I’ve read about the Rapha Festive 500 cycling challenge for years. But I’ve never been tempted to take part – until tonight, when I decided to go for it.

The concept is both brilliant and barmy: cycle 500 kilometres between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. That’s just 62.5 kilometres a day, or a tad under 39 miles. Easy … except for anyone who’s got family or other social commitments over the holidays, which will shrink the time available for cycling.

For me, the stars seem to align this year to make the Festive 500 a seriously doable proposition.. The sad loss of parents and in-laws over the past decade means that our traditional family Christmas has become a smaller celebration without a journey to my homeland, Wales. And the weather forecast for southern England is very benign. So I have no excuse…

Better still, the challenge will be the perfect curtain raiser to my ambition to take part in the famous London Edinburgh London audax ride in 2025. Completing London Wales London this year was one of my proudest cycling achievements but I have to admit that I’ve eased off during the second half of the year. Hitting the new year at pace is a smart idea.

So… how am I planning to approach the Festive 500?

All the advice is to get the miles in early. On Christmas Eve that makes sense, and suits my family commitments. But I’m not giving up a huge chunk of Christmas Day to cycling. My traditional 15 mile Christmas Day lunchtime route over the hills to Penn and Beaconsfield suits our arrangements and that’s what I’ll be doing. That leaves me with 42 miles a day for the remaining festive 500 period. I don’t feel too intimidated by that.

I’ll also mix outdoor and indoor cycling for variety. Most days I’ll stick to road cycling especially if the weather is as benign as current forecasts suggest. But on some of the days I may supplement a daylight outdoor ride with an indoor Zwift or Rouvy workout to mix it up a bit.

We shall see…

UPDATE: day by day

Day 1: Christmas Eve: Dorney, Wexham and Burnham Beeches. 37.37 miles

It wasn’t the start I’d planned. Start with a big effort, they said. I would have done, but for a morning spent faffing. As a result, I was a lot later setting out on my debut Festive 500 ride. Note to self: be more organised for the rest of the challenge. Spoiler alert: I needed to be told more than once.

I decided to take a break for hot chocolate and a cake at the excellent cafe at Burnham Beeches nature reserve. It wasn’t the coldest Christmas Eve, but I relished the break. Yet as soon as I set off, I knew something wasn’t quite right. I felt a bit nauseous, which wasn’t like me. I took it easy on the admittedly undemanding ride back towards Beaconsfield. After that, I found my taillight had died just as the light was fading. Home was calling and I’d clocked up just over 37 miles rather than the 50 I’d originally intended. It wasn’t the end of the world – I was just 5 miles short for the day, which should be easy to make up.

Day 2: Christmas Day: my traditional festive ride to Penn and Beaconsfield, 14.71 miles

I love my Christmas morning bike ride. It’s always the same route: 15 miles over the modest hills to Penn and Beaconsfield. It’s a pleasure to call out ‘Merry Christmas’ to the dog walkers and families I encounter. This year there were fewer, although I did see more people congregating around the pubs along the route.

This photo captures the pleasure of my route. It’s one of my favourite climbs, towards Tylers Green. The modest incline means you can reach a decent speed, although today I took it easier after not feeling good towards the end of yesterday’s ride. I had pondered extending the ride to catch up but decided Christmas Day was about more than cycling.

Day 3: a misty Boxing Day ride to Harefield, Chorleywood and Little Missenden and Penn

What was I saying about being more organised? I was planning to start today’s ride at 11am, but figured that I could delay the start until 1pm. After all, I should finish a 41 mile ride in the light, and the mist should have disappeared by lunchtime. How wrong can you be…

I was also puzzled how Komoot thought this 41 mile ride would take over three hours – longer than another planned Festive 500 ride over 50 miles. Komoot was right. This was not a fast ride. And the mist was ever present, seeping into every pore. The only saving grace was that I decided to add another (third) layer just before setting off. A genius move.

Given how the ride developed, I probably shouldn’t have joked to myself early on seeing this sign that I was glad it wasn’t night… That said, I was pleased to set off on a route from home that I’d never followed before, past Denham Golf Club station, with its original Great Western Railway pagoda huts. This was a modest station built by the GWR in 1912. In my commuting days I’d been on countless trains through here, but only once had I cycled past, in the other direction.

It was a pleasure to see the very graceful Colne valley HS2 viaduct. HS2 is Britain’s second high speed railway line (HS1 is the line from London to the channel tunnel) and while highly controversial I’ve always been a fan: as I wrote in 2012.

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As I crossed the Grand Union Canal at the Coy Carp pub near Harefield. I reflected that this was the only time I’d spent any time in Greater London on Boxing Day since the white Christmas of 1970, when I was a seven year old in Twickenham. The Coy Carp didn’t look as attractive on a grey, misty December day as I recall from driving past in the summer.

I saw a signpost for our village and felt a pang of regret that I wasn’t heading there for a hot bath, a mug of steaming tea and a sweet treat. I still had many misty miles to go, but took pleasure in the easy ascent from Chorleywood towards the familiar road to Amersham. My original route descended from Chenies but I decided to avoid the steep climb of Holloway Lane to Chesham Bois by following the faster, flatter main road to Amersham. I had plenty of time to reflect how the mist made me colder and wetter than the weather forecast led me to expect. Would I have been better off had it been colder and clearer? I’d have been happier, for sure. But if I am to take part in London Edinburgh London in 2025 I’d better get used to feeling uncomfortable on the bike!

I love cycling through Little Missenden, seen in the photo to the left. Today, I politely called out to walkers that I was approaching them, and we shared the road with consideration. The climb to Holmer Green was easy taken at a gentle pace, and I was soon on the final miles through Penn Street and Coleshill towards home. The photos don’t really capture the eerie nature of the mist, but I won’t forget today’s ride in a hurry.

Around halfway on today’s ride, I decided that the Festive 500 was a mad idea. I sensed that I was preparing myself for failure. Yet later, luxuriating in a hot bath with tea and chocolates, I realised that I’d still got time to make up for lost progress. If necessary I’ll spend the evening of New Year’s Eve finishing any missing miles on my Wattbike Atom, in the mist-free atmosphere of my kitchen. Better still, I’ll be more organised in the next few days and avoid falling further behind.

One last comment on today’s ride. I tend to listen to audiobooks and podcasts on my rides. Today’s choice really boosted my morale. You’d think that a podcast about appalling IRA atrocities, and a low point in Britain’s political and economic decline would depress rather than motivate. But I was laughing out loud to Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland’s The Rest is History podcast series about Britain in 1974. It is an extraordinary achievement to make that low point of British history a comedy turn, not least the fact that leading players in the Labour and Liberal parties were seriously talking about murdering those who stood in their way. I vividly remember following former Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe being committed to trial for conspiracy to murder while I was off school for illness in late 1978. He was acquitted but his reputation had been ruined.

What dramas will sustain me over the rest of the Festive 500?

Day 4: another cold, misty ride to Dorneywood, Burnham Beeches and Black Park

Will this mist ever lift? At least today I was out in the morning, which is just as well as I had a false start. My gravel bike fell over and after less than a mile I realised the gear shifting was kaput. I suspect the rear mech hanger was out of line – a worse version of what happened in Ireland in June. I was back on the road reasonably quickly.

Not much more to say about the ride, along familiar roads. I added another 20 miles on Rouvy later to Revelstoke in Canada, which we visited in real life in 2018. A 60 mile day which brings me virtually back on target for the Festive 500.

Day 5: at last, an enjoyable ride, to Warren Row’s Velolife cyclists’ cafe for lunch

I made a few critical changes to my clothing strategy today that helped make this probably my favourite ride of the Festive 500. I added an old Rapha windproof jersey between my base layer and jacket, while switching to Sealskinz socks and Shimano cycling boots. The combination made such a difference to my comfort. I listened to the Wild Ones cycling podcast as I made my way through Pinkneys Green and Burchetts Green towards Warren Row.

I’ve rarely seen Velolife so busy – dog walkers as well as cyclists. After 20 misty miles I was ready for a cuppa and a delicious toastie, although as always I forgot they default to full fat milk, which I haven’t had in my drinks for over 40 years.

I enjoyed the fast ride back to Bourne End and Wooburn Green, before opting for the easiest climb up to Beaconsfield, via Watery Way. It took me just under a minute to tackle the main bit of the climb before the A40, compared with almost two and a half minutes after 196 miles of London Wales London in May.

Once again, I supplemented the outdoor ride with extra miles on Zwift, adding a decent margin to the daily target.

Day 6: the long one, to Mentmore, Wingrave and Tring

The mist was back, and I set off with the view to cutting the ride short if I felt like it. This was my earliest start so far, at 10.40am, and I stopped for lunch at another favourite cycling cafe, Chiltern Velo between Chesham and Tring. It was heaving with weekend cyclists – I was lucky to get an indoor table after a short wait outside. (I figured this was the late morning coffee crowd.) A bacon roll and tea set me up for another 39 miles.

I loved the image of this old sign at Wigginton, near Tring, with the drops off water clinging to the wood. I was soon cycling the lane beyond Tring station, which I remember driving along at an ungodly hour when commuting from the station to London in 2001/02. I turned back south at Wingrave, with the wonderful vista of Ivinghoe Beacon and the hills beyond Wendover.

I knew that the easy cycling of the past hour was about to come to an end as I had to climb the hill beyond Tring. In the past, I’ve ofter chickened out and cycled around it, to Wendover and then the main road to Great Missenden. But today I knew I had to bite the bullet, opting for Hastoe lane, which I’ve only cycled down in the past. It was fine, and before long I was enjoying the long descent towards Chesham. It was tempting to call in to Chiltern Velo for a coffee, but I decided to press on. By the time I got home, I’d completed a half century (50 miles) which I supplemented with another 14 mile Zwift ride.

Day 7: completing the Festive 500 a day early. Taplow, Burnham Beeches and Fulmer plus Zwift ride

An early start today, as we were off to the cinema to see Paddington in Peru at lunchtime. (The only time I had to organise a Festive 500 ride around family commitments.)

It was a straightforward ride, but I did stop for a quick coffee at Burnham Beeches cafe, where I was delighted to see this robin at the next table. As I parked my bike, I enjoyed a good humoured banter with a family whose children were using the bike stand as a playground.

Later, I rolled over the Festive 500 finish line on Zwift, and was chuffed to complete it with a day to spare. I’d have preferred to reach the milestone out on the road, but as I had a further 45 miles to reach 5,000 miles for the year wanted to minimise the distance needed on New Year’s Eve to do this.

I was right to choose 2024 to tackle the Rapha Festive 500. You can read my tips on completing it here. Despite that pesky mist, 2024 did prove as good a year as any to do it, without any rain or ice. It’s a great idea, and I will enter 2025 fitter as a result. But there’s no escaping the fact that cycling 500km in Britain in December will rarely be as enjoyable as summer riding. I’d have struggled to complete it if I didn’t have the option of riding indoors on my ageing Wattbike Atom. But I didn’t give in to the temptation to use my electric road bike, although you can use one for the Festive 500. (And it’s definitely not ‘cheating’ – I can easily burn 1,000 calories on a 25 mile e-bike ride as the motor cuts out at 15.5mph.)

In short, I’m pleased I made it. But it may the the first and last time, for the reasons Adam Becket gives in his Cycling Weekly piece about the Festive 500.