Had another child who is ace
Learnt how to jump an 18ft table top

Everything else pales into insignificance 😆

this year has been brilliant!

Started new job, pretty much doubled my income, although you wouldn’t think that looking at my savings account.
Put on some dinner.
Traveled Italy and Croatia in the summer. Didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would.
Did bugger-all riding, overall.

Shot my first Red Deer. (A cull-hind, I’m not rich or anything )

Wow what an acheivement, you actually managed to shoot an animal with a gun, did you shout ‘it’s coming right at us’ first? Self defence then you see…

In no particular order:

– Got married
– Broke both my arms
– Learned not to worry about trying to always go faster (learned this after the above)
– Ran sub 49 10k
– Started a new job
– Realised I’m a bit of wuss in cold weather
– Ate a really hot curry
– Installed (read: paid someone to install) a kitchen
– Realised I hate painting walls more than I hate forking out for someone else to do it for me

For 2015 I’d like to go the Alps with the bike; I’m a MTB loner among my mates, so looking for a group…..

Highlights of the year for me so far:

Got Married:

Got a new job with my current company, with a wee bit of a pay rise 🙂

Spent a month travelling around Germany and Austria as part of said job, where I got to visit and ride some really cool places 🙂

Had a short holiday in Münich with the missus

Got to be best man at my best mate’s wedding 🙂

Introduced a couple back in April, who rather suddenly got wed at the end of last month!

Did a bunch of riding and racing all around the UK, including:
10 Under the Ben
Twentyfour12
Bristol Bikefest (The Steve Worland ride singletrack hard & drink a swig of cider per lap memorial cup 2014)
Mondraker Gravity Rally
Various mini-enduros
and a Weekend’s riding around Kinlochleven, Ft Bill and Glencoe as part of my mate’s stag do.

All in all, this has been a pretty good year 😀

Wow what an acheivement, you actually managed to shoot an animal with a gun, did you shout ‘it’s coming right at us’ first? Self defence then you see…

Lol! No self defence required. They need culling. Either by faceless government ‘gunmen’ from helicopters / at night with lamps by contractors where the carcasses aren’t even collected.

OR

Sustainably by you, me, Aunty dorris or Dave the builder where they are given the same dignity, respect and admiration afforded to the mightiest of Royal Stags- whilst helping one of our most bleak and hospitable landscapes remain a viable business.

That hind in the pic was the third of five I shot that week and all five, the dates, their weights, the places I shot them, the smell of the heather and the touch of their dense winter coats are indelibly etched into my memory. When was the last time you even looked down at your <insert 99% of food here> and remembered where it came from?

Had a baby girl.
Broke my Eurocamping cherry with the family and caught the Meribel (our first) world cup in the process.
Took my 2 year old boy to his first music festival.
Did BPW for the first time
Did Coey Y Brenin for the first time, and found gold! Real gold.
Went 1×10
Went back to Maxxis
Gave up smoking.

Thread implosion in 5-4-3-2…..

Pretty uneventful unless you count BECOMING A DAD!
Best thing ever. Yes, I wish I’d ridden more. I haven’t been to the gym as much as I’d have liked and popping out for a pint whenever I fancied was nice. But playing with my little boy, feeding him, showing him stuff and generally just being a dad is the best thing ever.
Oh yeah, stopped smoking too. Which is good.

Did the N+1 thing but with kids. A beautiful baby sister for our two year old boy. That was early Feb and pretty much wiped out the rest of the year!

gave up cycling for a year, worked my arse off and concentrated on work/career, getting better paid more investing jobs and buying a flat, my efforts have paid off and the year ended with me exactly where i wanted to be if not better than i had hoped for.
looking forward to riding my bikes more (including the new one thats only been ridden twice since september) and maybe finding the time for a holiday this year.

Turned 50 and had an absolutely awesome party to celebrate.

Otherwise 2014 was very similar to 2013.
Took the boy skiing again
Rode the Passportes Du soleil again
Rode solo 12hr at the 24/12 again but got a bit dehydrated and didn’t do quite as well as last year
Took the family on the same PGL holiday canoeing the Ardeche again

Played tag rugby with my son’s club for the first time since leaving school and loved it. I even scored one try!
Took MB junior (aged 13) to SSUK which he absolutely loved.
Managed to start running again without crippling myself.

Next year I’d like to try and ride between all three of France’s coasts in a week. Coast to coast to coast?

Had a real up and down year much like everyone else I’d imagine.

Lost my partners Dad to cancer in February, it was a truly harrowing experience. Im not untouched by loss, my own Dad died very suddenly many years ago, but Id never seen suffering like that in my life.
He’d had a stroke before I met my partner and she had become his carer as well as his daughter. Latterly he was in resedential care.I never got to know him very well but had a chance to speak to him about his life in the merchant navy and the places he’d seen one glorious summers day sitting in his garden a few years ago. He is missed dreadfully by my partner, life is short.

Surprised the Mrs with a trip to Copenhagen to celebrate her 40th. It was a fantastic place, I loved it. Would like to go back again. Cycling is a way of life there, it’s like a bikers utopia!

Volunteered for commonwealth games, was a great experience.

Was overjoyed to learn we were to have a baby (we’d been trying for over a year) in the summer, unfortunately my partner suffered a miscarriage on the eve of her 12 week scan. Devastated.

Bought our first house together in August and after a lot of hard work we moved in last Sunday! I’ve never had a place of my own before.

I’ve done less cycling this year than any other for a long time, hope to change that next year.

I become a bit sentimental this time of year, makes me realise I’m too materialistic, moany, fussy etc. when all things considered I’m very lucky to have who I have.

Merry Christmas one and all and all the best for the new year.

Lol! No self defence required. They need culling. Either by faceless government ‘gunmen’ from helicopters / at night with lamps by contractors where the carcasses aren’t even collected.

OR

Sustainably by you, me, Aunty dorris or Dave the builder where they are given the same dignity, respect and admiration afforded to the mightiest of Royal Stags- whilst helping one of our most bleak and hospitable landscapes remain a viable business.

That hind in the pic was the third of five I shot that week and all five, the dates, their weights, the places I shot them, the smell of the heather and the touch of their dense winter coats are indelibly etched into my memory. When was the last time you even looked down at your <insert 99% of food here> and remembered where it came from?

Hmmmm, if there’s a species that needs culling I think that might be us humans. And all my food comes from the ground so nothing poetic there I’m afraid

Moved house
Daughter had her 2nd Birthday
Started MTBing again
Had the bathroom and dining room refurbished.
Came 22nd in the 3 peaks fell race
Completed a full set of the English Fell Race championships, came 48th overall.
Had a 2 week camping holiday in Britain where it only rained on one day!

eightyeight – Member

For 2015 I’d like to go the Alps with the bike; I’m a MTB loner among my mates, so looking for a group…..

FWIW I couldn’t get a group together this year so just went out to white room by myself, was ace- there’s usually been solos when I’ve been out on guided holidays before so I thought it might as well be me. Only thing I did different was ask first to make sure it wasn’t all one massive stag do or something, so I wouldn’t be a total norman

Got a new job 😀

Got some much needed enthusiasm for my job and quite enjoying it now, first few months of the year were terrible and I was thinking of leaving, glad I didn’t in the end.

Had my first car accident in Feb and my car was written off, very disappointed that it was my fault but at least the other guy was completely fine (whiplash aside). Replacement car is better and enjoying driving that, done 18000 miles since then.

Finally got around to getting my co-drivers license and did my first event when a friend came over from Kenya to do the rally. Sadly we crashed after I made a slight mistake (oops!). Sorry Geoff!

Above friend got me to co-drive in his new rally car on the Safari Rally, a dream come true! Looking forward to doing it a bit more and a few more trips to Africa are on the cards for next year depending on date clashes / time off work / sponsor paying for flights (fingers crossed).

Filmed a lot of rallies for lots of tv programs, met lots of new people and enjoying that too.

Didn’t do much cycling really, bought a road bike in July and have done less than 50 miles on it. Enjoy using it but it’s getting around to it that’s the problem. Been down to Dalby lots of times and have a lot more confidence on my MTB, again same as previously, just need to get a lot fitter and get out more often.

Went to watch the French Open (tennis) in Paris and enjoyed it, want to see some more.

An excellent thread – one where I really want to read all the posts

For me…

Bought a bigger house…
Sold a smaller house … (very problematic sale – started in March, finally sold end of October after 3 failed sales (2 different estate agents)) – plenty of stress as a result
First ever Snowboarding holiday (particularly pleased to be just about able to keep up with my two younger (and much more experienced) brothers)
Did the C2C with one of my brothers over 2 days – don’t do much road riding currently, but good to know I still have the miles in my legs.
Not enough mountain biking (in 2013 I managed to ride 50 out of 52 possible weekends – 2014 has been less)
The mountain biking I have managed to do has been excellent – top of the pile was the trip up Helvellyn in May
Cleared a load of new jumps & feel more confident on the bike as a result.

If I manage to do what I want in 2015 I will: –

1. Finally get over to Canada to ride (not got round to it for the last 3 years)
2. Race some Enduro’s
3. Finish renovating the house I bought in 2014
4. Ride as many weekends as I possibly can

WOW loads of people have had a epic year…Congrats to pinetree and all the rest I am quite jealous lots of new jobs/houses lets hope 2015 is even better.

Didn’t do much riding related (other than upped my road bike mileage), just more of the same stuff I’d normally ride with the other standouts being one trip to Bike Park Wales and a big Long Mynd ride. Feels kinda underwhelming compared to a lot of you but riding mtb is just a small part of my life now, at least in comparison to what it used to be. I still ride my road bike almost every day. I’ve had loads of awesome times with my friends this year including Reading festival and a holiday in Amsterdam. I bought my first house this year as well, expensive but worth it.