Your rides this year: 2014 Review of the year.

[Scotty1991]

This is my 3rd year cycling and it has been great (Apart from what happened on sat :\) I have completed my first bunch of events, my averages have increased greatly and to top it off I got a new bike the other week. Hoping on focusing on some touring, doing the more advanced events and keeping safe on the roads for next year!
Cyclechat has helped me in all sorts of ways and joining this forum last year has been one of the best things about cycling, the community
Cheers guys and gals!

 

[MikeW-71]

It's been a really good year

The winter gales restricted me early on, but then it all just took off. I did more mountain biking and even ended up with another n+1! Hmm, highlights... where to begin?

ColinJ's "back from the dead" ride, which was just fantastic and shoved me up a proper climb for a change.
Doing my longest ride so far at 82 miles.
Early season CC Ecosse rides in Edinburgh and the Isle of Bute.
Riding all of the 7 Stanes blue runs in one day for charity.
More metric centuries during the summer taking in new routes and venturing into the Lakes.
The CC Ecosse Islay tour which put my n+1 to good use, a great experience with great people... (even going head-first into 20mph wind and rain for 2 hours). It was a great introduction to Cycle Touring.

And now it's nearly over! But it won't be long before the epic forum rides start all over again. I also have a (possibly crazy) plan to do the MTB C2C next summer, now that should be a bit of an adventure

 

[MickeyBlueEyes]

I've not done any challenges as such this year but I have made progress with total mileage over other years. 2011 = 2000 miles, 2012 = 2500, 2013 = 7500, 2014 = well, we're not quite finished yet...
If I have the same results next year, that will suit me just nicely.

Some good stories on this thread, well done everyone!

 

[TheDoctor]

Been a steady sort of a year, cycling-wise. I did a fair few rides with my local CTC, did a solo overnighter to St Ives (the one near Huntingdon) on the fixed, and ten days in Provence on the Brompton.
I rode up a hill that looked like this :-

and a few days later I rode up another hill that looked like this :-

I rode along the Nesque Gorge, that looks like this :-

and I stayed at L'Isle sur la Sorgue, which has lots of waterwheels like this :-

And, if anyone ever needed an illustration of 'Worst Idea Ever', here is one :-

 

[totallyfixed]

Considering all that befell us leading up to this year and indeed into 2014 not too bad. In January dr_pink, alongside her 2 team mates picked up National gold medals for 25, 50 and 100 miles, awarded by Malcolm Elliott and Brian Robinson, quite a night.
At the end of March we travelled up to do Colin's Bowland ride, The Trough:

In early May I ran a CC 1 hundred mile fixed gear ride which 6 of us completed, it was a tad hilly

Fast forward a bit to our Netherlands cycle tour, with a dash of Belgium and Germany thrown in [which I have still to finish the travelogue of]. All these weird people without helmets and stopping at their own red lights.............wonderful. 850 miles in 13 days.

The undoubted highlight of the year for me was dr_pink coming 2nd in the National 12 hour TT Championships with the 10th furthest distance of all time, this on a far from perfect day. Thanks to @oldfatfool for coming along to add some support. Add to that 5th in the National 100 miles and 9th in the National hill climb. Quite a year.

 

[slowmotion]

Been a steady sort of a year, cycling-wise. I did a fair few rides with my local CTC, did a solo overnighter to St Ives (the one near Huntingdon) on the fixed, and ten days in Provence on the Brompton.
I rode up a hill that looked like this :-
View attachment 73960

and a few days later I rode up another hill that looked like this :-
View attachment 73961

I rode along the Nesque Gorge, that looks like this :-
View attachment 73962

and I stayed at L'Isle sur la Sorgue, which has lots of waterwheels like this :-
View attachment 73963

And, if anyone ever needed an illustration of 'Worst Idea Ever', here is one :-
View attachment 73964

Chapeau!

 

[slowmotion]

Considering all that befell us leading up to this year and indeed into 2014 not too bad. In January dr_pink, alongside her 2 team mates picked up National gold medals for 25, 50 and 100 miles, awarded by Malcolm Elliott and Brian Robinson, quite a night.
At the end of March we travelled up to do Colin's Bowland ride, The Trough:

In early May I ran a CC 1 hundred mile fixed gear ride which 6 of us completed, it was a tad hilly

Fast forward a bit to our Netherlands cycle tour, with a dash of Belgium and Germany thrown in [which I have still to finish the travelogue of]. All these weird people without helmets and stopping at their own red lights.............wonderful. 850 miles in 13 days.

The undoubted highlight of the year for me was dr_pink coming 2nd in the National 12 hour TT Championships with the 10th furthest distance of all time, this on a far from perfect day. Thanks to @oldfatfool for coming along to add some support. Add to that 5th in the National 100 miles and 9th in the National hill climb. Quite a year.

Was that Dutch photo from Haarlem? It looks spookily familiar.

 

[totallyfixed]

Was that Dutch photo from Haarlem? It looks spookily familiar.

That was Groningen.

 

[slowmotion]

That was Groningen.

I've been up the LF1/ LF20 from the Hoek to Amsterdam four times in the last few years. It goes very well as I fumble with my lovely paper maps.....until Haarlem. There is a big square there which looks like your photo. The LF signs seem to go all wonky. I get hopelessly lost every time. It's still a lot of fun.
Thank you for the reminder, even if it wasn't Groningen.

 

[Pumpkin the robot]

I decided i was going to do a lot more cycling this year. Set a target of 8000 miles for the year, but it was soon apparent I would easily hit that, so I increased it to 10000miles. I went up to the lakes over easter and had a great time. I managed to climb up Honister Pass and a few other of the big hills. I will go back again at some point as it was great cycling up there. I got to July and had commpleted 5200miles when a car pulled out in front of me and I went through the window. I managed to break my neck in the process and so that has pretty much been it for the rest of the year. Next year I hope to get back on a bike and get some fitness back.

 

[maltloaf]

I had a few targets this year. To ride a 100km ride, which I managed 3 times. To ride 20 miles in under an hour which I managed once. To do a Sportive which I managed on the Tour Ride in Stoke. To get better at hills which I have managed purely by doing more hills.

I started the year at a smidge under 21 stone and I'm now 16.5 stone. I would have liked to have cycled a lot more but changes in the missus' working hours have related me from doing 20 miles every day to 30-50 miles at the weekend.

A pretty good year as I have achieved all I set out to but I do feel like I could have done so much more, e.g. imperial century and a lot more events.

 

[clid61]

Usual commute and extended route on good days , midweek jollys out and about to blackpool ,southport ,bowland delamere and a sportive in marrakech raised £500 for McMillan and Midstream West Lancs

View: http://vimeo.com/109437157
going next year too

 

[CopperBrompton]

I've been up the LF1/ LF20 from the Hoek to Amsterdam four times in the last few years. It goes very well as I fumble with my lovely paper maps.....until Haarlem. There is a big square there which looks like your photo. The LF signs seem to go all wonky. I get hopelessly lost every time. It's still a lot of fun.

This signs get rather sparse every time you pass through a town. Even with GPS, navigation can be a bit random until you find the far side.

 

[Panter]

It's been a really bad Year for personal reasons, so hadn't even swung a leg over a saddle for over a Year.
Started cycling again at the end of September and am now full time cycle commuting which I'm feeling really good about
So, in some ways 2014 hasn't been a great Year for me, but it's also the Year that I've rediscovered my bikes (albeit towards the tail end of 2014.) Which also makes it a great Year!

 

[Hicky]

Bad 18months for me however the last 6 has been good on the bike due to friends encouragement.
I done a Cyprus charity cycle ride in May with my regiment, 600km in 4 days taking in Dourshia and Troodos climbs(20000ft if someone elses strava is to be believed) all on my Crosscheck.....prompted me to buy a lighter bike.
My youngest son (6 on new years day) cycled 17miles in one day in the summer and ended it with a trip to the park and an iced cream and now can ride all the way up the hill from Smithybridge train st to Hollingworth lake, no mean feat....he is inlove with his bike/cycling.
Watching the ToF so local to my home and climbing the Cragg 3 times in the day....because it was empty.

Next year I AM going to do;
More forum rides.....please bully me into it ColinJ and Potsy.
Le tour dr Cragg (as many assents of Cragg Vale in 24 hrs)
Finally get over to France and climb as many famous Cols as possble in two weeks.