With a total of 892,000 kilometers on the speedometer, more successful than ever before.
RheineOn Monday evening, in perfect cycling weather, the top finishers of this year’s STADTRADELN campaign gathered in front of the town hall to receive their prizes and certificates.
The mood was excellent. No wonder, because this year in the campaign period from May 18 to June 7, 4,300 cyclists in Rheine made sure that the jointly cycled kilometers reached an unimagined height. The bottom line is 892,000 kilometers. That is 270,000 kilometers more than in the previous year. The city is cycling at full speed toward the one-million mark.
For this, the city of Rheine thanked the committed participants and their teams at a small ceremony on Monday. Visibly enthusiastic about this achievement, head of the building department Milena Schauer, together with Michael Wolters, mobility manager of the city Rheine, and the honorary bicycle representative Engelbert Nagelschmidt, presented the high-quality prizes. Right at the beginning, Schauer pointed out that the idea of the competition was a good one and that the sporting ambition deserved respect, but that the STADTRADELN initiative was born out of a climate protection idea. In this respect, she is pleased about everyone who realizes through the campaign that he can also manage his everyday life without a car.
The most active cycling team (excluding schools) was the senior citizens’ advisory council of the city of Rheine with almost 30,000 kilometers. Among the schools, a dramatic duel developed at the top this year, with the Nelson Mandela School coming out on top by a razor-thin margin over the Elsa Brändström School. The best individual performance was achieved by Manfred Neumann, who cycled an incredible 3,179 kilometers over the 21 days.
However, despite her delight at the results, principal Sandra Matzelle of the Nelson Mandela School was also quietly critical of the competitive nature of the event, which sometimes neglected the idea of sustainability.
Wolters, organizer of STADTRADELN 2023 in Rheine, was only too happy to take up this criticism. Together with Engelbert Nagelschmidt from the organizing team, he developed two new categories for this year’s STADTRADELN in Rheine, which stand out from the sporting criteria alone.
“On the one hand, we have introduced the winning category ‘Everyday Rides` and thus want to put more focus on the environmentally friendly bicycle as an everyday means of transport,” explains head of department Milena Schauer. “With this, we’re honoring people who don’t have the top ranking with the most kilometers in mind, but use the bicycle as often as possible in everyday life.” Claudia Schwöppe from team auric, for example, used her bike for a total of 188 rides over the three weeks, which were documented via the STADTRADELN app, and was thus awarded gold in the “everyday rides” category.
The favorite category of the two organizers, however, is the likewise newly established category that takes up the Olympic idea of “Taking part is everything!” For this, 30 participants from all active STADTRADELERN, regardless of your mileage, were determined by random generator and awarded accordingly.
In this context, Wolters also thanked all the sponsors who provided the numerous and high-quality prizes – all from the field of bicycle accessories, from bicycle locks to bicycle bags and helmets.
The nationwide STADTRADELN competition ends on September 30. If one asks the organizers about the chances of success of the Emsstadt, which already stood in the past year in the category municipalities with 50,000 to 99,999 inhabitants completely at the top of the winner’s rostrum, these give up their restraint and announce not without pride: Considering that it is up to then only few days, nothing more will change in the Ranking. This means that in 2023 we will once again succeed in taking first place in the nationwide competition.”
The current results can be viewed at https://www.stadtradeln.de/ergebnisse. In addition, a photo gallery with all the award winners can be found on the city’s website at Rheine www.Rheine.de.