a leaderboard that will show the fittest and most active county visible on Le Col’s website (which will also show countries and world cities.)
