First I’ll start with a ridiculously late Happy New Year to you all. I hope you all had a fantastic holiday period with lots of fun and laughter (and a bit of training too).

The last six weeks have been rather manic and have disappeared quicker than Quintana up Alpe D’Huez at last years tour, which has all added up to me neglecting you, my loyal readers.

So as an apology in the next week or so I will bring you a few reviews (BandofClimers it’s coming I promise), a ride report (or two) and a look forward to 2016.

Let’s begin then by setting the keyboard to 88mph and like Doc and Marty head back in time!

2015 was the year my future rainbow jersey turned one, the 4th year of marriage to the wonderful Mrs Rouleur and finally the year where I was going to lose half my body weight in my chase to be the English Nairo Quintana. Alas the weight loss didn’t happen (shock horror, I know). Events, injuries and motivation all added up to a poor last 4 months to 2015 and me having dropped just a kilo or two.

But what did happen??

2015 was the year of my 2nd RideLondon participation and this time I didn’t get so wet that I might as well have been in an episode of the Octaunauts (2016 might be the year of the children’s TV references!). Although, I found the ride much easier than the 2014 edition (largely because I hadn’t trained in 2014) I just didn’t enjoy it as much. Weekend warriors and some unsavoury behaviour on the Leith detour really spoilt the day.

5 proud chasers displaying ‘The Friendlies’

2015 was also the year of the Surrey to Germany challenge. 6 days, 600 miles, two riders, zero support crew. What a fun challenge this was, day one was a lesson in brutality as the roads down to Dover nearly broke me (little did I know that they had already broken my ride partner).

Day two was a race against the clock after poor planning meant we didn’t touch French soil until 2pm leading to us playing a crazy game of catch up all day! Day three was the day I had my Tom Boonen moment, flying over the cobbles that would put the last nail in the saddle sore coffin for my ride partner, and finally day 4.

Calling on a little religious help early on

Day 4, where just 20 miles from the Dutch border and with Germany in our sights that evening it all ended. My fellow Roly was beaten down by his injuries so much that we simply had no choice but to call it quits.

My proudest moment of 2015 though was the creation of this blog. I am a rather quiet person in real life who finds it hard to meet new people and struggles very badly with confidence issues but this blog has helped me take big steps towards changing those things.

As my readership and Twitter followers have increased I have realised that perhaps I can go on to push for my goals both in terms of career and fitness targets.

This blog and the added confidence it has given me has also led me to the wonderful UKCycleChat, where not only was I asked to join the team which means helping to facilitate a weekly chat hour on Twitter (seriously, its awesome; search for @UKCycleChat, #ukcyclechat), conducting product testing etc. but where I have also made lots of new friends and had loads of fun, interacting with a wonderful community of like minded people.

So that was my time hop backwards, tomorrow (or maybe Wednesday) we hit the review button with not one but two reviews coming your way.

I will leave you with links to my top 5 posts (by views) from 2015 in case you fancy reading a bit more;

1. Day 4 and 5 – Devastation
2. Day 3 – Cobbles, Hills and Buckled Wheels
3. Joyriding
4. Day One – Hills, Wind and more Hills
5. Dont panic there’s still time (just) – Christmas gifts for Cyclists