Cyclist, 51, brings festive cheer to the streets of London by riding a 79-mile reindeer-shaped route on his Strava fitness tracker

• Anthony Hoyte from Cheltenham planned intricate route in shape of reindeer
• Used Strava fitness app to cycle around London from Hammersmith to Euston
• Took him nine hours and was a big change from his usual rural surroundings  

A cyclist has brought festive cheer to the streets of London by riding a 79-mile route around the capital in the shape of a reindeer. 

Anthony Hoyte, 51, cycles long distances along intricate routes so that they appear in the shape of animals on his Strava fitness tracker. 

His latest work is his third annual Christmas image, which he believes is his greatest yet. 

Mr Hoyte, of Cheltenham, cycled 79 miles from Hammersmith, west London, zigzagging across the city and finishing in Euston, to make a reindeer shape on his app.

It took him nine hours, going as far north as Edgware, before heading south again and east through Hampstead Heath and Wood Green.

Finally he returned south through Kilburn and Maida Vale before finishing along the Euston Road. 

He said: 'I'm pretty happy with it. You plan them all out but 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,' he said. '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.'

Mr Hoyte, a heritage consultant, has produced around a dozen pieces of art on his bike, and believes his training as a product designer helps in the creative process of planning the routes.

He added: 'I just spend a lot of time looking at maps and it's waiting for things to jump out at you.

'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.'

Other routes Mr Hoyte has cycled include a Yorkshire terrier in Leeds, two elephants in Birmingham, and a flock of birds in Bristol.

In 2017 he produced his first festive work by cycling a snowman in London and he followed it up last year with Santa in Birmingham.

He said: '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?'

'But in the end, the reindeer turned out almost exactly as planned.

'There's a little glitch in there near Shepherd's Bush where I obviously lost the GPS signal and it creates a straight line that cuts through a couple of street blocks, but that's minor,' he said.

'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.'