Cyclist creates Christmas-themed routes as part of festive ride challenge

An avid cyclist has cycled a number of festive themed routes including the shape of a Christmas pudding as part of a 500km cycle challenge.

Rebecca Laurel, 25, from Leicester, completed a 64km (40-mile) cycle route in the shape of a Santa sleigh with a reindeer on Christmas Eve and a 61km (38-mile) Polar Express themed route on Boxing Day.

Ms Laurel, a civil engineer, said she is almost halfway through the Festive 500 – a challenge to ride 500km between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, created by Rapha, a cycling clothing brand.

Rebecca Laurel has cycled for more than 12 years and has taken part in various regional races in off-road and mountain bike competitions (Rebecca Laurel/ PA)

“I started doing creative routes in 2020, the first one I did was a reindeer,” Ms Laurel told the PA news agency.

“It’s not in the rules that you have to do shapes, it’s just riding 500km.

“But I did the challenge for the first time last year, and I thought it would be quite nice to do routes in the style in shape that I usually do them in.”

Ms Laurel, who created her routes on the Garmin Connect website, previously completed a skeleton-shaped route for a Halloween-themed bike ride.

This Christmas she has set herself several festive themed cycle challenges, which run through Leicester city centre.

“The one I did on Christmas Eve was a Santa sleigh with a reindeer,” she said.

“Santa’s sleigh was west of the city centre, and then the reindeer kind of went into the city centre and zig zagged around there. That was just over 40 miles.”

“It’s quite slow, zigzagging around the city centre, so it took me over three hours.”

“The Believe one I did on Boxing Day was inspired by the Polar Express golden ticket.

“I drew the rectangle for that first. This was all based in the city centre, and then zigzagged my way through to write out the word “Believe” in the middle of it.

“It was 38 miles and took me over three hours.”

“I completed the Christmas pudding shape on Friday. So the Christmas pudding shape was about an hour and a half, and that was less zigzagging through the city centre and more in the countryside.”

Ms Laurel added: “I’ve got quite a bit more left to do. I’ve got a Robin route, a snowman, which is very long, and then a kind of Happy New Year message.”

Ms Laurel has cycled for more than 12 years and has taken part in various regional races in off-road and mountain bike competitions.

In July, she cycled in the shape of a cycling jersey as part of a competition hosted by running and cycling app Strava.

“Cycling is a massive part of my life. It’s a great way of making friends and going out and seeing the countryside and exploring new places,” she said.