Inspired by Germ’s 2025 wrapped blog and confirmed with a few pocket friends that it’d not be too late to write a 2025 wrapped before Jan 31st, I had been thinking about writing one for myself. And here it is.
It is really a big year for me actually, in a lot of reasons. Well the biggest one: I got engaged. I proposed to Josh, in the Palace of Versailles, in front of the Temple of Love. It was so awkward because I didn’t want to make a scene, and I was really nervous so I kneed down on a sharp little rock so I’m sure my facial expression was very twisted when I proposed. Thankfully Josh didn’t mind and said YES…
But yeah, here’re the things that mattered to me the most in 2025!
Cycling#
Of course cycling comes the first. It’s my whole personality now. 2025 was an epic year. The stats says it all. Over 5500 miles distance covered, and 220,000 ft climbed. But cycling is so much more than just stats. There’s exploration, fulfillment, challenges, and friendship. I also started to be a little more intentional about my training, and it made a big difference on my fitness. However, it does have some downsides. I did get constantly anxious about my fitness when I couldn’t get the ride in somehow, and I got peer pressures from my fellow cyclists. I eventually learnt to face these mental challenges and dealt with them with ease. Here’s some of my most memorable rides in 2025.
Greylock Century#
The most challenging ride of the year. 100+ miles, 12,000 ft elevation gain in the Berkshires. Mt Greylock is the highest mountain in Massachusetts, every cyclist wants to ride it.
A lot of details are in [[greylock-century-12k-challenge]]. However the mental side of the ride is what made it special. I finished the whole ride with very little sleep the night before and food poisoning from the day prior. I had thought about giving up many times before and during the ride. However I eventually finished it without skipping any single mile or feet. I was actually pretty proud of myself and this whole ride made me know myself a little better. I am the kind of person that wouldn’t give up easily, and I am strong and resilient.
4N1P#
Which stands for 4 notches 1 pass (Kancamagus pass, Bear notch, Crawford notch, Franconia notch & Kinsman notch) in New Hampshire. It is still a very hard ride, but this ride is more about bonding with other cyclists and friendship - almost like comradeship if you say. We rented a cabin in Lincoln, and had a lot of fun playing cards on the night before the ride. We cooked dinner and breakfast together, and set out in the morning.
When we approached Bartlett, among the first 4 riders passing that railroad, 3 of us got flat tires. The railroad has very sharp steel edges poking up from the pavement. I was lucky that I didn’t get flat. We stopped there for a very long time trying to fix those flats, but it was just too big of a cut for tubeless. After being stuck there for almost two hours, we found help from a very kind person staying nearby, and he took my friend and his bike to the nearest bike shop. We made a detour for that, and we stayed together this whole time. That is what cycling means for us and is all about!
Nice, France#
We visited Nice in April, which was still early Spring, but it was warm enough there to get some serious cycling in. I wasn’t in a good form just coming out of winter, but the epic climb of Col de la Madone and the scenery are just beyond imagination. I love riding hairpins for the consistent grade. I can just set in a pace that was not too hard for me, and also be able to push hard when necessary.
That was my second trip in Europe that I got to ride some of the most beautiful and popular cycling routes in the world. I certainly will do more.
Summer of Centuries#
What I never thought I would do is riding centuries (100+ miles in a single ride) every weekend, back to back, for the whole summer. But when I accidentally did 3 of them, I figured, I could do this. I did all of them with all my cycling buddies, and this was a huge accomplishment for me this season.
I even managed to do a final one in the winter when I decided earlier in the year that I was done with long distance rides. I eventually challenged myself to finished another from Boston to Wachusetts round trip. On top of that, I also finished the Snowflake ride in the winter, right before Christmas. It was cold and windy, but nothing really compares to riding outside.
New bikes!#
Yes bikes (not just bike)! I built two bikes this year, and it was really fun to customize and build exactly what I love. Of course it’d be more expensive, but it was well worth the price in the end.
First is the Standert, which is kinda an instagram influencer brand at this point. But I do love their paint jobs. I think cyclists should buy a bike that they think is good looking, because they’d ride more that way.
The paint is absolutely stunning. And it is steel - yes, steel is still pretty much alive on bikes nowadays. I ordered the frame on their website, which took them several weeks to ship - yes, people in Germany certainly aren’t in a rush. I ordered all parts online, during which I learnt a lot about compatibility between frame and all these parts - which is absolutely a mess. LOL. When I had everything ready, I took all of them to my local bike shop to have Zach to build for me. When I went there to pick up, it felt like unwrapping a gift to myself.
The second is Wilier. Again, I was attracted by the paint job, and I thought: I had to have it. I ordered from an Italian website called Bike-room, and they have this awesome collab with the local paint shop Luma colors for this custom paint. The silver paint reflects lights so the whole frame is shining in the sun. It is stunning.
I spec’ed this bike with top tier components - SRAM Red, Zipp 454 NSW wheels, carbon handlebar, carbon saddles etc. In the end it cost over $10k but.. it would cost over $12k if I bought in the US. And luckily, US custom didn’t ask me to pay tariff on it! In the end, this bike is 1.6 kg lighter than my Pinarello, which is huge! The bike rides amazing, very stiff but also very responsive. Cornering feels very under control. I’ve already put over 1000 miles on it!
Traveling#
Josh doesn’t have many PTO days (shocking to those reading this in Europe) - only 15 after 15+ years of working… so we always very conscious of where we travel so we can best use his vacation time. We went to France and China in 2025, both were great trips. As a matter of fact, our trip to China is actually his favorite so far.
Paris might be my favorite city now - Barcelona is still a top-tier contender, but I think I need to visit Barcelona again to see where it ends up. But everything we did in Paris was just perfect, especially shopping experiences. There’s something about fashion in Paris. I could buy one of my favorite sweaters or leather jackets there. So many little known brands that were doing great work. Josh thinks people in Spain are more down to earth and friendly. I honestly didn’t feel that way.
China#
It had been eight years since my last visit to China, and I was curious to see how much it had evolved. It truly felt like a different world where everything runs on a unique system. I relied on three essential apps: WeChat for payments, Didi for transport, and Dianping for reservations. Because Josh couldn’t navigate these apps, he followed my lead like a little kid everywhere - perhaps that’s why he loved the trip so much.
I decided this trip would be the ultimate luxury trip for us, so I splashed a lot of credit card points and cash on it, including business class flights and Amex FHR hotels. The hotel in Beijing was Aman Summer Palace, which is literally part of the palace. There is even a secret door from the hotel into the Palace! Once we arrived in China, everything felt so cheap. We saw so many advanced EVs and I really want a Xiaomi Su7. Auto industry here would be cooked if Chinese EVs were allowed.
We visited Beijing, Shanghai, and my hometown. We got to see some of the most famous spots in the world, including Summer Palace, Forbidden City, the Great Wall, etc. While I enjoyed Shanghai the most, seeing my hometown was a bittersweet mix of the familiar and the unknown. Visiting my old childhood park was a highlight, giving me a chance to share those memories with Josh.
Family#
During the flight to Paris, I finished reading the book Stories of the Sahara. I am not a heavy book reader, but this book made me think a lot about my life. I can also see myself in a lot of her life. She was married to Jose, a Spanish guy. The cultural differences between a Chinese woman and an European guy were so vivid in front of me when I was reading it, because that was something I felt all the time in my relationship with Josh. The book includes some letters she wrote with her families back in Taiwan. From there I could see the package she bear from the traditional Chinese values.
As cool as her, who would move around the world and live in the dessert of Sahara, she still couldn’t completely get rid of the packages of these values. I had been haunted by those ever since I came out as gay to my parents. I fought with them, I fought with the value system I was taught ever since I was born, and I fought with everything that stood in the way of me being completely cut off from it. But I couldn’t do it and it sometimes became a tremendous pain.
Then I learnt to make peace with it from her book, and her experiences. So I decided to write a letter to my parents. Why writing a letter you ask me? Because Chinese, or Asians in general, are very bad at communicating our feelings and emotions. Writing a letter is the best and perfect way. It took 4 months to arrive my parent’s house in China… And my parents called me right away.
They returned favor by writing me a letter, but they didn’t post it. They handed it to me when I was visiting, but I didn’t open it until I came back to the states.
I see this as a breakthrough with my families. Sometimes I really wanted to cut all ties with my parents, but being able to make mends and deal with this peacefully is a big step forward.
Work and career#
I don’t really want myself to be someone defined by their work, because as time goes on, I don’t feel proud of what my job is now. I came to realize that my job is just something I do to pay bills (and for my hobbies, and travels), and I have whole other priorities in my life.
Sometimes I joke that I want to get laid off so I can get severance payout and start a bike shop. Well that is not entirely a joke, because I kinda like that. I get to build something completely for myself and the community, and do exactly what I love. But at the same time, I keep telling myself not to get stressed out by work projects, since sometimes they can be very demanding. Occasionally I get some interesting projects, and I certainly will do my best. But I am shifting more of my time and efforts towards enriching my life outside of work. If you have read this far, you probably already know, it had been amazing.
I just realized I wrote way more than I intended. Well maybe that’s because 2025 is a hell of a year for me. I want to read more books - I already finished one. I need to overcome some commitment issues about watching TV shows and reading books. I believe 2026 will be even more exciting. One year later, I hope I can say so in 2026 wrapped.