Ribble's Festive Cycling Challenge

The days may be growing ever shorter, and the Christmas holidays may be upon us, but it’s still the perfect season to set yourself that long-awaited cycling challenge.

With a healthy dose of determination and the right kit, late season riding provides the perfect opportunity to take a welcome break from overindulging on turkey, mince pies, and a cheeky Belgian beer or two! So, why not escape it all, reset, reflect, and challenge yourself to a festive cycling challenge quite unlike any other. No matter how big or small the challenge may be – whether it’s your first century, that epic climb you’ve always wanted to conquer, a KOM, multi-day bike-packing adventure or simply to get out more and kick off the new year with some miles under the belt, tis the perfect season for a festive challenge on two wheels.

To serve as a source of inspiration for your own festive rides, we thought we we'd rope in two (ahem) ‘volunteers’ and assign them with a rather unique challenge for each to complete. Our willing volunteers in this were the Ribble Collective's Maddy Nutt and Tom Couzens.

First up was Maddy Nutt who took on our rather cunningly devised festive bingo challenge. We furnished Maddy with several Christmas related tasks to achieve whilst out and about on her training ride. Her goal was to complete all the tasks listed and therefore complete the full house. Sadly, despite her stoic efforts, Maddy fell short of achieving the full house and consequently failing to win the non-existent prize for doing so! But as the saying goes, time waits for no man (or woman) and it was a lack of time to complete all her tasks that scuppered her chances of success. However, we are obliged to point out (for legals purposes, blah, blah) that this in no way makes Maddy a terrible person…honest! 😉

Winter Solstice marks the shortest day of the year. This marks the time of year when the Earth's poles are tipped over to their furthest point away from the sun. But to you and me, it means the hours of daylight only get longer from here-on out - yippee! But the solstice also planted the seed of an idea for an epic challenge in our minds. What if… a rider gets up at the crack of dawn on the winter solstice and rides non-stop until sunset. How many miles can said rider achieve in this time? Sadly for our test guinea pig, sorry, we mean nominated cyclist for this festive challenge (Tom Couzens) the challenge just happened to coincide with perhaps the windiest conditions of the year to date. Whoops! So, he may be forgiven for not riding quite as far as everyone would have orginally anticipated.

Over to you Tom!

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