Up to 215km. Every day has been a battle with either the wind, some kind of virus making me feel kitten weak, mechanicals (double puncture, cable stops breaking) or all of the above.

Until today when I did an almost perfect 80km in calm, cold sunshine with a mate… then got taken out on a roundabout coming back into town. Tomorrow’s early ride is going to be a little sore I think, and without my favourite tights which now feature side access (and might still appear at the puffer as spares!).

Whole family brought down with this bloody virus; gone to my chest, so have got sod all chance of completing it this year. Best use the time to catch up on my workshop tasks, bike builds, etc.

I’m up to about 30km last night, I fear I might not make the 500 😐

Just over halfway now. Compared to the previous 3 days slogging into 40mph headwinds today felt like a pootle. Would love to finish it in one massive ride but it’s going to be cold and even with overshoes I doubt my toes would last a 10 hour ride. 2 more road rides and a long awaited MTB ride on Friday will do it I reckon. As long as I haven’t caught the cold that all my relatives brought with them for xmas.

Been interesting and motivating to follow this. Never occurred to me to consider trying it before, as I don’t get much time to ride in December due to other commitments, but now I’m seriously tempted for next year.

Keep going guys!

I wasn’t going to do it and then ended up going out on early morning rides on Christmas Day and Boxing Day into London. Tough evening ride this eve over the Blackdowns hills with a rear light that stopped working 25km before the end.

That brings me to 241km. I’d like to get to 400 odd with some shorter rides by the weekend and then try to do a bit more over the 500 to finish with a longer ride on Saturday

296km to go, problem is I like riding the mountain bike, chuck in a bit of work and I reckon I need to get 45km today mix up 40 on the mtb then 60 on the road tomorrow leaving me 150 to do in the last 2 days.
It’s not helping looking put at the pissing rain at the moment.

Over halfway. The hard part isn’t so much the riding but the timing – I don’t like riding in the dark on the road and I tend to wait for it to warm up a bit in the morning (though cold toes are still a problem). Gojng to mix it up with a bit of MTB this afternoon.

388km done. I was hoping this morning’s commute would break the 400km barrier but it was around minus 2 degrees so I took it very steady and rode directly into work. I didn’t want to risk a fall and ruin the year right at the end of it.

FFS! The weather’s gone from crazy headwinds to freezing fog. Today is going to be a cold, boring, depressing day.

CX race boxing day so managed 15 miles including warm-up/recce.

65 mile group-run out to a caff yesterday, lots off faffing and waiting around but enjoyable if blummin’ cold.

Basically bang on target to hit 500 as currently averaging the ~40 miles a day needed.

Commuted this morning and had 2 similar firsts thanks to the thick fog instantly freezing on anything it hit- frozen eye lashes and a frosted front disc 😯 Good job there was no traffic or hard braking required (though the fact I was able to ride for a half hour or more without having to brake was probably a factor), took about a minute to get it to work!

Ill and not even thought about the bike for 10days.

I’ve got 215km on the clock but no riding today. 42 mile each way commute planned for tomorrow (into that there London), although the freezing fog is going to make that treacherous

Another 90km knocked off. that was the hardest yet. Think I need a nice flat ride for the last 150km.

Did my 2nd ride of the challenge today (an endurance training ride on the TT bike) 329km down with 171 to go. Probably do it on New Year’s Eve, was hoping to do it on Friday but I got “the look” off the good lady so I thought I’d best not push it. Although its forecast it to be quite windy I’m hoping it shouldn’t be to bad because unlike the last two I’ll be doing this with carbs inside me so I like to think I’ll finish the challenge with a flourish.

Just 59 Kms to do now.

Fair play to Richpips’ nipper. Though the scenery is making me think that it’s an easier prospect than slogging into a freezing northerly.

Fair play to Richpips’ nipper. Though the scenery is making me think that it’s an easier prospect than slogging into a freezing northerly.

Agreed, he’s earned it though. This is the 5th we’ve started.

He did his first one in 2012.

7km around Haldon today. Back on the wagon tomorrow

170km to go now, out again tomorrow morning. Not been easy, Ended up spending yesterday in the dentists chair and recovering.Todays ride was cold 2c but pain free thankfully.

another 6.30am, -5C commute, this time with a hawthorn puncture so thanks Farmer Giles for hacking the hedges back and leaving all your sh1t on the road 🙄 Found a street light and got everything laid out so I had to spend as little time as possible with the gloves off!

I came downstairs this morning to find my rear tyre flat. So I changed the tube and everything was dandy. I got about 2 miles from work and the chain snapped. I had been pricing up a new chain, cassette and chainrings yesterday as I knew I had pushed this lot to the limit. So the final 41km of my 500 will be on new parts.

I wa down at my Dad’s in Dorset on Tuesday (got the train down from Waterloo) so I’d decided to ride back.

All went well for the first 50-ish miles then the sodding useless Garmin (which had, for once, been behaving itself up til then) crashed completely. Needed 2 retarts to get it to find satellites again although thankfully it saved the route. However nothing would get it doing turn by turn navigations again so I was reduced to leaving it on the map page and squinting at the purple line on it to work out where to go which lead to a couple of wrong turns.

There was also a persistent head/cross wind, just enough so that when you were riding it was like going through treacle. The irony is that had I ridden the route 2 days earlier I’d have had the last bits of Storm Conor pushing me along nicely!

Anyway, I got up towards Guildford, the roads were getting busier, it was getting dark with patches of freezing fog, navigation was almost impossible on the stupid Garmin so I bailed at Godalming and got the train back to Waterloo.

The route was calculated from Strava which did a genuinely brilliant job in working out a lovely quiet ride – barely touched any main roads, the little back roads I was on were beautifully quiet and what little traffic there was always gave me a safe wide overtake. The route itself was amazing, across the New Forest and up through tiny little Hampshire villages.

Shame that the Garmin was too crap to follow it properly all the way. Useless heap of shit.

That leaves me a nice 135km to do so I’ll pop out in a bit for maybe 40km or so then finish off with a big ride tomorrow which is more or less what I’d planned all along.

Great writing and effort you lot.

Hampshires been gloriously sunny over the last few days, hope you get to top it all off in your own time and pace.

Back at the villa for lunch. My garmin says we’ve 1/2 a km to do. A spin back to the bike shop should sort that.

Cracking stuff, richpips. Your (superb) photos bring back memories of cycling in one of the loveliest places on the planet – looks like you’ve had a great time! Got about 60km to go here – hoping for less ice tomorrow to finish it all off.

If I was going to ride road bikes everyday, forever, it would be in Majorca.

I’m not so much on target for Festive 500, as Festive 15…

Nice job richpips and minipips.

My festive 500 was ballsed up by really bad ice on the roads in the times available when I was off work. Now I’m back it’s pretty hard to catch up as it’s -8 in the mornings before work and -5 when I leave dropping back to -8 so it’s all freezing again. I spoke to a bloke on my ride home yesterday who told me he’d binned it coming down the hill I was about to ride up due to sheet ice on one corner.

I’m just doing a festive-whatever now.

Managed to finish it off today. The first 3 days were bloody hard due to the weather and i was wondering what the hell i was doing for a little cloth patch but the last 3 day have been great and couldnt really have asked for better weather for late December. Strangely my legs feel pretty good, managed a few PBs up climbs i do regularly and i dont think it is all wind assisted!

Woke up this morning with the dreaded sniffles I’d been expecting after all the relatives turned up for xmas coughing and sneezing. Went out anyway, felt like death for the 1st hour (hangover maybe 🙂 ) then felt gradually better as the ride went on. Another 90km done. Felt like I should have kept going but it was getting dark and cold. 55km left. Quite pleased also that so far every ride has been a hilly one.

126km to go for me. Aiming to get it all done tomorrow with a flat ride round Oxfordshire way. Then work in Saturday with a glow of satisfaction!

All done, we fly back tomorrow. We will be out on NYE though.

110km on my fixed wheel after three days away. It was surprisingly cold as the sun set. Another 198 to go. Thinking cross bike with road wheels tomorrow and Head for the Surrey Hills. Then the usual club ride on Saturday to finish. I joined the Strava a day after Christmas Eve, and it seems not to have logged the first 90km. Oh well.

Averaging just over 29km/hr. I was hoping for 30.

Slid twice just on driveway and again on road just now- hard frost has melted and re frozen as sheet Ice 🙁

Currently on the bus. Night ride for me tonight instead of extended commutes (70 miles left to do).

Ouch! All this week’s been on the turbo nursing a battered hip from a xmas eve slippy roundabout incident. It’s all been late evening riding and I’ve really not fancied the freezing foggy conditions 🙁

Need to plan a richpips style trip for next xmas!

My commute home last night put me at 508km so I decided to drive to work today. Glad I did, it’s pretty slippery out there. Ride safe anyone venturing out on two wheels.

Maybe we could organise a STW Festive 500 In The Sun holiday next year?

Maybe we could organise a STW Festive 500 In The Sun holiday next year?

Count me in! 8)

Waiting for the frozen fog to lift. 1 pm has a forecast of 8 degrees. Failing that, it will be a long afternoon on the trike!!!

Freezing fog froze my bottle today 😯 couple of slippy moments but leaves me with 91km to do tomorrow

I’ve got the back of this years broken.

Unfortunately tethered to porcelain as I have the squits this morning, probably due to water bottle contamination from clarty shit covered Irish lanes yesterday.

I will get out even if I need to do a Lemond.