1a. Year 8 Student First for Gold!
About this page
Ride2School congratulates Alex, from Vermont Secondary College, on being the first student to achieve the 500km Gold Medal Challenge!
A year 8 student is the first to achieve a gold medal in the 500km Gold Medal Challenge.
Alex, a keen cyclist from Vermont Secondary College, accumulated 500 kilometres on his bike in just over 14 days – weeks before any student was expected to finish, and weeks before Alex thought he’d complete the challenge himself.
Registrations opened a little over a month ago – April 10 – Alex was the fourth student to register, on April 12, and completed the distance by April 26!
Riding after school and on weekends, his longest ride was 88.53 kilometres, while his shortest was 7 kilometres for the day.
When asked about how he managed to complete the challenge so quickly, Alex said, “I was interested in how quickly I could rack up the k’s.”
Alex is keen to pursue a career as a cyclist – and is off to a great start with his commitment to riding the 500 kilometres as quickly as he could. He is also a medal winner at state championship trials. He has won both a silver and a bronze medal as part of team track events, and in his first road event (only a month ago) he came fourth in his age-group!
While Alex only started competing in cycling a few months ago, he has been riding to school since he was in grade 4. The trip to primary school was 1.5 kilometres in length; now at secondary school, he rides 3.5 kilometres to school and then the same distance home again.
It’s easy to see how Alex accumulated the 500 kilometres so quickly – riding an average of 35 kms between school and home a week; and riding longer distances on the weekend. Ride2School thinks it won’t be long before he’s taking on Australian Pro Tour road rider, Cadel Evans!
Congratulations to Alex for becoming the first ever student to win gold in the 500km Gold Medal Challenge – it’s a commendable effort for someone who looks set to have a great cycling future.
The team at Ride2School wish Alex all the best.
