2016 Ride Summary

In the final days of 2016, I’ve pulled together a summary of my year in cycling.  There are countless resources available online, particularly for those of us who use Strava for our ride summaries.

I subscribe to veloviewer.com, which provides a nice summary graphic of year shown below.  I rode over 3700 km (less than my goal of 5000 km, but my weekly mileage has decreased during my recovery).  My longest ride was 211 km (my longest ride EVER!).

Another cool graphic is from madewithsisu.com, which shows a poster of all rides from 2016:

And of course, I’m a big fan of the heat maps.  Veloviewer has a good option for heatmaps, but I prefer Jonathan O’Keeffe’s site.

And my all-time cycling heatmap for southern Ontario (2012-2015):

Here are some of my ride Highlights:

• January:
  • My first time track cycling
  • Sugar Shack Hustle Fat Bike event run by King Street Cycles.
  • Awesome fat biking in the snow in Guelph (The GORBA trails!)
• February:
  • Fatbiking in the snow at The Hydrocut at -23C
  • Frostbike event near St. Catharines (more of a mudbike event!)
• March:
  • Crossing the Grand River 12 times on a gravel ride
• April:
  • Steaming Nostril/Runny Nose event on a fatbike
  • Tour of Pelham event (another mud fest!)
  • Crossing the Conestoga River 12 times on a gravel ride
  • Paris to Ancaster event for the 15th straight year.
  • Toronto Waterfront Trail ride
• May:
  • Together We Travel – Cycle for Angels
  • Elora to Erin on gravel roads – exploring new gravel roads.
• June:
  • Wild Ride at Wildwood Conservation Area – nice mountain bike trails in St. Mary’s.
  • Ride for Heart in Toronto – riding on the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway!
• July:
  • Cycling in Cape Cod – lots of paved rail trail where motorists stop to let cyclists pass by.  Oh.. .and beaches!
  • Trans Fat – Fat bike ride Ancaster to Port Dover and back
  • My first 200 km ride – Pie-athlon (an annual event Tim, Riot, Kate, Doug, Christian….. ?)
  • Solo 100 km with escarpment climbs
• August:
  • Beers, Bikes and Breweries ride
  • Cycling in Grundy Lake Provincial Park
  • Eager Beaver 100 – 100 km gravel race
  • 5-0 Bicycalligraphy (I coined the term “bicycalligraphy” btw!)
• September:
  • Share the Road – Greg’s Ride
  • Ride to Stratford and the Crash

I’ll complete my 50-in-50 rides before I turn 51 next August.  My quest has been delayed since my crash in September but I’ll get there!

I’ve had the pleasure of riding with some amazing people.  I continue to be inspired by my cycling colleagues.  Road bikes, mountain bikes, gravel bikes, fat bikes… we’re all cyclists who love being outside for the exercise, the fresh air and the friendship!

Here’s to an even better 2017!