The UP MOON BIKE 2020 project was completed in two months: the international virtual field even exceeded the original goal.
The University of Pécs launched a cycling challenge titled “MOON BIKE 2020” on 26 June. The essence of the project, which formed a virtual community that encouraged joint physical activity and healthy lifestyle, was to get to the moon by bicycle in 80 days, i.e. to cover a total of 384,400 km anywhere in the world together.
The participants of the Moon Bike 2020 program achieved the original goal, the distance between the Earth and the Moon within the agreed deadline, in exactly two months, but the cyclists did not stop. They rested and the more than 600 enthusiastic cyclists headed back to Earth.
By September 13, they had covered a total of 937,531.72 km in 80 days, meaning they had doubled the original challenge and even cycled around the Earth four times.
The main goal of the University of Pécs as a Green University was to promote the environmentally friendly cycling during the pandemic.
If we had covered the Earth-Moon-Earth distance with a 1700cm3 -2000cm3 petrol car, the CO2 emission would have been 233.7 tons. The symbolic achievement of reaching the Moon by bicycle and the return supported domestic mitigation efforts. The amount of greenhouse gas saved is equal to the weight of the sequestered CO2 by 3,400 50-year-old trees in a full growing season.
In addition to the students, various partners, alumni and compatriots living in the diaspora collaborated with the University of Pécs in the campaign, who also helped to spread the word about the challenge from the United States through India to Australia.
The cooperating partners of the organizer Centre for Internationalization and Connections are the organizer of one of the most prestigious Hungarian bicycle competitions Tour de Hongrie, the Vuelta Sports Office, the Hungarian Cyclists’ Club, the Hungarian University-College Sports Association and the Hungarian Leisure Sports Association, the Pannon Hőerőmű Zrt., Pécs member of the Veolia group.
David Lappartient, president of the Swiss-based Union Cycliste Internationale, also welcomed the program. Among the foreign universities, the institutions of Denver, Orleans, Vienna, Novi Sad, Zagreb, Pula, Transcarpathia, Vukovar and Brno, as well as groups of Hungarians living abroad from America, the Netherlands, South Tyrol, and Transylvania. MOON BIKE 2020 promoted the University of Pécs in a unique way, focusing on international visibility.
The enthusiastic cyclists participating in the challenge could win a valuable bicycle and bicycle accessories as well as a wellness voucher, offered by the Pannon Hőerőmű Zrt., the Nemzeti Közművek Zrt. and Dráva Hotel Harkány, the winners were drawn by the UP Centre for Internationalization and Connections.
There will be indoor challenges in the autumn and winter and then another outdoor bicycle challenge in the spring.
Source:
PTE