Well - I haven't been around here much... I've been participating in a bit of a online cycling challenge themed around the Tour De France.
Basically, a team of 9 people go out and try to ride the same distance that the peloton do each day. Not too difficult, you say, considering there's 9 people, but the challenge is on a weight loss and fitness site rather than a cycling specific one, and there are, how shall I say, certain people of "mixed abilities" - with the teams deliberately mixed up to provide a relatively level basis for the 4 teams.
Anyhow - my own personal aim was to ride all 21 days (out of the 23 days of the actual tour... two whole rest days days whoop-de-dooo!) and to try and get at least 1/3 of the overall distance of 3656km.
Overall - I made all my goals - riding 1296km (35.4% of the distance) and climbing 9,812metres over the 54h40m32s of the challenge. No, I wasn't the rider in the challenge with the longest distance, or the highest, and certainly not the fastest. But, only 2 people out of 36 ride every day, and I did clock more distance than the other guy...
All the rides were mapped on my Garmin 800, pushed into Strava, and then a bit of analysis in the very wonderful Veloviewer. I particularly like the "wheel" view of things...
LeTour2014_Wheel by
The Big Yin, on Flickr
It was great fun, and a positive joy to be riding in the warm weather rather than the cold and wet like the last couple of these challenges that I've participated in.