The Swindon Workplace Cycle Challenge is a fun, free competition designed to get more people cycling.

Organisations and departments in Swindon UK will compete to see who can get the most staff to hop on a bike and give cycling a go.

People only need to cycle for at least 10 minutes or 1 mile for their participation to count. They can ride wherever they feel comfortable, at any point over the two week Challenge period (Monday 14 July to Sunday 27 July 2008).

It’s all about encouraging people to experience for themselves how much fun cycling can be and to experience what it’s actually like to ride a bike (as opposed to what they perceive it’s like to ride a bike).

The Challenge is a fun way of getting an existing network of cyclists to encourage their colleagues to hop on a bike and have some fun cycling as part of the Challenge. This is a great first step to then encouraging these people to start cycling.

This workplace cycle challenge is a behavioural change programme which is effective at encouraging more people to take up cycling. It is also proven to encourage people who cycle recreationally to start cycling for transport purposes.

The Challenge is being funded by the CTC – The UK’s national cyclists’ organisation.  The Challenge is one of the CTC’s Cycling Champions projects which has been funded by Big Lottery.

See the Swindon Cycle Challenge website for more details on the Challenge.

It’s going to do great things for cycling in Swindon.