2025 was an enjoyable year on the bike. I decided last year that mountain biking wasn’t for me (after an unfortunate spill near the summit of Whernside) so this year I stuck to roads and paths which suited me more. I don’t like getting muddy and my shoes and clothing aren’t appropriate for MTB use so it’s probably for the best.
Cycle touring is my thing, especially exploring new regions. In the year, I cycled in eight new English counties leaving just two of the 48 left to be completed in 2026. The bulk of these additional counties were achieved in my longest tour of the year in the Southeast of England – a region almost entirely new to me.
Some of my trips were not quite touring (defined by me as carrying all my own belongings and spending each night in a new location) but instead, I stayed for a night or two in one spot and went out for day rides. This had the advantage of riding without any bags yet still visiting new areas. I variously based myself in Ambleside, Chester, Wooler, and Sheffield.
Along with ten others, I went on a trip to Mallorca in May and we hired a villa near Pollença. The trip was fine, but the weather wasn’t the best and rain on the last day caused me to slide off on a bend making an unhappy end to the week. No real damage was done, apart from injured pride. At the end of the week I realised that I’d not seen anything new since this was my fourth trip to the region and so I decided to give it a miss next year.
I still own three bikes: a tourer, a lightweight road bike with fancy wheels and a winter bike. The road bike only comes out when it’s sunny, but in April I did go on an experimental bike-packing trip with it, just carrying the essentials for an overnight stay. This worked well, but the day rides were perhaps more relaxing.
Statistics warning! If statistics bore you (and I’m amazed that they could), you will want to skip the next few paragraphs.
I covered 5,500 miles in the year, roughly split between the three bikes: tourer – 1,450, road – 1,800 and winter – 1,925 with the remainder on a hire bike). I spent 750 miles touring, 4,250 miles on recreational rides and 500 miles when I used my bike for transportation (instead of a car, for instance). There’s some latitude here, since I may go on a short trip to the chemist and then continue on a recreational ride. But the rules are, if I go somewhere on a bike instead of using the car, this counts as transportation, even if I choose to go the long way home.
I’m still building up my Veloviewer tile collection (increase of 1,888 in the year) but in 2025 I made a conscious effort to increase my tile cluster. This was achieved largely by planning rides which would link ‘orphan’ clusters to bring them into the main group. This meant that my largest cluster grew my 641 tiles in the year.
At the start of the year I often set targets for both distance and height climbed, but I’m quite relaxed about ignoring them if I feel like it. A spell of miserable weather in October (and a touch of lethargy) meant that my initial target of 6,000 miles was put in jeopardy, so I abandoned it and set it at a more attainable 5,500 miles. However, I maintained the target of beating my overall annual height value by climbing 112,965 metres. That’s over a quarter of the distance to the Space Station or over twelve times the height of Everest. Looking forward to 2026, I’ve already got a six-day tour of East Anglia planned, and a friend and I have agreed dates to cycle through the five countries of the British Isles which we had to postpone in 2023. Day rides around Anglesey and in the Rugby area are also on the cards. Can’t wait for the weather to improve.
