As a musician I've been actively involved in the weekly open mic competition here on Steemit, and have witnessed what an effective tool it can be for bringing the musical community together in one place to share our passion and talents with other people. I'm also a cyclist, but I'm a little disappointed that cycling doesn't have the same sense of community here despite having encountered a number of people who ride. That's why I've decided to start a competition for us, and 
The idea of RIDESTORY is to tell the community about an epic, adventurous or eventful ride you've done. It could have been a race you took part in, a long and tough ride or even a disaster where you got stuck in the middle of nowhere in a thunderstorm. It's not about who's gone the furthest or fastest, but more about who can tell their story in the most witty and entertaining way.
TIPS
Include photos if possible, they will help the reader to appreciate your story. As they say "A picture speaks a thousand words"
Include links or screenshots of Strava or other gps tracking apps activities if you use them. By adding this you will back up your claims with some hard evidence! Again, as they say "If it's not on Strava, it didn't happen"
Neither of these are essential and if your writing is good you could still win without them, it's just that they will make for a more enjoyable experience for somebody reading the post.
RULES
Entry is open between now and Wednesday 19th of July at 5pm GMT.
New posts only
You MUST put "RIDESTORY" at the start of the title of your post. e.g "RIDESTORY - My epic adventure through the Peak District"
First tag must be "cycling" - This should help us to build a community of people here on Steemit who are interested in talking about cycling
You MUST share a link to your post in the comments of this post
The 'story' should be about one single ride, not about an entire holiday or multi day event.
I will announce the winners in a post on the 20th of July
PRIZE MONEY
I will judge this competition based on which posts most deserve to win. Rest assured I will be as impartial as possible and choose the winner based on the the overall quality of the post. I have put up 20 SBD and
1st Place - 14 SBD
2nd Place - 9 SBD
3rd Place - 7 SBD
Not exactly a life changing amount of money I know, but of course you will get up votes from the community also. You may earn a substantial amount for your post even if you don't win. As this is a new competition and I'm a relatively new user with not many followers I don't expect many entries, meaning the chances of winning or at least coming in the top 3 are high. If this competition receives a reasonable number of entries and is a success, the prize money will be higher next time round. However as things stand I probably won't even recoup my 20 SBD!
Things You Can Do To Help Make This A Success
Enter the competition (duh)
Read through, up vote and comment on other peoples entries. This is about building a cycling community and finding people on here who share our interests.
Up vote and/or resteem this post to help more people on Steemit find it. More entries and up votes on this post will lead to more exposure for the competition and everyone who enters it.
If there is anything you're unsure about or something I haven't made clear please let me know in the comments.
Lastly, if you're unsure about the style of post you could make for RIDESTORY here is an example https://steemit.com/travel/@captaincanary/cycling-in-majorca-day-1-cap-de-formentor
GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!