A Manchester-based graphic designer has raised eyebrows with a rather - err - phallic piece of Strava art around his city.
Jake Colling, 26, set out on his 69km (nice) ride to the south of Manchester at the end of July to make the interesting map on Strava. It came from a desire to be funny, but then took on more meaning, as Colling sought to use the art to raise awareness about testicular cancer.
Although it's relatively uncommon overall, testicular cancer is the most common type of cancer to affect men between the ages of 15 and 49, with about 2,300 men being diagnosed every year.
The ride, titled "Not a total cock up", also happened to be his longest ride ever.
"Originally, I had an idea of doing a cock and balls bike ride because I'm childish and I thought it would be funny," Colling told Cycling Weekly on Wednesday. "Then I was planning it out, I decided to make it 69 miles, because I've never cycled that far before. I made the route, showed my friend, he thought it was funny.
"I thought if I do it, and posted it somewhere, it would get attention. It made sense to do it to raise awareness for testicular cancer. What better way to get blokes' attention than to make a picture of a cock and balls? I thought it was the perfect combination of things to get people's attention and get men to check themselves."
Colling created a YouTube video showcasing his adventure through the moors, which took him through Stalybridge, Stockport and Altrincham. The interesting shape was not hard to plot, apparently.
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"I just used Komoot, I had a start and end point and then just planned it out," he said. "It probably only took about 20 minutes. I didn't want to know where I was going really, I just forced it onto paths in order to get the shape I wanted. I just did that, loaded it up and got going."
Then it was just a case of following the route: "I just had it on my phone and tried to stick to it as much as possible. There were a couple of sections where I couldn't use, but it still worked out to be about the same shape."
(Image credit: Strava)
The reaction has been huge, Colling explained, and as long as his testicular cancer message gets out there, he's happy.
"It went down really well, and then LadBible picked it up, which was mega," he said. "It's been nothing but positives. I had reservations that people would think that it was childish, but I think people have been on board. It's for an important cause, even if it is very childish."
As for his longest ride ever, it was apparently a doddle.
"It was easier than I thought, it was just really nice," Colling said. "I've got some plans to do some much longer rides now. The first 20 miles were hell, it was just mud, thickets and nettles. My legs are cut to pieces. But after that it was rolling gravel paths and bridleways, so very chill. I ate a lot of Haribo."
Adam is Cycling Weekly’s news editor – his greatest love is road racing but as long as he is cycling, he's happy. Before joining CW in 2021 he spent two years writing for Procycling. He's usually out and about on the roads of Bristol and its surrounds.
Before cycling took over his professional life, he covered ecclesiastical matters at the world’s largest Anglican newspaper and politics at Business Insider. Don't ask how that is related to riding bikes.
