It’s safe to say that the past year has been full of surprises – and, pandemics aside, one of the biggest has been the inordinate amount of time I have spent on Zwift.

I unwrapped my smart turbo trainer on Christmas Day 2019 (talk about ahead of the curve) with plans to do “a bit of winter training on rainy days” and, a year later, I find myself racing my socks off every Tuesday night for DWWRT in the WTRL Zwift Racing Leagues.

Yes, it’s sweaty. Yes, it hurts. Yes, it’s a relatively intense way to spend a weekday evening.

But it’s also really fun. I promise.

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Gravel cycling is all the rage right now. Hitting the trails and tracks has been in the ascendancy for a few years, but 2020's socially distanced riding and a need to get away from it all has seen gravel's stock soar.

Perfect for a socially distanced day out and free(er) from the 'rules' that have come to dictate road cycling, the gravel world is the younger, more relaxed and better looking sibling. Should you give gravel a go in 2021?

But what actually is gravel cycling, and how does it differ from road cycling or mountain biking (or any other type of cycling for that matter)? 

Check out our guide to gravel cycling below, and we'll take you through everything you need to know to get started. The good news is that it's less than you think.

We've also included some London gravel cycling routes that are perfect for your mandated daily lockdown exercise. 

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Another lockdown, another opportunity to explore your local roads, hopefully without the huge traffic jams of normal times!

Each lockdown we've created a bunch of cycling challenges for our members to complete to help stave off the boredom and keep the wheels spinning. However this lockdown, we've decided to create a bingo board of local cycling challenges. The game is open to all, and we'd love you to play along!

Anyone who completes the whole board will be added to a prize draw to win some Attacus made Dirty Wknd club kit. Deadline to complete your board is Feb 15th 2021.

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Another national lockdown sucks for many many reasons, a small one of those being not being able to meet up with mates for a group ride. However we can still ride in twos, and lockdown means that many busy London streets are now more car free than normal. We have to look for silver linings wherever we can folks!

Cycling in London can be a real treat, especially when the traffic is low. With the government mandated 1 exercise session per day being suggested as 'local' (what that exactly means is pretty vague), we've put together a new lockdown collection to help you explore some great London cycling routes. Just click on the image below to access the routes:

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Zwift is pretty hot right now, as all things 2020 combined to force the cycling world indoors and onto their turbo trainers (if they were lucky enough to get one in time). For professional riders, 2020 brought in the first ever virtual Tour de France, World Championships and a whole host of other rides. You can't imagine a young Alejandro Valverde, when he became a pro 42 years ago, ever imagined he'd be racing the tour in his living room.

However the real story of Zwift in 2020 was the numbers of new and amateur riders taking up Zwifting this year. With a reported peak of nearly 20,000 Zwifters at one time in May, the number of virtual riders has certainly increased alongside the general upwards trend in Cycling numbers.

The vast majority of those 20,000 would have been Zwifting 'solo' (i.e. not taking part in an organised Zwift event) but we are noticing more and more people are using their Zwift time to enter a race or a group ride. Like most new riders when they get into cycling, the novelty of solo miles soon wears off as you crave interaction with other riders, and dare I say it, a bit of competition.

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So you've decided to attempt the Rapha Festive 500? Good on you. It's a tough challenge and a fun thing to do over the Christmas period. However, due to many circumstances that can pop up over the 8 days, it can be very hard to complete the Festive 500. As someone who has attempted the challenge about five times, and completed it a grand total of zero times, I can attest that it is pretty tricky.

If you're still unsure as to what exactly the Festive 500 is you can read our handy guide here. If you haven't yet signed up for the challenge I can highly recommend it. At the very least it might get you out of the house on Boxing Day when Uncle Gerald starts arguing with Aunty Maude and Mum is suggesting another round of 'Eye Spy'.

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