Happy 2017 everyone! If you're anything like us you've already managed to squeeze in a New Year bike ride — start as you mean to go on, right? And you've also managed to squeeze enough turkey, roast potatoes, cake, fizzy wine and cheese into your insides to fuel your riding for the rest of January, if not the first quarter of the year.
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So without further ado, here's the BikeRadar team version of What We Did On Our Holidays...
Joe Norledge — Videographer
"After a spectacularly excessive Xmas day I managed to get out for a ride in the Peaks aboard my longterm Cannonade Scalpel-Si. I was joined by good friend Tom and his world famous dog, Ruby The Trail Dog. She’s fast on the climbs and fast on the descents, so safe to say we managed to burn off some Xmas mince pies."
Aoife Glass — Women's cycling editor
"I headed over to Ireland (without the bike) to see my family and cook an enormous amount of food — then eat an enormous amount of food. This helpfully provided plenty of stored energy for the second half of the Christmas week where I returned to the UK to ride bikes. Lots of bikes and lots of riding!
"The new Liv Hail arrived which called for a trip to the downhill tracks at the Forest of Dean to see how it fared; stand by for my first looks on that. I then headed on to North Wales with my trusty Juliana Roubion, taking on Penmachno and Coed Y Brenin. All in all, pretty much the perfect way to see in the New Year. Here's to plenty more riding in 2017!"
Jamie Beach — Deputy editor
"Canyon's new Ultimate CF SLX 8 Disc road bike arrived at BikeRadar just before Christmas, which meant I got to take it home with me. Oh boy. Annoyingly, my first ride on it wasn't until five long days later — we spent the holidays visiting family in Germany — by which time I was rabid with anticipation. Would it be as good as I imagined? As fast? Would it transform me into Nairo Quintana? Yes, nearly, and no. Looking forward to more time in the saddle with this one."
Oli Woodman — Section editor
"This week, I’ve continued to overindulge in festive foods and potent New Year’s beverages. The only thing that’s more regretful than the hangover that followed is the fact my bikes have been gathering dust. Temperatures have since dropped and so with a swift half of MTFU it’s time for me to haul my lazy arse back in the saddle."
Jack Luke — Staff writer
Our resident Scot Jack Luke has not yet returned from his Northern festive travels, but a thorough and detailed piece of detective work (read: we checked out his Instagram account) has revealed that he spent a lot of the previous week riding the Fairlight Strael over wintry mountains, alongside windswept lochs and down various icy gravel tracks.
As we've come to expect and love, there was also a fair bit of... well, we're not sure what to call it. Posing? Vogueing? Anyway, it clearly runs in the family and we're looking forward to having more bike and kit-based posing when he returns to the office.
Reuben Bakker-Dyos — Videographer
"The festive period brought me the opportunity to ride around the Borders of Scotland. Not only did I get to crank out some road miles through the rolling hills of Galashiels in some sketchy gusty winds, I took a Devinci Django 650b over to Glentress for a day of riding the trails, further building up mountain biking confidence — a small but useful goal I’ve set myself for 2017."
Russell Eich — US tech writer
US tech writer Russell recently got a Haibike e-bike in for testing: "I only have a couple rides on it so far and need to swap out some contact points. It's gotten quite a bit of attention and I've let three interested people ride it to gauge their reactions. They've all loved it. For me, I'm pretty impressed with the rear suspension action and am looking forward to testing what this e-bike can and cannot do."
Ben Delaney - US editor-in-chief
"I rallied some friends in Colorado for a New Year's Day ride. Fueled by biscochitos brought back from New Mexico - and perhaps burning off a bit of alcohol from the night before - the group did a meandering 100-mile ride from Boulder to Fort Collins and back."
