The team here at Cycling Weekly live their whole existence in the world of cycling, more or less, although a few of us are guilty of running sometimes too. We really should find other hobbies. As a result, we thought we would bring you our cycling moments of the year – not bikes rides, though, but just bike-related things.

As you’ll see, the parameters were deliberately vague, to throw up all sorts of things, and that’s what we’ve brought you. From specific instances in races to heartwarming milestones.

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Giro d’Italia on their bingo card. What an awesome display of tactical mastery from Visma Lease-a-Bike, Simon Yates and Wout van Aert.

For the rest of the Giro I had been rooting for Isaac del Toro and yes, he and Richard Carapaz blundered, but chapeau to Yates for capitalising and putting them in that position in the first place.

picture of Dr Sarah Ruggins, sitting on the ground with her back against the John o’ Groats signpost, her head in her hands, that gives me chills. As a teenager, Ruggins feared she may never walk again; she was diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome, a rare and poorly understood condition affecting the nervous system, and spent years bed-ridden in agonising pain.

This May, however, aged 37, she broke the record for cycling the length of the UK and back – John o’ Groats to Land’s End to John O’ Groats (JOGLEJOG) – doing so in five days, 11 hours and 14 minutes. “If I could do it, other people can do it,” Ruggins told me in an interview earlier this year. Hers is a story of inspiring determination.

Mont Ventoux and seeing the action up close.

However, my cycling moment of the year is not a professional moment, or even a work moment, but my cycling club’s Christmas party. My club, Newtown Park CC, is more than just a cycling club, it really is a community, and the Christmas party was the apogee of this. We raised thousands for charity, had a lot of fun, and reminded each other how great a part of Bristol we have all found. I can’t wait to get back to it now – the less said about how my night ended the better.

Breakaway Femmes: the Forgotten Tour de France’, the film that tells the story of the women who competed in the Tour de France for six years during the 1980s. Racing the same mountains and cobblestones as the men, these riders were forced to operate without the same sponsorships or salaries, and faced a huge backlash from the cycling establishment as they fought for their right to compete.

The women in the film wanted, above all, to race their bikes – an opportunity that was relinquished after just eight years of competition. The film is a wonderful, moving testament to their strength of will, and absolute cycling skill, while reinstating a history once lost.


Tour de France