Ethan's Cycling Ambitions for 2021

Whilst still being quite new to the road cycling world and last year having only achieved just over 1,000km in distance, I have set myself some respectable, in some cases very optimistic, goals.

For me the greatest part of cycling is the journey, there is something quite special being able to take yourself great distances that reach far beyond the comforts of home. My Strava history would say different. The idea that two legs, a chain, some gears and two wheels could take you around the world if you really pushed yourself hard enough is quite a great feat. Whilst I won’t be following in the footsteps of Mark Beaumont anytime soon, I do have some plans to take myself further than the south west. The idea is to do some bike packing in the summer, start off in London, head for the Euro tunnel and try and get down to Italy. The route I was hoping would take me through France, Switzerland and Italy. To make it covid secure, camping alfresco should do the job.

I’m also planning on following my first cycling season, don’t know when it starts but I’ve heard good things. I don’t know how committed I’m expected to be, if I can get away with watching the highlights on YouTube I’ll probably go for that instead - they do some great compilations of crashes.

Mileage wise I’m hoping to definitely improve on last years attempt, easily done seeing as I only really started using Strava in June. If all goes well Europe will give me a lot, if not I hope to do at least 5,000km, not too shabby at all. Closer to home however I am hoping I can get the count up by cycling to some local sites. Stonehenge is a brisk half days cycle, the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol I’d like to do and also the Thames Path.

Other than that I know I need some new handle bar tape, so I will probably get on with replacing that now.