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This world record Strava drawing has teeth

1,023-km Velociraptor brought to life for a cause

strava velociraptor Photo by: Maxime Brugére / Strava

A French quartet of riders banded together recent to create the world’s largest dinosaur. The drawing of a velociraptor was created over six days in Montluçon in November.

While the velociraptor wasn’t the biggest species while it was alive but, with a staggering 1,024 km outline, this Strava-saurus is surely more massive than any living creature.

Guiness World Records agrees, recognizing the vélo velociraptor as the largest GPS drawing by bicycle (team).

The Dino doodle is the creation of Florent Arnaud, Franck Delorme, Maxime Brugère and Nicolas Meunier. The four French riders spent 153 hours (44 hours moving) to create the supersized Strava art.

The project wasn’t just for fun. Brugére shared on Strava that they want this work to have teeth, so to speak.

“We want to raise public awareness of climate change,” Brugére posted on Strava. “Dinosaurs are proof that such strong species can quickly become extinct and that is what we are currently going through with the sixth mass extinction. We are the main culprits of this environmental crisis, but also its main victims. As such, the future is in our hands and cycling is one of the best ways to contribute to change.”

This challenge was created to make people aware of their mode of transport, on the fact that the bicycle should be used a lot more for short trips” Meunier added in his own Strava post. “Our planet is not immortal, and we don’t take care of it.”

Who knows? The guy who created a giant Duvel glass, foam and all, earned himself a case of beer. Maybe the French quartet’s Dino drawing will finally convince more people to take climate change seriously.

Turning bike rides, or runs, into large-form drawings is something of a trend on Strava. An Australian rider rocked out for 150 km to draw the Nirvana baby on the streets of Adelaide. A San Francisco runner created an incredibly intricate tiger to ring in the Lunar New Year.

Here in Canada, a Toronto rider created a 100-km moose. Another rider celebrated the Maple Leafs 2018 play-off run with a ride that lasted about as long as the team’s chances of making it through the first round.

Out in Victoria, B.C., Stephen Lund earned kudos – and a Ted Talk – as a Strava artist well before gps doodles started trending.