Avid cyclist creates skeleton-shaped route for Halloween-themed bike ride

Rebecca Laurel, 25, from Leicester, cycled for more than six hours across the city centre on Sunday to create a cycle path shaped like a skeleton.

The skeleton shape is part of a series of bike rides she has completed featuring various Halloween-themed designs.

“I’ve done it for the past couple of years of different themed-shaped bike rides. For Halloween rides, I’ve done a pumpkin, a ghost and a witch, so a skeleton was one of the last options,” Ms Laurel, a civil engineer, told the PA news agency.

Her ride gained attention online after she posted a picture of her skeleton-shaped route, created on the Garmin Connect website, to X, formerly Twitter, which has more than 11,000 views.

She started at Fosse Park in the city centre where she cycled around Soar Valley Way to create the shape of the skeleton’s hips before heading south to draw the legs and ending her ride at Braunstone.

“There were two main north-to-south roads that I knew I wanted to use for the legs, and then it was just trying to scale everything up so that the head was north of the city centre,” she explained.

“The start point was the top of the hips and that loop on Soar Valley Way, and then the end was the left hand.”

To draw the skeleton, Ms Laurel cycled from the hips, down to the legs and through the spine to create the ribs, the right arm and the skull before completing her journey at the end of the left arm.

Ms Laurel said one of the more challenging parts of the ride was cycling the same route multiple times to create the Halloween-shaped bike route, which made for a long and slow journey.

“The end of the legs and each rib, you go one way and then turn around and go back the same way, which kind of slows the route down a lot,” she said.

“It was a lot of the city centre, so it’s slower and longer than a general ride.”

Ms Laurel, who was inspired to start cycling after watching the 2012 London Olympic Games, may consider creating a cycle route in the shape of a cat, bat or spider next Halloween, but already has her sights set on Christmas.

Last Christmas, the keen cyclist took part in an event named the Festive 500 created by Rapha, a cycling clothing brand, which saw her cover 500km between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.

“I did all of that with different themed shapes for Christmas so I’ve done quite a lot in the past already,” she said.

However, this year she may try to create a snowman-themed ride to mark the festive period.

“I’ve got a snowman route that I’ve planned a few years ago that I haven’t ridden,” she said.

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.