A cyclist in the UK gets amped up for Christmas in a dare we say, crazy way.
Anthony Hoyte, 51, has started a tradition of his own involving riding creative holiday inspired bike routes on Strava, a GPS tracking app for athletes. This year, his bike ride in the north of London produced a reindeer.
Hoyte peddled for exactly nine hours and nearly 80 miles to draw.
It's that time of the year again when I cycle round congested streets in the rain looking for some festive cheer!: https://t.co/4u80fR8eNt@Strava @cyclingweekly #stravaart #stravart #gpsdoodle #gpsart #cycling #Christmas #reindeer #Rudolph pic.twitter.com/Nzm3Rch9nJ
— Anthony Hoyte (@anthoyte) December 9, 2019
“I’m pretty happy with it,” he told the Evening Standard. “Until you get back and upload it, you’re not quite sure whether it’s going to work or not.”
Even though Hoyte pre-maps his routes, his cell signal will occasionally drop — resulting in occasional odd zags in the design.
“There’s a little glitch in there near Shepherd’s Bush where I obviously lost the GPS signal and it creates a straight line that cuts through a couple of street blocks, but that’s minor,” he noted.
“I made a couple of mistakes but they’re so small that nobody’s going to notice really,” Hoyte added. “I’m happy. It looks how I wanted it to look.”
In previous years, the heritage consultant from Cheltenham created a Santa and a snowman, as well as doodled faces and an adorable Yorkshire terrier — in Yorkshire, of course.
My latest @strava art: https://t.co/ebJpqcg7JF #leeds #cycling #yorkie #yorkshireterrier #stravaart @LeedsNews pic.twitter.com/AqgZYjxCTR
— Anthony Hoyte (@anthoyte) July 21, 2018
Hoyte likens his process to “looking at patterns in clouds and seeing pictures.”
The holiday maps are “a bit more tricky” because of the “festive” theme constraint, “but it’s the same process really,” he said.
“I live in the countryside and it’s very different to coming into London, particularly around Neasden and Wembley,” said Hoyte. “It’s not the most pleasant cycling.”
His longest ride was for the snowman at just over 88 miles and 10 hours.
“That’s about my maximum distance –- I wouldn’t want to go too much above that,” he said. “It’s a long day in the saddle.”
It may sound silly, but Hoyte said it’s getting more difficult to outdo himself.
Ho ho ho!
Check out my latest @Strava art: https://t.co/HY54z8DWU3#birmingham #santa #hohoho #cycling #gpsdoodle pic.twitter.com/GYj8Epu6pd— Anthony Hoyte (@anthoyte) December 10, 2018
“In a sense I’ve made a rod for my own back in that it’s become a tradition and everyone was saying: ‘So what’s it going to be this year?’ ”
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