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Throughout December, Love to Ride North Somerset is conquering the cold and showing that biking is a year-round activity with Winter Wheelers, an advent calendar style initiative. Each day you ride enters you in a daily prize draw – the more days you ride, the more entries you gain into the grand prize draw to win a brand-new bike on Christmas Day worth £1,500.
Love to Ride North Somerset is the region’s cycling encouragement platform which allows individuals to sign up and register as part of a workplace team with their employer. Every day you ride is a chance to get a dose of fresh air and have some fun and participants can log their real-world rides online to be in with a chance of winning.
Previous participant and Love to Ride prize winner, Geoff Wall, said: “If you look for reasons to cycle rather than excuses not to, you’ll soon start to love cycling. While the weather may look terrible, it is rarely as bad as it appears when you are out in it! I enjoy the advent calendar theme for December, it’s great ticking off each day of activity.”
Last year over 30,000 people took part in this national challenge, including over 2,600 new participants. Riders faced the elements wearing their waterproofs and thermals in their efforts to win fantastic prizes and up their zero-carbon miles.
Biking has so many benefits. Riders feel happier and healthier, and employees often feel more energised and productive and take fewer sick days. It’s also a more sustainable form of transport.
The Love to Ride team are behaviour change experts, helping hundreds of thousands of people around the world get into biking, or get back into biking. Once registered, participants can access Quick Courses and tailored tips to help build their biking confidence.
Building activity into the commute is a great way to stay happier and healthier over winter while reducing emissions. Several free offers are available to individuals, businesses and community groups in North Somerset, such as: one-to-one cycle confidence lessons for adults, two to four-week hire of bikes for individuals (deposits payable), bike stands and electric bike trials for businesses.
As more employees across the region start commuting again, now’s a great time to make new habits and to embrace the benefits of bike riding. Cycling helps to boost physical and mental health, and reduces stress and anxiety.
Kerry O’Neill is an active travel officer with North Somerset Council, engaging with businesses to encourage more cycling and walking. To discuss Love to Ride or any support mentioned above, email Kerry on sustainable.travel@n-somerset.gov.uk or call 01275 88 4605.
Employers can download the Promotional Marketing pack online, which is full of shareable and printable resources to get more staff involved in this prize-packed Christmas competition. Find out more on the Love to Ride North Somerset website: www.lovetoride.net/northsomerset.