So did I manage to maintain my strong start to the year as we rolled into February? Well kind of I think…. lets start with the stats :- 202.9 km ridden in total, of that figure 131.9km were sweating away in my back room on Zwift, and the other 71km were all off road on the mountain bike. My road bikes didn’t get a look in once during February.

Just for once I’ve managed to stick to one of my goals for the year so far – when I’ve had the chance I’ve actually strapped the MTB to the car and gone and got muddy despite one of those rides being so cold I really thought I’d permanently lost the feeling in a couple of my finger tips by the time I got back to the car. I’m still not feeling totally at one with my knobbly tyres, but things are hopefully moving in the right direction. Of course my off-roading mojo got a boost this month with the acquisition and build up of my new (at least to me!) retro hardtail frame, (check out the build on my previous post https://thedecliningcyclist.com/2025/02/26/oops-i-did-it-again/ ) I’m itching to try this bike around the fast flowing sections of the Blue Trail at the Llandegla trail centre, and relearning how important line choice is when riding a 26′ wheeled hardtail can only help sharpen my rusty off-road skills (I hope)

Zwift wise I managed to fit in the last two stages of the Tour de Zwift and bravely or perhaps foolishly continuing to opt for the long route option. These rides aren’t set up as formal categorised races, but a lot of people were obviously taking them very seriously and the participation numbers seemed pretty healthy with most of the stages I rode having at least 200+ people massing at the start. That’s quite impressive considering these rides were starting every hour on the hour throughout the day. I did enjoy it honest, but my legs were screaming at the end of each ride, and I’d lost enough sweat to leave a slightly damp salt encrusted reverse image of myself on the black foam mat my trainer sits on …..

So that was February, hopefully as we move into March the Spring weather will start to entice me outside on the bike more regularly without the fear of losing any of my extremities to frostbite …. but as I do live in the Northern half of the UK I’m not going to hold my breath :-0