As 2025 approaches, I reflect on how my experiences, both highs and lows, have shaped the past year. Since riding a bicycle has become a bigger part of my life and is one of my favorite things to do my year-end reflections gravitate to this activity with my cycling year in review.
Being from New York, it's funny how I hadn't heard about the TD Five Boro Bike Tour until I moved to Cincinnati. Maybe it wasn't on my radar because I didn’t ride a bike then. Even so, with thousands of riders (this year had over 32,000) and the roads closed to traffic, I'm surprised I didn't know about it sooner.
My husband and I had our first bikepacking adventure this weekend. It was an overnight credit card bike tour through our cycling club. It’s called a credit card tour because you pay for your food and accommodations with cash or credit cards (rather than camping and cooking your food). Packing light, we brought only what we needed and could carry on our bikes.