Tour De France Bike Challenge 2008 - SIGN UP

The concept is simple, post your intention to participate in THIS THREAD in the Challenge Forum and then work out the number of bike sessions (tour stages) you are going to ride between the 5-27 July and either the distance OR time you are aiming for during the month.

You will then get put on a team roster and take a turn at Tour De France glory in 2008!!!

Friendly banter and sledging will be encouraged BUT REMEMBER… the only place you can back it up is on the bike. So.... just like the action on the roads of France consistency is key if YOUR team will triumph!

So what are you waiting for? Sign up for the second Tour De France Challenge here on BT

Challenge Rules:

The winning team will be determined by the overall % of goal amount of stages and % of distance/time achieved by the team. (each goal counts for 50% of your overall goal achieved)

In the event of a tie, the winner will be decided by the amount of team members who reached their own individual goal. If more than one team has all riders reaching 100% then the top step of the podium will be shared.

All types of riding can be included as a stage based on YOUR activities and training plan or even racing so if it’s a bike and you use your legs/pedals to power then it can be counted towards your committed stages. Riders must complete a minimum of 15 minutes ride time per session for the stage to be counted against their committed stages.

Individuals who achieve more than their committed stages/distance will not have these additional rides counted towards their team total but please add them to the reporting so we can acknowledge your hard work!

On bike commutes... if your commute (one way) is less than 15 minutes... then you can combine the two commutes as one stage for the purposes of this tour. If you wish for each of your bike commutes to count as two stages (and they are longer than 15 minutes) then you should log them as two separate rides in your training log.

You can ride more than once on one day if you wish to.. just make sure that they are logged as separate rides in your log.

Stages must be logged in the riders BT logs for verification

If you have a temporary set back such as an illness (i.e a cold) then I will be using the following equation to calculate your goal reduction (if required). Total Goal/23 days (of the challenge) * number of days out of action = goal reduction for the challenge.

Teams are named after teams from the 2008 Tour De France peloton. Team requests will be honoured where possible but if you do have a preferred team please be aware that the challenge teams will need to be balanced. So.. if you have noticed that there are a lot of people requesting for one team please be aware I will be trying to assign these on a first come first served basis and if you do have a second team option please state that in your team request. (just in case) I will do my best!

In terms of 'other' team requests.. once again I will try to honour these where possible - but please try to make your request in the original team sign up

There is a blanket 24 hour ban (code of silence) on discussing stages that have occurred within the Tour stages within these threads... why? Because some people do not watch the action live and do not want to know what is happening on the road in France until they get a chance to watch the coverage... this applies (basically) from when one stage starts to when the next stage finishes... THIS RULE IS CRUCIAL... this will avoid anyone having the Tour experience impacted by action being revealed in team threads.

Team leaders will be nominated by each team and will be responsible for reminding team members to log their progress in google spreadsheets and leading the cheer-leading to help everyone reach their goals. If you are not the team leader it is still your responsibility to inspire your team mates and check in on the team thread to keep everyone motivated and on track. (and they will do the same for you - who doesnt want to get inspires?)

I will post a Challenge update each week of the challenge including highlights from various team threads, because sometimes numbers alone are not enough!

Friendly banter and sledging is encouraged, pledging team allegiance through signature lines, log titles and avatars is also encouraged.

Most importantly this is meant to be FUN!!! So get behind, support and inspire your team members and welcome to the 2008 Tour De France!!!!!