2018 was the fourth year in a row that I managed to bike more than 10000 kilometres, but this was the first time that I finished the season with more than an average of 1000 km per month (my best months were September and October with 1340 km and 1329 km, while my worst were July and February with 628 km and 676 km). Therefore my best cycling-year ever is now 2018 with 12704 km (with a not even small margin of 1374 km – 10.8% – over 2017). For the first time ever I broke the 100000 meter elevation gain limit too.

As usual I had no real plans for the year, but I still managed to make it somewhat special. First of all, I had quite a few nice rides in the Ardennes (and the Eifel, once even Clio joined me for a while along the Vennbahn), maybe not as many as I wanted, but still much more than the previous years. I hope to continue this trend in 2019 too, because I know the roads around Leuven way too well (and as I get older more experienced I seem to tolerate the crap infrastructure and the intolerant drivers of Flanders less and less). Furthermore, I had a really enjoyable (except maybe for that crazy thunderstorm with hail) cycling holiday in France with a small group of friends, and I also took the bike along to Bretagne where I made three nice morning rides (to make up for all those pancakes which we ate with Clio). Thanks to these non-local rides, I have ridden more on previously unseen roads than ever before. My biggest achievement this year was biking to the highest point of Belgium and the highest point of the Netherlands alone, which is now my longest solo ride with 306 km and 3057 m elevation gain (and by duration also my longest ride – including group rides too – with 11 hours and 32 minutes). Finally, my latest achievement is completing the Rapha Festive 500 in five consecutive days (I did it in 6 non-consecutive days back in 2015), being amongst the first thousand people who have crossed the threshold :)

The raw numbers for my cycling – without the daily commutes of course – in 2017:

Total distance: 12704 km
Total elevation gain: 101385 m
Total time: 460 h 31 m
Activity count: 192 (over 155 days*, just like in 2017)
Average speed: 27.6 km/h
Average heart rate: I stopped wearing a HR strap, I only look at power now.
Average cadence: 87.5 rpm (but I have no sensor on my cross bike)
Average temperature: 13.2°C (coldest: December with 1.9°C, hottest: July with 22.4°C)
Total calories burned on the bike: 302730 cal

*Starting from the last days of July there were a lot of days when I did my training rides immediately before and/or after work, and on those days I rode my race bike also to work to save time, therefore creating days with two activities (of which one was most of the time less than 5 kilometres).

And now it is time to look at some maps and figures. Let’s start with the maps of cycling I have done this year. The first figures show the location and (for Belgium and the area of Leuven on a separate zoomed-in map) heat-map of my rides.

Out of the 155 active days, I rode solo most of the time: only on 44 days was I riding with at least one other person. As usual, most of the time that was Willem (22 rides, and a total time of 2.9 days), or Hao (17 rides, 2.4 days). The distribution of these non-solo rides over the year can be seen below.

The next one is a summary table (click for legible size) of the bikes I have been riding during the year. I used the new Endurance and the old Ultimate parallel until I sold the latter early October (to make space for a new custom built steel bike that I am working on right now).

Here are the graphs showing the yearly evolution of my cycling distance, time, and elevation gain compared to the previous years.

New this year are some monthly figures, because the more the merrier, right? So below you will find the monthly totals and averages for distance, elevation gain, activity time, average steepness (meters climbed each kilometre on average), and average temperature.

My non-cycling activities reached a long-time low, with only a tiny bit of hiking (17 km), and kayaking (4 km), so this is the first time since 2012 that I did not run at all (and I did not miss it to be honest). Here is the usual summary figure (including all activities) from VeloViewer.

Finally, here is an overview of the evolution of the total activity time (also an all-time record with 465 hours), and its distribution across the calendar throughout the years.

2017 was the third year in a row that I managed to bike more than 10000 kilometres, and mostly thanks to the combination of great weather and plenty of free time in October, I even made this my best cycling-year ever with 11330 km (but only with a tiny margin over 2015). October became my best month ever by a landslide, totalling in 1813 km, 65h 48m, and 9218 m of elevation gain.

I had no special plans for this year, but I still managed to collect plenty of long-lasting memories on the road. First of all, for the first time since 2013 (and likely for the last time), I took my racing bike to La Palma again to ride during and after my observing run, and since I gained some free time by having a drivers licence, I could put in some extra hours of quality high-altitude training while working at the observatory too. I had a slight insomnia problem afterwards, but still managed to pull off two epic rides around the island (and a few shorter ones). I also did a few beautiful (solo) rides in the Ardennes, which I hope to do more in 2018, because one of my favourite things in cycling is still discovering new, scenic, and quite roads. For the first time ever I finally had a positive experience in a race while participating in the 12 hours of Zolder with Squadra Tornado: I felt strong in my shifts, I contributed to the race, and I came away fully satisfied at the end.

The raw numbers for my cycling – without the daily commutes of course – in 2017:

Total distance: 11330 km
Total elevation gain: 86881 m
Total time: 408h 10m
Activity count: 155
Average speed: 27.8 km/h
Average heart rate: 151.9 bpm (max: 199 bpm, after 2.5 weeks of rest, uphill sprint)
Average cadence: 88 rpm (but I only have cadence measurement on my road bike)
Average temperature: 13.2°C (quite average, but with a very cold 0.6°C January)

And now it is time to look at some maps and figures. Let’s start with the maps of cycling I have done this year. The first two maps show rides mostly in Belgium (with a zoom-in to the heat-map around Leuven), while the third is for La Palma.

Just for the fun, here is a comparison of some of the bigger / more famous climbs I have done the past few years, with the last two being here on La Palma (although this year I only did the very last in this list).

Out of the 155 activities, 110 were done solo, and 45 with at least another training partner, which means that I biked much more often alone this year. My most common partners in crime were Willem (23 times, for a total of 2.2 days) and his brother, Steven (19 times, 1.9 days). Here is a summary table of the rides by bike (note: the average speed for the track bike is incorrect).

Here are the graphs showing the yearly evolution of my cycling distance, time, and elevation gain compared to the previous years.

I also did a little bit of running (17.7 km) and hiking (74.8 km), adding up to a total activity time of 431 hours, which is not much worse than in 2015 (~450 hours, because I did much more running back then, besides almost the same amount of cycling). That is ~255000 extra calories burned!

Finally, here is an overview of the evolution of the total activity time, and its distribution across the calendar throughout the years.