2016. How was it for you?

[essexian]

2016. How was it for you?
Now that the year is over (just done my last ride of the year: 15 miles around Newport Shropshire), so I thought I would re-cap the year.

For me, 2016 wasn’t a bad year but two injuries after falls (to my arm and back/head) meant that I missed at least six weeks of riding while I recoveed meaning I didn’t manage to do all the miles I wanted, although 2 880 is my second highest total ever. Next year, I want to break 5 000 miles so best try not to fall off again!

As for my average speed, this increased to 13.2 from just over 12mph the previous year (including local rides which tend to be slower). For the first time since I started keeping records, I managed rides over 15mph average, indeed I exceeded this figure five times and when over 16mph once: over 28 miles at Silverstone (okay, it was 16.02mph but that counts!).

My longest ride was the Great Weston Ride from Bristol to Weston Super Mere at 57 miles (not excessively long for some but good for me), with the 50 mile Great Nottingham Ride coming in second.

Worse climb is a tie between the Coombe on the Great Weston Ride at around 600 foot and the climb out of Stone on the old Uttoxeter Road. While at less than 300 foot this is no monster but it was raining heavily and I could not get into the small ring. Not nice.  Most hilly sportive goes to the Bostin Staffordshire ride which took me out from Uttoxeter over the rolling hills of Staffordshire including some nasty stuff around Rocester.

Wettest Ride was the St Leonards School sportive: 40 miles of non-stop rain and wind. However, this ride winds the award for best cakes at the food stations. I would be mad for saying they were worth getting wet for…. But it was close.

Best views on a ride goes to the Ludlow Sportive around South Shropshire hills. Some lovely back roads and views over the area CBH and my family (going back a few years) are from.

Disappointments of the year….. The Ride Stafford Sportive….it just felt a little flat really (but thanks to the person who chased me down when I went the wrong way); the fact that I can’t follow Audax instructions so got totally lost on the Old Ma’s ride and the fact that I still haven’t got over my fear of cycling from my own front door preferring to take the bike in the car a mile or two out of town before I start riding. That’s something to work on in the New Year.

Hope you had a nice 2016.

[T42]

My 2016 was bloody awful but I'm still alive and still riding, or at least will be once the temperature rises a bit. Remains to be seen if I'm still Audax-capable; I have my doubts.

Rides of note:

Least fun: 6 km wearing a Holter, giving up after 3 km.

Most satisfying ride: at the beginning of August, starting over after a 10-week lay-off, I had a wee bet with myself that I'd manage a 100k trot before the end of the month, and on the 31st I did 104 km round one of my training loops.

Most fun: a 120 km trot with club prez to see the Donkeys of Eschbach. Wonderful weather, good food, excellent ice-cream & coffee.

[Basil]

An extremely poor year.  I seem to have stopped cycling altogether.   

Oh well, at least I've had a full service done on the Sardar a couple of weeks ago, so there must be a little interest lurking somewhere.

Furthest ride.  No idea, probably not more than 25 miles.
Longest ride since moving in to new house in the summer.  1.2 mile round trip to the NotVerySupermarket.

Most enjoyable ride.  My last ever commute one evening at the end of March.

[Ruthie]

Well, I logged 1424 miles, which doesn't include utility miles.  I can't remember a ride I didn't enjoy, and my favourite ride is usually the one I just finished. 

I haven't ridden enough with mcshroom this year, I hope to remedy that next year.

I'm well enough to be riding on NYE which is the first time for some years.  Time to celebrate, I think!

[andrewc]

My least touring for several years      A few weekends away with you lot and 2 weeks in France (1 solo, the second with good company). A couple of night rides.   I shall have to do better next year. 

[Pickled Onion]

  I can't remember a ride I didn't enjoy

That's lovely to hear 

[LittleWheelsandBig]

2016's riding was a bit like a curate's egg.

I was working in Turkey for most of January, so had little bike fitness before squeaking through a DIY200 on the last weekend.

Riding in February often got sidelined by life/ other commitments and I DNFed my DIY200 to postie's Salisbury reunion. So much for building up fitness.

March went ok with 3 x 200 on successive weekends in a last-ditch effort to get fit for Easter's Fleche Velocio in France. Our captain T42 was disappointingly sidelined by the doctors beforehand but HK and I still rode with a couple of his clubmates. They were excellent company but unfortunately one DNFed. C'est la vie! Our subsequent gentle cycletouring holiday was pretty good, despite missing part of the Carmargue due to a ferry strike and the following weekend's UAF 200 being cancelled, due to poor weather.

Real life stuffed up most weekends in April, though I got round the Oasts and Coasts 300, despite a lack of fitness.

I squeezed in a 200 before working in Turkey took up most of May.

Got round another 200 in June, the weekend before finishing Bordeaux-Paris 600 UAF in reasonable shape. I managed to fit in another 200 around weekend inspections for work.

July was topped and tailed by PBP Audax 1200 and the National 400 with a couple of 200s in between. Despite limited preparation, the long rides were generally good fun and I was looking forward to enjoying some late season events with reasonable fitness.

In August, I worked a week in Canada, then flew to Oz for my folks' 50th. While out there, I rode a UAF 200 on a tandem with George, my PBP15 stoker. On the way to the UK, I stopped off in Thailand to ride a 300 BRM but crashed out of the event. That meant I spent most of September in traction in a Bangkok hospital. It also stopped me riding the Cracker Swamp 1200 LRM and everything else I'd planned. When I finally got back to the UK, I wasn't allowed on a bike till December and I still sound like an old man whenever I get up from a chair.

December's riding initially involved a few gentle spins on my Brompton, including the Christmas Origami ride. That was good! The Festive 500 gave me a reason to get out on my Frezoni consistently this week, though I've not yet been able to get past 4 hours riding without paying for it.

Unfortunately, I'll be working in Turkey for most of January, so will likely find it hard to get fit enough to enjoy next year's big events in the first half of the year. We'll see what happens.

[cycleman]

2016 has not been the greatest year for me. nine month with a cathier in was not fun also my back went on a tour in wales and i spent a week in carmarthen hospital. however i have had some good rides .the thames meander was a lovely one as always . the may long itchington weekend was blessed with a tail wind there and was excellent . i went to wales with Jonathon notp and despite my back we managed to conquer the devils staircase . the not the mildenhall rally weekend was a highlight of the year . being watered at rutland water was oddly fun ....... . last but not least the september long itch was yet another enjoyable trip. i have only managed around 1900 miles this year but hope the 2017 is better .

[robgul]

Not too bad - target of 5,000 miles cycled fell a couple of hundred short as a result of a couple of hospital appts on Wednesdays which would have been 50-60 mile club runs, some crap weather in the last couple of weeks and some working days.

September saw me start volunteering in the Cyclists Fighting Cancer charity bike shop near Stratford fettling bikes and serving in the shop ... and then from mid-November in paid (only just!) employment a day a week in a LBS serving and doing a bit of mechanicing (while the manager has time off to offset his late opening evenings)

Acquired a Brompton in a sorry state and put that back into working order - disposed of a few bikes to get the fleet down to 4 regular bikes + the Brompton . . . but am presently rebuilding a Raleigh Team Banana frame as s/s shopping/pub bike.   Refurbished a rather nice Peugeot mixte for my wife, transferring all the components from the Claud Butler Majestique she had which was a shade big for her.

Added 3 Islabikes to the fleet that our grand-children are using (I buy them - they use them until they grow out of them - I have them back and sell them . . . and so on)

"Retired" from organising the MacRide events that I'd been doing for the past 11 years - 35 events, raised just about £800,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support.

. . . and perhaps the icing on the cake was being signed off for 12 monthly post-cancer check-ups.

Rob

[Polar Bear]

Some ups, some downs.

Hit my target miles and enjoyed about 95% of them.   Got a new local friend or two to cy le with.

Feel a bit fitter, healthier and lighter than I was 12 months ago.  Much room for further improvement.

Hope to smash my 2016 total in 2017 which I fear will be my last year solo.   

[JBB]

Not bad - a very slow start to ghe year but rode to Spain in May/June with my sister then managed to keep going despite other committments . Just hope to do more next year !

[Pickled Onion]

Pretty good actually. I finally pulled my finger out and got my head round the idea of JFDI.

Cycled in eight countries, seven of which I've never been to before. Loved every minute of it.

Now to choose where to go next year...

[Morat]

Cycling has been the highlight of my year to be honest. Work has been tough, both dogs died, wife isn't particularly well and I've put on weight.
On the upside I've bought a second bike done the coast to coast and a couple of sportives and charity rides on the tandem and had a good craic with the informal evening pub rides.

[Pedaldog.]

2016 started with my foot in a big Plastic Boot a lot of the time so I didn't ride at all before mid March. Since then I've done a local variation of routes, all between 6 and 19 miles, but not even many of those. I'm starting the new year with the joyous feeling of "Wanting to get back to where I used to be" a few years ago, averaging 300, or more, miles in a Month. Hell, it's only a 10 mile a day average, I can do that. Putting the exercise as an aid to weight loss, I'm hoping, as I see positive results, my Motivation should be even stronger.

[woollypigs]

Back on the bike again after three years off. Not because I was lazy but because of major ouch if I did ride.

Started with 5 miles pootles, build it up to 24 miles. Best ride all of them, but the better than best ride would be all the rides I did with Peli.

A total of 750 miles

[JenM]

Overall pretty good:

• 25 nights cycle camping
• 43 nights nights in the campervan
• Best trip - cycled Edinburgh to Essex - the area around Thirsk and the Lincolnshire Wolds were a delight and an area I shall return to in 2017
• An OK trip on the Wild Atlantic Way between Cork and Galway. However, too many main roads and rubbish drivers
• 2 Audax rides - enjoyed these rides.....rides with a purpose with some socialising. Will do more.
• Andrij's Thames Ride was a special day out
• Best ride - riding back to the campsite from Austwick after a birthday meal. It was dark, clear skies....just magical

[graculus]

I had a good year cycling wise. 2 tours in Wales and 1 on the south coast. I'm not getting any faster but have gone a bit further; best annual mileage (2250) and furthest in a day (72).
I'm sure there were probably bits I didn't enjoy at the time but in retrospect the memories are all good.

[TigaSefi]

Feckin' Brilliant. Completed my RRTY! nearly did 14,000km.... Went to some really good places!!

[Kim]

A mixed bag for me, including, but not limited to (and in a mere approximation of chronological order):

• YACF Clapham weekend, featuring a short but exciting MTB ride in some spectacular wind and hail.
• YACF Long Itch weekend in May, including some mucking about on a silly bike.
• Actually putting in an appearance at an ALC meet, using audax tactics to get there.  Significantely boosted turnout to the AGM in the process 
  Also made it to another meet in July.
• Contributed to nikki OTP's Orrery for Landscape, Sinew and Serendipity project.  Mainly through the media of C, Java, prototype-quality electronics, loosely stated assumptions, orbital calculations, sarcasm and foul language.  Got to know Emily Chappell via her tracking data, and have vowed never to use string^[1] in a production environment again.
• A week's touring in Normandy with YACF's Team Kitchen Sink.  This was the first time I've been in ABROAD since the mid 1990s, so was more adventurous than the conditions might indicate.  Mostly got the hang of riding on the wrong side of the road, even if I have forgotten what little I knew about speaking French.
• A new bike, which took a while to fettle to rideable condition.
• The York Rally, to which barakta and I turned up with a car full of electrons and no camping stove.  Further excitement provided by Sustrans with a stereotypical approach to ride routing, and my neglecting to pack a headset spanner for the long-suffering Brompton.
• A 160km Audax where everything seemed to go low-level wrong.
• The Derbyshire Pie Run, where I did not consume any pies or do any running.
• A couple of FNRttCs, including the Manchester-Morecambe one which only needed a non-urgent ambulance.
• Coventry's SkyRide, for an obligatory lap of the infamous ring road.
• The YACF Not The Mildenhall Rally weekend at Wing, which involved a lot of faffing, a bit of cycling and a spectacular case of Weather.
• The Fridays' Viva Colonia tour.  Featuring different parts of ABROAD with other kinds of FOREIGNS.  Everyone should cycle in the Netherlands at least once, but preferably on some decently soft tyres.  Camping on tours organised by hotellists is possible, but suboptimal (although you can impress the lightweights by eg. having a proper knife or knowing where your towel is).  ~30C heat remains a challenge.  German makes a lot more sense than French, and the Dutch all speak English anyway.  The Belgians seem to operate on a quantum system whereby any given language becomes wrong the moment you attempt to use it.
  Also got to see Auntie Helen OTP, along with Klaus and of course Penelope.
  Unfortunately, I ended up with a non-specifically b0rked achilles by the time we arrived in Aachen.  I limped on to Maastricht, but failed to make a recovery in the time available, and completed the remainder of the tour primarily by railway.
• A couple of months housebound and off the bike waiting for the above to heal, punctuated by a few cautious turbo trainer experiments.  Turbo trainers are almost as dull as not being able to walk.
• ...eventually building up to 35km on the bike by the end of December.  Still a work in progress.  My Randonneur Once A Year™ is ruined.  If I can get back to the 100km level without pain, I'll be happy.
• But I did manage to join in Kajsa Tylen's 50,000km celebration ride around Nottingham.   

A total of 5773km, which isn't too shabby given that I was off the bike entirely for two months.


_{[1] By which I don't mean String}

[JBB]

A mixed bag for me, including, but not limited to (and in a mere approximation of chronological order):

• YACF Clapham weekend, featuring a short but exciting MTB ride in some spectacular wind and hail.
• YACF Long Itch weekend in May, including some mucking about on a silly bike.
• Actually putting in an appearance at an ALC meet, using audax tactics to get there.  Significantely boosted turnout to the AGM in the process 
  Also made it to another meet in July.
• Contributed to nikki OTP's Orrery for Landscape, Sinew and Serendipity project.  Mainly through the media of C, Java, prototype-quality electronics, loosely stated assumptions, orbital calculations, sarcasm and foul language.  Got to know Emily Chappell via her tracking data, and have vowed never to use string^[1] in a production environment again.
• A week's touring in Normandy with YACF's Team Kitchen Sink.  This was the first time I've been in ABROAD since the mid 1990s, so was more adventurous than the conditions might indicate.  Mostly got the hang of riding on the wrong side of the road, even if I have forgotten what little I knew about speaking French.
• A new bike, which took a while to fettle to rideable condition.
• The York Rally, to which barakta and I turned up with a car full of electrons and no camping stove.  Further excitement provided by Sustrans with a stereotypical approach to ride routing, and my neglecting to pack a headset spanner for the long-suffering Brompton.
• A 160km Audax where everything seemed to go low-level wrong.
• The Derbyshire Pie Run, where I did not consume any pies or do any running.
• A couple of FNRttCs, including the Manchester-Morecambe one which only needed a non-urgent ambulance.
• Coventry's SkyRide, for an obligatory lap of the infamous ring road.
• The YACF Not The Mildenhall Rally weekend at Wing, which involved a lot of faffing, a bit of cycling and a spectacular case of Weather.
• The Fridays' Viva Colonia tour.  Featuring different parts of ABROAD with other kinds of FOREIGNS.  Everyone should cycle in the Netherlands at least once, but preferably on some decently soft tyres.  Camping on tours organised by hotellists is possible, but suboptimal (although you can impress the lightweights by eg. having a proper knife or knowing where your towel is).  ~30C heat remains a challenge.  German makes a lot more sense than French, and the Dutch all speak English anyway.  The Belgians seem to operate on a quantum system whereby any given language becomes wrong the moment you attempt to use it.
  Also got to see Auntie Helen OTP, along with Klaus and of course Penelope.
  Unfortunately, I ended up with a non-specifically b0rked achilles by the time we arrived in Aachen.  I limped on to Maastricht, but failed to make a recovery in the time available, and completed the remainder of the tour primarily by railway.
• A couple of months housebound and off the bike waiting for the above to heal, punctuated by a few cautious turbo trainer experiments.  Turbo trainers are almost as dull as not being able to walk.
• ...eventually building up to 35km on the bike by the end of December.  Still a work in progress.  My Randonneur Once A Year™ is ruined.  If I can get back to the 100km level without pain, I'll be happy.
• But I did manage to join in Kajsa Tylen's 50,000km celebration ride around Nottingham.   

A total of 5773km, which isn't too shabby given that I was off the bike entirely for two months.


_{[1] By which I don't mean String}

That's still more than me; although I did manage ROAY this year - just the one 104k!

[Basil]

A mixed bag for me, [...] which isn't too shabby [...]

Not shabby at all, matey.  That's a great year. 

[Wowbagger]

I'll just go off the top of my head, which allows for editing later when I remember stuff.

An excellent week in Normandie with Kim, AndrewC and Canardly. There was some weather on the last day. This was my only camping tour of the year.

Some very early season camping in order to ride with two others, both of whom are now World Record holders.

A strong candidate for the most benign Dun Run, weather-wise, of my experience (8 times in 9 years, I think), in excellent company.

Wing, as per Kim's description.

Long Itch, twice, I think, once involving chess pieces.

The acquisition of an electric-assist tandem, which, sadly, has seen far too little use by Mrs. Wow. My grand-daughter is now a stoker, before she can ride a solo machine.

A couple of FNRttC, one to Southend, in which I missed the really bad weather as I rode from home to meet them, and Jane and I breakfasted outside overlooking the mud. Another to Whitstable, in which I felt I held people up or too long. Kim & I enjoyed an excellent breakfast together, before I had to bugger off for a particular train that took me straight to Stratford.

About 1.5 miles in Scotland.

Edit: a flattering ride when Jane led the Lewisham Cyclists from Shenfield to Southend, mostly using roads she and I had ridden together over a number of years. Somehow she managed to make Shenfield to Southend something over 60 miles (it's really only about 20!). It was a lovely warm day as well.

[phantasmagoriana]

My Randonneur Once A Year™ is ruined. 

Mine too - I didn't manage a single audax in 2016, although in my case it's simply because there weren't any calendar events happening at convenient times in places I could get to, and I'm too lazy/inept to DIY.

[IanDG]

Pretty shit - reduced mileage, a few DNS and work/life balance all wrong.

[woollypigs]

But you got to ride out to see us Hopefully we can make it a ride this year, as we will be back!