It’s a new year tradition: blogging about my cycling plans for the year ahead. But as I currently have no great adventures planned for 2026, this year I’ll be reflecting on 2025, the year I took part in three of Britain’s greatest audax (long distance cycling) rides. They included the most dramatic edition yet of London Edinburgh London (LEL), a 1,500km, five day ride between the English and Scottish capitals.

At the start of January, I booked my place to ride LEL, thanks to my guaranteed entry as a member of Audax UK. It was an exciting moment – the stress of what I’d signed up for would come later! I’d planned a series of challenges to prepare for LEL, including riding London Wales London (a 400km audax) for the second time, taking on the Bryan Chapman Memorial 600km ride – arguably Britain’s toughest 600 – as well as cycling the length of France from the English Channel to the Mediterranean with Peak Tours. Not to mention countless local rides. This, I hoped, would be suitable training and conditioning. I shared my experiences and tips in a series of blogposts in the months leading up to LEL, starting here.

Rather than repeating my detailed accounts of all these big events again, I’ve decided to record the highs and lows of my cycling year, followed by what I’ve learned – about endurance cycling, and about me.