Four months down, one to go, and Allen County continues to thrive in the National Bike Challenge.

Our local challenge remains #1 in Kansas, and #3 in the entire country. We added 10 riders, and rode over 7,000 miles during August. We’re now at 79 riders and 26,000 miles, putting us on pace for over 30,000 miles in the five-month challenge period (May 1 through September 30).

Late in the month, we made two significant moves:

• Iola moved into the top ten cities in the nation (5000 < 50,000 population)
• Humboldt moved into the top 100 cities in the nation (among all cities), after having hovered just outside the top 100 for most of the last few months

A few other interesting and impressive facts:

• Allen County has three of the top 10 cities in Kansas: Iola at #3 (#61 nationally), Humboldt at #5 (#90 nationally), and La Harpe at #8 (#109 nationally).
• Iola is the #1 city in Kansas in the 5000 < 50,000 category.
• Humboldt is the #3 city in Kansas in the 500 < 5,000 category.
• Allen County is #1 in Kansas, and has nearly as many riders (79) as Shawnee County (83), even though they have over ten times the population we do. Allen County has the same number of riders as Johnson County, with just 1/40th the population.
• Among individual riders from Allen County, Randy Rasa of Iola is #6 in the state among men, and Terry Broyles of Humboldt is #5 in Kansas among women (with Lori Stottlemire of Iola at #11, Becky Stanley of Humboldt at #14, Theresa Berntsen of La Harpe at #16, and Rhi Hess of Iola at #18).
• We have a fair chance of moving up into second place in the Local Challenge Rankings. At the beginning of August, we were 335 points behind #2 (BicycLincoln of Lincoln, Nebraska); now we’re only 110 points behind. We’re gaining, and another solid month of riding may get us there. It’d be quite a coup to overtake the powerhouse from Lincoln!

Here are the top ten Allen County riders for August:

If you neglected to log some of your rides, it’s easy to catch up. Just log in to your account at NationalBikeChallenge.org, navigate to your personal profile page, scroll down to the calendar, click on the day(s) you need to change, and edit as needed.

And if you’ve not yet signed up, you can do so at NationalBikeChallenge.org. Though there’s only one month left in the challenge, participating now will give you a head-start on a great autumn riding season.

With summer winding down, cooler weather makes for easier riding, and the lovely fall colors are a big reason to head out onto the local trails, streets, and roads. Let’s hit September hard, and finish up strong!