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Another year complete and another Rapha 500 complete (despite declaring that I would not do one again).

I went into the Rapha very uncommitted and with the thought that I might do a couple of big days of downhill rides only – it was only for my own benefit anyway.

In the end I found it quite easy, and I ended up with very similar stats to the previous years. Of course, doing 100K on the 24th and then another one on the 27th helped.

I also managed 15 new Fulgaz rides, which was a bonus. Everything on Fulgaz bar the final ride which was a Rouvy race. That was something new to me but I enjoyed it.

This year I was considering doing 10,000 metres of climbing in the 8 day period and I might do that next year instead of 500Km.

Overall I thought I had completed a very good cycling year. I was happy with most things I had done, and I felt that I had ridden a lot. However, I was very surprised to find that my numbers were down across the board (30 hours light, 2000Km short (although I don’t bother with distance now as I monitor hours) and maybe 20,000 metres of climbing less than I wanted.

One nagging thought is that I would like to go outside more but a combination of laziness, ease of indoor training, safety and weather conditions and a nagging wife (who is only concerned about my safety) mean that I only went outside twice, both times with my local cycling group, Wetherby Velo. I found myself hanging on for dear life on their tempo Tuesdays but I did enjoy the social aspect afterwards (beers). They have set up a steady Thursday ride for (mostly) us retired folks and I do intend joining that occasionally  – but we shall see.

I am still running the weekly challenge on Fulgaz – over 4 years now  – and it is promoted by Fulgaz in their weekly newsletter and they are very supportive to me.  I really do think that app goes from strength to strength, and it is my goto app. I use Rouvy through winter if I can get a half-price deal which I normally do. I do like the gaining XP points for completing challenges (groups of selected rides) and the occasional race. Although I treat those as I used to do with Zwift, as a solo TT at whatever pace I feel like on the day, so not really a race.

Last week I logged into Zwift for the first time for about a year and I did not recognize the front end. I had watched a You Tube video about a guy completing the longest 30 routes in 30 days and I wanted to see how many of the big routes I had left to do. It looks like maybe 5 of top 10. I might join for a month and try and get those ticked off. I am at level 33 and I have used it about 4 times (using the free 25Km per month) in the last three years.

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