Watch This Very Cool Video Of Roosevelt Island Bike Ride - Then Join The Roosevelt Island Cycling Enthusiasts In The National Bike Challenge

Hop on the back seat and enjoy a very cool bicycle ride with Tony Aldo around Roosevelt Island. Start on Vernon Boulevard in Long Island City, pedal over the Roosevelt Island Bridge to Lighthouse Park, down to the Tram Plaza, up the Helix Ramp and back over the Roosevelt Island Bridge.

A @Rooseveltisland bike ride. https://t.co/aPGiRYNCP9

— Mark Lyon (@markhlyon) April 21, 2016

Click on the full screen icon for a great view.

That was fun.

Would you like to do some real bicycle riding, have fun and meet some of your Roosevelt Island neighbors? Here's how you can do it.

Image From National Bike Challenge

Roosevelt Island resident and bike enthusiast Kent Kurkiewicz reports:

To all Roosevelt Island residents:

We’d like to invite you to join the National Bike Challenge, which runs annually from May 1 through September 30. The National Bike Challenge is a friendly competition to get participants to ride more often, ride more miles, and burn more calories. It is free and open to anyone … you don’t need to be an expert cyclist to join and log miles. The National Bike Challenge awards prizes monthly to randomly selected participants at all point levels. We hope that once you join, it will create an automatic incentive for you to ride more often, and to compete for points with yourself and other riders.

To join the National Bike Challenge, go to NationalBikeChallenge.org and create a profile for yourself. Provide your name, email address, zip code, birth date, etc. Using our local zip code (10044) automatically puts you into the NYS/NYC challenge. Once you’ve created your own account, you can join a team. You will be prompted to create or join a team after you register, or you can defer and then go to “Manage Groups” on your National Bike Challenge profile page. You can search for an existing team to join, or create a new one. A team for our Island, RICE (Roosevelt Island Cycling Enthusiasts), has already been created and we’d like you to join us.

It’s easy to log miles. Anyone with a smartphone can use one of three apps to track their miles: Strava, MapMyRide, or Endomondo. Whichever app you choose, make sure it’s authorized in your National Bike Challenge account (“Manage Settings”). Each time you ride, start the app, and when your ride is done, make sure you stop it. If you don’t have a smart phone and/or prefer to do so, you can sign in to your National Bike Challenge account and log your miles manually. The Challenge awards 20 points each day you ride, and 1 point for each mile you ride.

There is a lot more information available on the National Bike Challenge website.

Thanks and keep riding for enjoyment, exercise, and for a greener planet!

As previously reported, Yawa,

 Bike NY 2014 Learn To Ride Team Winner Yawa Image From Caitlin Goodspeed

a Roosevelt Island resident, was the 2014 winner of Bike New York's Learn To Ride National Bike Challenge Team.

Roosevelt Island Resident Yawa Rides The Most Miles For Bike NY Learn To Ride Team, Wins A Free Mongoose Bike - Is Ridge Riding Next?

Bike NY Learn To Ride Team Winner Yawa Image From Caitlin Goodspeed

Bike New York's Roosevelt Island Community Outreach Manager Caitlin Goodspeed reports:

Every year the League of American Bicyclists organizes the National Bike Challenge,

a nationwide event that encourages people to get on their bikes and RIDE! People compete on local, state, and national levels to see who can bike the most miles from the beginning May (Bike Month) through the end of September.

This year Bike New York

created a team for new cyclists in the city called the 'Learn to Ride Team'. As an incentive to join the team, we decided to giveaway a free bicycle to the person who brought in the most miles over the course of the summer. Participants were required to log in all of their miles on the National Bike Challenge website. You could even down an app that logged everything in for you!

This year the winner was a Roosevelt Island resident! Her name is Yawa

Image Of Yawa Riding Her New Bike From Caitlin Goodspeed

and she's been very involved with our program here on the island. After taking our free education classes in the spring and throughout the summer, she continued to ride around the island using her husband's old folding bike. She racked up the miles and earned the top spot on Bike New York's Learn to Ride Team.

She received her new hybrid bike last Thursday!

Image Of Yawa's New Bike From Caitlin Goodspeed

I am very proud of Yawa. She's come a long way and is completely deserving of a new bike. I know that she'll continue to ride throughout the year!

The National Bike Challenge happens every year so we'll be doing another giveaway next season!

With a little bit more practice, maybe Yawa can try some mountain biking


HT To Erika

but maybe not so extreme.