... a donkey-felching baboon...
I may have to borrow that...
But under no circumstances change it to Gibbon!
I think it's far to early to think about what's going to happen with any resumption of Steve's challenge. I hope he can resume some time, but even if the rules are amended to allow time out for injury (I can't see how that's reasonable, tbh, given that "injury" could be a wear-and-tear injury), I suspect that Steve, being the purist he is, would want to emulate Tommy Godwin and keep it to a calendar year.
This is almost certainly the wrong thread for this but, given the value of wild speculation on this (or any other) forum for that matter, it might be worth starting one for dealing with such things.
FWIW there are also cretins over on Strava making completely unwarranted digs against Steve. I have, for the first time, clicked beneath Kurt's most recent ride record and commented, wishing him well and signing off "a pal of Steve's".