Need an excuse to ride more? GreenlightRide.com has issued the following challenge: In July, the Tour de France pros will cover 3600km or 2230 miles. If you started today, could you log that many kilometers (miles) by July 25? The Challenge is called Race to Paris Solo and it has a total prize list of $15,000.

That’s a lot of miles to cover, but the challenge offers incentives along the way. For each stage of the Tour that you complete before the Pros finish that stage, you are automatically entered into the prize drawing for that stage.  If you ride and enter 600 miles by July 8, for example, you will have completed the Prologue Time Trial and 5 stages of the Tour. That makes you eligible for up to 6 prize drawings. (Not all stages have a prize list.)

Instructions and rules are available on Greenlightride.com, but the basics are easy. Register on the site, then either join a team that is already in the challenge or create your own team and enter the team in the challenge.  There’s no cost and  anyone can enter, but the prizes will only be awarded to US citizens over 18 years of age.

Full disclosure here. I work part time for Quality Bicycle Products, host of the Greenlightride.com website. Quality is a wholesale bicycle parts distributor that sells to bicycle dealers throughout the country.  The goal of the site is to encourage more people to ride and to help the bike manufacturers who supply us with  parts to get their products in front of more people. I’m the web administrator and I have an interest in making the site more popular.

Check out the site. If you like what you see, sign up and start entering the miles you’ve ridden. All miles count whether bike commuting, recreation riding, errand running, touring. It doesn’t matter. It’s all about setting goals, riding more, and maybe wining some cool bike parts.