2025: my cycling year in review
- Veronica
- 4 hours ago
- 3 min read
2025 has certainly been my year of cycling!
It's almost hard to believe that this time last year I'd only been on one solo bike camping trip, and now I've cycled solo across England for my PhD fieldwork!
In 2025, I bought my first-ever new bike from a female-owned bike shop in Exeter. I more than doubled the distance I cycled compared to the previous year and stepped out of my comfort zone to join my first group rides in London and Exeter. I visited parts of the country I'd never travelled to before and spent a "rest" day cycling the Swaledale Circular in the Yorkshire Dales. I got to meet Lael and Rue at their London screening of Lael Rides Around the World. I was interviewed on cycling podcasts and featured in Cycling Weekly. I spoke about my fieldwork on the big stage at the Royal Geographical Society and have been invited back to screen my short fieldwork film.
My bike was my home as I traversed England and a source of peace as I navigated heartbreak. Cycling has allowed me to explore this beautiful country and connect with so many wonderful people along the way. Even though the Farming Futures Cycle Tour is over, I know that cycling will always be an important part of my life.
It hasn't been an easy year – I was pushed to my limits physically and emotionally – but I'm proud of what I achieved, both on and off the bike. I started the year crying myself to sleep from fear of my fieldwork cycle ride, and I've finished the year feeling stronger and more confident than ever before. It's amazing what a bike can do!
So, as the year draws to a close, here's my 2025 cycling year in review.
Collecting together the photos for this last slide made me emotional – I feel so lucky to have met so many wonderful people over the last year as a result of the Farming Futures Cycle Tour. Thank you to everyone who has supported me: family, friends, colleagues, and the many strangers who have become friends ♥
Cycling stats:
Longest day rides
Reading to London – 118.5 kilometres
London to Maldon – 106.7 kilometres
New Forest to (near) Winchester – 82.0 kilometres
Burnham Deepdale to Wisbech – 80.7 kilometres
(Near) Winchester to Reading – 79.5 kilometres
Most elevation in a day
Widemouth Bay to Okehampton (Devon) – 1,244 metres
(Near) Redruth to Penhale (Cornwall) – 1,159 metres
Swaledale Circular (Yorkshire Dales) – 1,093 metres
Penhale to Camelford (Cornwall) – 924 metres
Robin Hood's Bay to Kildale (North York Moors) – 916 metres
Bike camping trips
The Farming Futures Cycle Tour (April-July) – 3,242 kilometres
South Hams to Okehampton (March) – 119.9 kilometres
North Devon (April) – 119.1 kilometres
Exeter to Ladram Bay (March) – 53.8 kilometres
Women's farm gathering in East Devon (August) – 45.3 kilometres
To Little Harford and back (March) – 44.2 kilometres
English counties cycled in
Devon, Bristol, Cornwall, Dorset, Hampshire, Berkshire, Surrey, London, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, East Riding of Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, Cumbria, Herefordshire
Cycling-related radio & podcast interviews
Interview on BBC Radio Cornwall, discussing successful PhD fieldwork by bike
Interview on BBC Farming Today, discussing initial findings from PhD fieldwork by bike
Spinning Stories podcast
Seek Travel Ride podcast
Tough Girl Challenges podcast
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