CW5000 January challenges - your progress

Many of you have wasted no time in ticking off your January challenges. Our first email came in from Barrie Morris on January 2 who said; "with snow on the ground on New Years Day, riding was constrained to the garage and Zwift." But even then he couldn't fend off the cold conditions. "Duration limited to three hours by numb fingers and toes - even with winter socks, oversocks and gloves!" Well done Barrie, three hours and 75 miles on the turbo is not to be sniffed at.

Regular contributor to the CW5000 Facebook group Mark Fairhead was straight out of the blocks too, ticking off a near four hour ride and a new road near his home in Norfolk on January 2.

Nora Holford took the challenge of finding a new road to another level on her 90km ride in the Cotswolds, using all new roads between 15 and 70km. Maybe those new roads will become a regular route from now on.

Meanwhile in Lincolnshire John Coates used the challenge to do some exploring. "For my 'new road' I visited Havenhouse Railway Station, famous for being regularly in the top 10 least used stations (number 5 in 2019, the most recent figures, with just 158 passengers in the year). It's not far from me but I'd never been and this was a good excuse especially as lockdown means more adventurous rides are out."

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Havenhouse station - you could be waiting a while. Picture courtesy of John Coates

We've had just one international rider completing the challenge so far. Nicholas Baumgartner, who's taking on the challenge on a trike this year, found a bike path near the Ottowa Hills, south of Detroit.

And seeing as we're in lockdown, we said that we would accept new roads on Zwift (the same goes for other virtual platforms). That gave Fran Stewart the inspiration to take on Alpe du Zwift via the Road to Sky route.

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Editor Simon Richardson ticked off the new road challenge on a short sharp little hill less than a mile from his front door. He searched it out on Strava beforehand and couldn't find the segment so thought he could get an easy KOM. As it was so close to home he rode it without a warm up, went as hard as he could only to suffer for the rest of his ride. Unfortunately for him there was a Strava segment on the climb so he didn't even get the KOM.

He'll take on the two hour ride this Friday (January 22) on Zwift. To help his motivation he's set up the ride as a meet up. If you'd like to join him at midday (UK time) follow him on the Zwift companion app - 'Simon Richardson (Cycling Weekly)' - add (CW5000) after your name and he'll invite you to the 120 minute ride on Petit Boucle in the French world.

Keep your emails coming, and be sure to tell us about those new roads you've found. How did you find them, and what were they like to ride? And please do remember that we advise you all to stick to whatever restrictions you face on exercise at the moment. Ride well within your limits, let someone know of your route in advance and stay safe.