The University of South Bohemia cycled around the equator in a month

The University of South Bohemia has shown its team spirit and passion for physical activity by achieving a great result in the international Academic Bicycle Challenge in June 2021.

The Academic Bicycle Challenge (ABC) is an international cycling competition for universities and higher education institutions and its goal is to find the most actively cycling higher education institutions around the world. The challenge improves international prestige and awareness of all participating universities and most importantly it also promotes a healthy lifestyle and active environmental protection.

ABC is taking place throughout the whole of 2021 and individual domestic or international universities can take part in the challenge throughout the year and select a month during which they will try to cycle as many kilometres as possible and score as high as they can in the worldwide ranking of universities.

17 universities have finished their month of active competition out of 29 currently registered universities. Among these universities, the University of South Bohemia has been able to achieve 3rd place in the month of June 2021. The total distance cycled by participants from USB amounted to more than the circumference of the Earth – 41 281km in total. USB has shown by its placement among the top universities in ABC that it is a premium institution in areas of education, science & research as well as enthusiasm, sports performances and teamwork.

‘The commitment of USB was strong, riders from among employees as well as students from all parts of the University took part in the challenge”, remarked on the USB’s performance Ing. Michal Hojdekr MBA, vice-rector for development and initiator of the competition at USB. The best riders, faculty and the team with the highest number of kilometres cycled were awarded gifts and trophies by prof. PhDr. Bohumil Jiroušek, Dr., USB rector.

Based on the number of kilometres cycled, Mgr. Radim Stehlík from the Department of Agricultural, Transport and Handling Machinery of the USB Faculty of Agriculture and Ing. Jaromíra Vondrášková, secretary of the Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters have been named Grand Champions of USB in the month of June 2021.

The best team under the name ‘FROV JU’ covered the distance of 8 225km together in the month of June 2021 and has contributed to the victory of the Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters together with two other teams from the same faculty. The award for the Best Performing Faculty was collected by prof. Ing. Pavel Kozák, Ph.D., dean of the faculty. He and members of the victorious team arrived on campus to collect the award by bike all the way from Vodňany, which does nothing but highlight the enthusiasm of the faculty and the team.

The commitment and enthusiasm of all riders participating in ABC were important whether they cycled for a few kilometres only or for tens or even hundreds of kilometres. The challenge motivated participants towards greater physical activity after the difficult period of the pandemic, but it also provided a way of relieving exam stress and tension.