The Huntington Bicycle Challenge is an annual bicycle event in Huntington County, Indiana. The event includes a challenging two-day, on-/off-road cycling competition (sanctioned by USA Cycling), an on-road business teams competition, and several tour options for one or two days. The first event was held in 2004. By 2006, the event proved to be a success and needed a web presence to inform a growing audience. Eager to use my newly acquired web design skills, I took the initiative to create a website and generated most of the content myself.
During my years as the event’s web designer, I made about four versions of the website (the first one used – gasp – tables). The most recent version definitely has the most well developed concept and an edgier look based on roadways; this was to attract the competitive racers versus the community-friendly tour riders. I consulted a web developer to make sure the CSS was written properly and compatible with most browsers.
In 2011, the Huntington Bicycle Challenge parted ways with its main organizing group, and I decided to part ways as well. This was an extremely educational experience for me, especially because it was with my first serious client. The sky was the limit—I could go as far as my skill and creativity would take me, and I definitely experimented through this site. If I were to do this project differently, I would look into content management systems so the event organizers could update the information as needed instead of needing to go through me for every change. A learning experience, indeed.
Note: Because the public website no longer exists, the images link to a site mirror that I host.
