More than 300 students put their helmets on, dusted off their bikes and pedalled to school on Thursday in an attempt to break an Australian record.
While not beating the national benchmark, they did break a Lyneham High School record.
School captain James Etherington was behind the idea. He organised the event in an effort to help students become more environmentally conscious.
"The concept behind it was that we wanted people in our school community to have more active ways of going to school that reduce their carbon footprint," he said.
"A lot of students at our school live in the area, so it was very easy for them to ride as opposed to being driven.
"The world is not in a good place right now in terms of climate change, and a whole lot of issues going on. I think it's very important for young people whose future this is to actually do something and make an impact. If none of us do anything, then we're not going to make a change."
The idea was enthusiastically taken up by other students, one student awoke at 6am and rode 53km before arriving at school.
"We had prizes going for the longest distance ridden, the fanciest helmet, fanciest bike, things like that, people really got into it," James said.
With the help of a grant from the ACT government, students were given free hot chocolates when they arrived at school. Grant money was also used to place compost and bottle bins around the school.
Principal Jackie Ford said the goal was a great way to bring students back together after a turbulent few years of remote learning and lockdowns due to COVID-19.
"There was a beautiful buzz in the atmosphere [on Thursday] morning. We're very excited to be out together and to have those school-based events that are starting to pop up more and more frequently," she said.
"These kids had a bit of a rough trot, in terms of having a lot of things that are normally rites of passage not able to occur due to health orders.
"The students were very excited to have pulled it off and to have been part of something. I'm really proud the community turned out, they all got together, supported each other and we could welcome people back."
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