2018: A Statistical Review

I rode a lot, surpassed my mileage goal, had a great Race The Lake, bought a new cyclocross bike, and didn’t get injured. There: that’s my 2018 cycling season in a nutshell. It was a good year in the saddle, but one that produced only a few memorable moments. The mileage breakdown by month tells much of the story:

150 Jan
125 Feb
275 Mar
271 Apr
757 May  (PR)
650 June
852 July
827 Aug  (PR)
613 Sep
505 Oct
157 Nov
176 Dec  (PR)

Those are solid totals for the winter months, then a very bad April, personal records in May and August, a disastrous November, and another PR in December. As usual, it was all about the weather. We had a long, cold spring, then a properly warm summer, then an early start to this winter. The speed with which the weather changed was remarkable. Just look at what happened in October:

And that was it; we never recovered. It was wet, too, so the cyclocross season became a cold, muddy mess that held no charms for me. I did only 5 cyclocross races this year: 3 in September, 1 in October, and 1 in November. Combined with Race The Lake, that’s a total of 6 races this year, down from 21 in 2017. My 2019 season must be better! I’m going to return to mountain bike racing after taking this season off. That will stoke the competitive fire early in the year.

In my 2017 statistical review I said that I wanted to return to my roots as a cyclist by taking a series of long rec trail rides. Those never materialized in 2018. I still made frequent use of the Eisenbahn State Trail and paid one visit to the Wild Goose, but I didn’t explore anything I hadn’t seen before and I didn’t return to a couple of long-neglected favorites as I had planned. Giving more emphasis to mountain biking in 2019, I don’t think I’ll be making up for these missed opportunities.

With 5,358 miles this season I had the third best total in my 15-year history as a cyclist. My 183 days of riding are sixth most, all-time. I expect both numbers to drop in 2019. More mountain biking will mean fewer miles overall, but that’s OK. My 2019 will be less about the statistics and more about the experiences and the people: friends, teammates, and rivals.