This superb Santa Claus Strava art will get you into the festive spirit

Anthony Hoyte has a reputation for utilising Strava for his artistic masterpieces, with Father Christmas his latest creation

If you were looking for a bit of cycling themed Christmas cheer to get you in the mood for the upcoming festive season then look no further.

Anthony Hoyte who has a knack of creating highly detailed Strava art has returned with a 66-kilometre ride to map out Father Christmas

The 4.5 hour ride around Birmingham labelled 'Ho ho ho' that mapped out Saint Nick, had a number of challenges to ensure the detailed drawing was accurate as well as the challenge of negotiating Christmas shoppers on a busy Saturday.

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Averaging 14.4Km/h around Britain's second city, Hoyte stopped just past Aston Villa Football Club to reveal his latest magnificently detailed drawing of the big man himself.

This isn't the first time Hoyte has done made a festive GPS mark online, creating an 88-mile snowman around London a similar time one year ago.

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But it is not just festive designs that Hoyte maps out, as he has won awards for his Strava art in Bristol as well as producing an extremely intricate potrait in Cardiff

Hoyte isn't the only 'Banksy of the bike', as Strava has long been used for marriage proposals, tributes to retiring professional cyclists and thanksgiving turkeys. Who actually wants to use it for training purposes nowadays?

But Hoyte seems to have stamped his mark on a very niche area of the sporting and artistic world. So don't be surprised to see him roaming around a city near you this time next year to create his latest - and unique artistic masterpiece.

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Paul Knott is a fitness and features writer, who has also presented Cycling Weekly videos as well as contributing to the print magazine as well as online articles.  In 2020 he published his first book, The Official Tour de France Road Cycling Training Guide (Welbeck), a guide designed to help readers improve their cycling performance via cherrypicking from the strategies adopted by the pros.