The Year in Review: A Look Back at 2020

To say that 2020 wasn’t what we expected would be an understatement. But as Corey wrote about a few days ago, the year wasn’t without its bright spots. Sure, running took on an unlikely prominence given the lack of bike racing. But we did squeeze in a few race reports before COVID nuked the season. And there were plenty of other stories that we shared on the Journal along the way.

As we say goodbye to 2020 and look with optimism (knock on wood) to 2021, we decided to take a look back at some of the most read articles on the Journal from the year that was:

Keeping Warm in the Cold: A TBD Guide to Layering

With racing effectively put on hold, our traditional gear coverage become more prominent in 2020. One of the more popular pieces came late in the year with Shane’s guide to layering winter kit: Keeping Warm in the Cold: A TBD Guide to Layering

Build your Next Bike

Clay has long been a proponent for riders learning the tricks and technique associated with bike maintenance. As a natural extension of that perspective, he wrote an essay early in 2020 with a simple proposal that became one of the most read articles of the year: Build Your Next Bike.

15 Hours and 10,500 meters of climbing on Zwift

One of the silliest rides I have ever done certainly felt like it deserved a proper write-up on the journal. And thus 15 Hours and 10,500 meters of climbing on Zwift was born, featuring a very special guest star in Tony Soprano. Confused? Click through the link above for a full explanation.

How-To: Set up Road Tubeless Tires

Another of Clay’s early season gear posts also made it to this year’s Top 10 list. This time it was his comprehensive guide to setting up road tubeless tires. Complete with loads of graphics, How-To: Set up Road Tubeless Tires remains a reference point for the team whenever we debate the pros and cons of tubeless tires (which happens more often than we care to admit).

In the End, Burnout Comes for Everyone

Early in 2020, when COVID was still a blip on the radar as we busily prepared for the season ahead, Shane wrote a frank essay that we highly recommend for anyone who races bikes. Given 2020 ultimately became the season that never happened perhaps burnout is somewhat less relevant today than it was in January, but as we look forward to the resumption of racing the core principles certainly still apply: In the End, Burnout Comes for Everyone

Bikepacking NYC: The Weekend

The best bike adventures are truly timeless. And this is the journal entry that proves it as it dates all the way back to 2016 when TBD was then known as THW. A lot has changed since I wrote this piece, but it remains one of the best weekends I have ever had on the bike and hopefully at some point in 2021 we’ll be back to these sort of communal adventures: Bikepacking NYC: The Weekend

Some of NYC’s Best Riding: Exploring East of the Tappen Zee

While 2020 didn’t give us a whole lot to celebrate, there was a bit of good news for NYC-based cyclists this past summer when a new bike lane over the Hudson River opened on the Tappen Zee Bridge. Russell quickly set about putting it to good use and his post, Some of NYC’S Best Riding: Exploring East of the Tappen Zee, quickly became one of the most popular of the year.

Everesting for Equity

Corey put it best in his In Defense of 2020 post earlier this week: “With the support of the bike community (and many others), I spent the longest day of the year completing the most meaningful bike ride of my life. This was undoubtedly one of the highlights of the year and the journal entry recapping it is not to be missed: Harnessing the Power of Community: Everlasting for Equity.

Review: Hunt Bike Wheels 34 Aero Wide Disc Wheelset

Corey actually went back to back on our Top 10 list, with his December 2019 review of the Hunt Wheels 34 Aero Wide Disc wheelset slightly nudging out his Everesting for Equity recap from this summer for the number three slot. What did he think of these Hunt Wheels? Read the review to find out.

The Complete Guide to Bike Racing (Road) in NYC

File this under ‘oldie but goodie’ as our efforts to help de-mystify road racing in NYC continued to strike a chord. As long as they keep helping folks sort out bike racing, we’ll keep writing our guides. We’re not quite sure when road racing returns, but when it does we’ll have an updated version of our Complete Guide to Bike Racing (Road) in NYC ready to go.

The New USA Cycling Upgrade Rules

2020 has been such a blur that when compiling this list of the most popular journal entries, I hardly remembered writing this analysis way back in February. But at that early stage in the year there was a lot of focus on the ongoing changes being implemented at USAC headquarters and its in this context that The New USA Cycling Upgrade Rules became the most read TBD Journal entry of 2020.