Strava art gets festive with 41-mile Santa Claus

UK-based Anthony Hoyte has created a festive Strava masterpiece on the streets of Birmingham

This year's Birmingham-based Santa is nothing short of epic

Anthony Hoyte / Strava

Alex Evans

Published: December 11, 2018 at 3:00 pm

Celebrating the festive season with a Santa-shaped bike ride has to be one of the best and most creative ways to burn off excess calories accrued from eating too many mince pies.

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Anthony Hoyte, who’s become famous for his Strava art, spent four and a half hours drawing out a meticulously-planned Santa on the streets of Birmingham’s city centre on 8 December.

Anthony's Santa vital statistics - Anthony Hoyte / Strava

Covering a distance of 66km/41mi, Hoyte started by riding out the details of Santa’s face, following roads that would eventually draw his eyes, nose, beard and mouth. Halfway along the ride Hoyte then concentrated on his beard, head and hat.

Averaging 14.4km/h and climbing a total of 583 metres, Hoyte’s Santa is a true masterpiece.

Last year he took to the streets of London to draw a festive snowman, covering a whopping 142km in 10 hours.

Is this the biggest snowman ever? - Anthony Hoyte / Strava

Anthony’s other works include a brood of fowls with ‘extra plumage’ and two ‘face off’ drawings amongst others.

Thanks for bringing the festive cheer!

Senior technical editor

Alex Evans is BikeRadar and MBUK’s senior mountain bike technical editor, as well as a regular on our podcast and YouTube channels. Working for BikeRadar and MBUK for nearly 10 years, Alex has been living and breathing mountain bikes since he was nine years old. Competing in his first downhill race aged 11, he went on to race in DH world cups and other international events across Europe – and even represented Great Britain at the downhill European Championships. Before moving back to the UK when he landed a job as MBUK’s features editor, Alex lived in the French Alpine mountain biking hotspot of Morzine for eight years. There, he clocked up an enormous amount of riding – and broke more bikes than he cares to remember. Alex now calls Scotland’s famously gnarly and gruelling trails of the Tweed Valley home, which is where he tests kit and bikes. While once a gravity racer, Alex now rides to the tops of his descents and feels most at home on an enduro bike or eMTB. He’s no stranger to flat-out efforts, however, and isn’t shy about donning Lycra to ride cross-country, or even competing in the occasional road hill climb event. Although he’s retired from official competition, he loves a challenge, especially when it comes to trying to top his local Strava leaderboards – just for fun, of course.

Height: 178cm
Bike size: Large/480mm reach