Cyclist takes nine hours to create reindeer picture on exercise app

People love creating impromptu art, especially on exercise apps. People often spend hours planning out a route to run or cycle that will create something artistic, and then even more hours actually running or cycling the route. 

Cyclist Anthony Hoyle from Cheltenham in the United Kingdom has spent hours and burned thousands of calories during his time as an artist. Just recently, he took to the streets of North London with a GPS tracker to create this masterpiece on the Strava app. 

"It's that time of the year again when I cycle round congested streets in the rain looking for some festive cheer," Hoyte explained. The cyclists traveled over 80 miles around the city, starting in Hammersmith and ending in Euston Road. 

And this isn't the first piece of art that Hoyte has created, last year he painted a Santa on his cycling app. 

And he's even done cute dogs. 

"I'm pretty happy with it," Hoyte told ITV. "Until you get back and upload it, you're not quite sure whether it's going to work or not."

"I live in the countryside and it's very different to coming into London. Particularly around Neasden and Wembley, it's not the most pleasant cycling." 

"That's about my maximum distance - I wouldn't want to go too much above that. It's a long day in the saddle." 

He went on to reveal that he figures out what he's going to draw by looking at maps.

"Normally I look at maps until I see something - 'That looks a bit like a nose' - so I think 'Where can I find eyes near that?' It's like looking at patterns in clouds and seeing pictures."

"With these ones it's a bit more tricky because I'm trying to do something festive so it's harder, but it's the same process really."  

He went on to add: "In a sense I've made a rod for my own back in that it's become a tradition and everyone was saying: 'So what's it going to be this year?'" 

"I made a couple of mistakes but they're so small that nobody's going to notice really. I'm happy. It looks how I wanted it to look."

Editor's Note: The article was originally published in December 2019. It has since been updated.