If I can start with the background to next year’s goals, it may make things a little clearer. 2007 started with a very windy & wet winter. I’d just bought myself a single speed as a winter commuter & was struggling to get used to riding it, especially when my commute home from work is SW, so normally had a headwind. My relationship was putting increasing demands on my time and a knee problem I sometimes experience in winter was quite bad, so my riding became more and more intermittent. Come the spring & I was commuting a bit more frequently &, with a drop in the winds & was starting to get used to riding S/S rather than a geared bike. At the end of April, both my legs & head had got used to riding without gears & I had one of those rides which takes you to somewhere quite special. About 400m from work on this ride, however, my back wheel lost traction on a corner at 30+km/h & I broke my scaphoid bone in breaking the impact with the road. This necessitated being off bike for a few months. Whilst I used to go through periods of not riding much, being forced not to ride was incredibly difficult. Fortunately, someone on the C+ forum suggested that I get a recumbent. With the help of David Gardiner at Laid Back Bikes in Edinburgh, I learnt to ride one & purchased one (all with my arm in a cast) &, by August, had a bike & could ride again. In the mean time, I’d got engaged & will now be getting married in August. We’ve agreed to go to Provence for our honeymoon & hire bikes to get around (& I’m (semi-secretly) plotting a way to find time to climb Mt Ventoux). I’ve planned a stag do that involves 2x100mile rides in three days and a short (50km) ride for the non-cyclists who want to meet me up North & travel there in a non-human-powered way. The person who was to be my best man was going to do his first 100mile in a day ride during this weekend, but unfortunately, he has just passed away, meaning that this will be both a celebration of my upcoming wedding & a memoriam for my friend.

So my goals for the new year are:

To keep riding through the winter & try to get at least 1 metric century ride a month in (I’ve kept up with this since September thus far).

To review my bike collection & rationalize it (at the moment, I have 3 road bikes & a recumbent. I can’t ride any of the road bikes just now due to osteo-arthritis in my wrist & am unsure if I’ll be able to again). I want a light-weight bike for longer summer rides & if I can’t ride the uprights, will need a new recumbent.

To do a circuit of Arran (this is seriously hilly despite being only 57miles).

To improve my fuelling strategy on long rides (I’m diabetic & this has been a consistent problem for me).

To review my diet in terms of fitness & ensuring that I’m getting the right foods in the right quantity (I’m vegan & need more information on protein requirements and availability of different amino acids in my diet, as well as what foods would provide these effectively)

To stop smoking.

To climb Ventoux.

(Possibly needed depending on my wrist) Finding somewhere I can hire a recumbent bike in Provence.

To plan a cycling honeymoon in Provence for me & my partner (she’s not such a cyclist, so it needs to be mutually acceptable)

To resolve the psychology of why I experience low motivation in the weeks after a long ride & sort this (I think that it’s about not having longer term goals, which is one of the reasons I’m submitting this)

That’ll do for now, but there’s plenty for you to help out with & most of it should be of interest to many I’d think.

Oh & I’m terribly photogenic…

If you do want to get back to me, please just PM thro the site or email me at richard_bloodworth@hotmail.co.uk since I check this account more frequently & don’t tend to accidentally delete messages as spam when they’re not.

Cheers & looking forward to the feature (well given that you plan to cover a range of cycling interests

Richard

Did Etape last year in 10hrs as a novice, then put a stone back on. Wanna do La Marmotte this year and break 8 hours in the Fred Whitton in May (if I can get in).

I'd like to complete the London to Brighton. I'm relatively inexperienced at road cycling and have only previously done the London Bikeathon (26 mile route). I could also do with losing a few kg's (now 5 foot 11 and 13 stone -whoops!) and see this as an opportunity to develop a healthier lifestyle.

I'm 23 and i always believed I had athletic ability, but have never pushed myself hard enough to realise it. Perhaps this year is the time to do it.

Well this could be interesting so I would be up for it.

I am a 46 year old, returned to cycling after 23 years off having been forced to early retirement due to the miners strike!!

I did play squash after that but only now been able to get back into cycling so back with a vengence with some ambitious targets.

Last year was my first year back and I did a mixture of events, raced and got 3rd cat, won a few track races (ok b races) some good times in a few sportives, all with no real structured training, just club runs.

My target for this year is loose some weight so I can climb faster!!, get into track 1 races, get 2nd cat in bcf and win some vets races and to get a decent time in the Marmotte.

These target are a bit varied so will bee good if I achieved them all.

Only started cycling in July 2007, not cycled since I was a kid (I'm 32 now) and I am seriously addicted...

Hoping to enter my first races this year but not even done a group ride yet!

I joined a club a couple of weeks ago but due to work / childcare I've not been able to get out with them yet :(

cycling goals for 2008 are simple

To (again) cycle 160,000 metres of vertical ascent or one foot for every minute of the day.

the real challenge is I am pretty mediocre cyclist.