2013 annual report

What a year it was - 2103 turned out to be a very good year for me on the bike. I managed to ride 7290km, which is my best year since I returned to riding in 2005. It's a major improvement on the 4,008km I rode last year. My best month was May with 923km, illness in February kept me to 295km - an average month was 600km.

Three things helped with my quest to crack the 7200km mark, an arbitrary goal I set some years ago.  One was definitely Strava which helped keep me honest and injected some friendly comparison between my riding and that of my mates.The second was a set of warmer kit for winter, which meant I was able to get out in relative comfort on even the coldest days. Being able to keep the miles up through winter really helped. And some of those cold winters mornings were pretty spectacular, riding out on the bike path in sub-zero temperatures, waiting for the warming light of the sun's first rays of the day. And having a bunch of mates like Ben and Keith to ride with helped too.

So the maths. I rode 346 hours in 188 rides this year, the equivalent of about 14 days on the bike at an average speed of 21.03km/h. I did 56% of the distance on the Thorn, 17% on the Crosscheck, 13% on my Bianchi and much of the rest on a crappy mountain bike in Vietnman. My longest ride was 374km on the Oppy, where I really struggled. And 7290km works out to be 20.01km a day or 140km a week.  My total since 2005 now stands at 47,200km.

Now the counter is rest and it's time to set some new goals.

80.1km so far this year.