Goodbye 2012.....

Well, after a dreadful final day commuting to work on a rather wet and windy New Years Eve that is officially cycling over and done with for 2012.  I was determined to end the year on the bike so even though the weather had "turned" to the dark side again I kitted up in the morning and left the house looking resplendent in my full all weather gear.  However thanks to a mega wind and the added weight of my garb it was a horrendous journey.  I didn't manage to get above 10mph on the slog up London Road.

We were let out of work early which allowed me to extend the return journey. However, as I left Summer Lane and joined the B5356 to Stretton, I was hit by what I could only describe as a mini hurricane together with a load of hail...which hurt....and stung.

I was expecting a nice tail wind to help me along the A49 but this was not to be, instead I was battered with wind rain and hail.  I decided to cut the ride short and arrived home wet (I didn't wear my rain gear for the ride home because it was dry when I left work...DOH).

So, I'm glad I did cycle in but bloody wet for it.

Next Year

So, 2012 has been a great year for my cycling.  I took part in many more cycling events, Audax and Sportives. Plus increased my commuting mileage. I also beat my 4,000 mile target for the year which I was really pleased about.  That's over 1k more miles than last year.  Another upside is that I came down with less colds at the beginning of the year....however  the downside was getting ill in October and missing the BMC Strava challenge.

So what has 2013 got in store?

Well I've already signed up for the Polocini Winter Sprinter event, which I did this year here. And I've signed up for the Wild Wales Challenge as well in August, which I also did here. Both events were really enjoyable so I've decided to stick them in my calendar even before Big Ben strikes midnight.

So the events on my radar for 2013 are...


Wild Wales Challenge (August 2013)          - Entered
Polocini Winter Sprinter ( February 2013) - Entered
Polocini The Bastard (June 2013)               - Going to Enter
Ride London 100 ( August 2013)                  - Entered the Ballot
Virgin Money Cyclone ( June 2013 )            - Going to Enter
Manchester to Blackpool (July 2013)           - Going to Enter
Bowland Badass (July 2013)                        - Might Enter but it looks stupid
The Bay Bash (April 2013)                           - Going to Enter

And no doubt there will be many more, including the NCC Audax.

Also, there is the possibility of a trip to Majorca with the club win April.  Looks good so will probably go on that.

All in all I've had a perfect cycling year, met some great people and had some cracking rides with my North Cheshire Clarion club mates.  In 2013 I'm going to aim to hit 6,000 miles and also aim to improve my hill climbing by doing more bloody hills.

So what about this blog. Well as of late I've become more and more bone idle updating it. Together with club runs and rides that follow the same routes, adding to this blog has been harder and harder, also the traffic (real people reading this that is), has gone down to a point where I no longer really need my own domain name, so I've decided to set the domain www.thelazycommuter.com  to expire from the 10th January 2013.  That means that if you still want to read my blog you will now have to go to thelazycommuter.blogspot.co.uk.

So that's it. Goodbye 2012 and hello to 2013, a year of challenges and hopefully good fortune. And also, according to rumours, a new Garmin 900.

So My final stats as of 31/12/2012 stand at

Yearly Distance  : 4,056.1 miles (6527.66 Kilometres)
Time in Saddle   : 256 Hours 29 Minutes
Total Climbing   : 180,282 feet

Total Distance ridden so far : 7,341.9 Miles (11815.64 Kilometres)



Happy New Year!!!!!