2015: the year on two wheels

Another year over, a new one just begun (so Mr Lennon wrote in 1971).  

2015 was a year of comings and goings by BigMat, Tucks and WhisperingJack, the extinction of HBK and Disco Steve, a slow fade away of Spin Doctor, a rare sighting of Mr Magnet, Wobbly Trev and Chicken legs to terrify, but blessed by newcomers Marz, Cate, Jen, Car+Mel (only one has a mohair singlet!), the rise and rise of Wozza, Boof, and Rocket.  It was a year for prologues, abandoning the Library and Hospital bunches, the Couldabeens start time debate, magpies, punctures, a Goat ball, Tour de Beer, the Pain Train (finally cracked a 40 km/h average), Torture Tuesday, a 180 FruitLoop, the coffee shop sprint, a grossly gravelly GrandFondo, Fisky's pedal through puke, grids forming from the rear, and new bikes for FeltMat (now AvantiMat), Boof, Jen and Wozza (and several going over to the dark MTB side).  It was a year to wear out 6 Michelins and three chains, 18 days when rain prevented play, being swooped by a great egret, caught in a thunderstorm, triple punctures in April and August, temperatures of minus two's (June), fog (July) and a 49 km/h southerly (March). What a year for MachineSteve scoring the UCI world masters road championship (50-54), Weapon's assault on the Salzburgerland 70.3 Ironman, the charity of Tour De FightBACC and SOS's epic 1200k Paris-Brest-Paris in 89:35.

But it was a calmer year for me with 50 days spent off the bike, the laying to rest of old faithful BMW (I'll count 193,000 k's as "run-in") and the long awaited birth of a new Baum. I tapped 146 Couldabeens laps, 76 with Goats (+25 on the pain train), 93 prologues, 48 solo laps, 9 Saturday doubles and four triples. As always, many mates made and strengthened, a grump or two delivered when justified, and thankfully remained upright for 16,017 kilometres (56k/day) requiring a tank of 418,000 calories  (112 kg of plum pudding with 55 litres of custard).  I ride to support my eating habit...

It's heartening (and surprising) to receive over 28,000 page views of this blog from so many quarters (regulars from USA, Ukraine, France, Poland and so many close to home), I often wonder if this ramble strikes a chord till comments out on the road inspire the next weeks muse.

Very best wishes to all for 2016, stay upright, push that big ring and spare a wave to a fellow addict, see you out there somewhere.