2014 cycling season stats

This post is long, long overdue!

The 2014 cycling season was beyond good to me. From January to September, I followed the peloton around the world. Below I’ve listed stats and superlatives from my spectating, but this can never capture how much I appreciate the countless people I met along the way who left an impression on me with their kindness. From the race staff to the media to team staff and riders to fellow fans, I still cannot believable many people happily went out of their way to make my time at the races even better. I started following the peloton because I love to watch cycling but what keeps me going back is the generous and welcoming community I never imagined I’d find.

I saw 33 races* in 10 countries on 3 continents.

Of those races…

-7 were women’s races

-4 national champions were crowned

And I…

-collected approximately 633 signatures

-rode in 2 race cars during time trials

-rode in 1 team car during a stage race

-hitched a ride from 1 team bus

-received podium flowers from 3 riders

-saw Garmin on the podium 14 times

Favorite race: It’s a close call but Tour Down Under was a fantastic race in all regards by my standards

Best atmosphere: Belfast ahead of and during the opening stages of the Giro. In fact, enthusiasm spread well beyond just Belfast and every town the race would speed through had gone all out to celebrate

Lowlight: the Garmin crash during the Giro TTT

Highlight: this is a tie!

-Svein Tuft throwing me his flowers after he was awarded with the leader’s pink jersey in Giro

-Mike Creed inviting me to watch the final stage of the Tour of Alberta from the SmartStop team car.

I’m not sure what 2015 holds for me but I certainly hope I can visit my friends and bother the peloton again! I am particularly excited that Ted King and Ruben Zepuntke will be wearing argyle next year!

You can also expect I’ll be posting regularly once again.

*2014 races

New Zealand national championships: U23 & elite men’s

Tour Down Under People’s Choice Classic Crit: women’s & men’s

Tour Down Under (all 6 stages)

Paris-Nice (2 stages)

Ronde Van Vlaanderen

Scheldeprijs

Paris-Roubaix

Brabantse Pijl

Amstel Gold

Flèche Wallonne: women’s & men’s

Liège-Bastogne-Liège

Giro d’Italia (3 stages)

Criterium du Dauphiné (2 stages)

UK national championships: women’s & men’s

Tour de France (all 21 stages)

La Course

Clásica San Sebastián

Tour de Pologne (4 stages)

La Vuelta a España (7 stages)

Tour of Alberta (all 6 stages)

GPCQM (all 3 races)

World Championships (jr men’s TT, elite women’s TT, elite men’s TT, jr women’s road race, U23 men’s road race, jr men’s road race, elite women’s road race, & elite men’s road race)