Hey! Let’s for a bicycle ride! On a bloody cold November lunchtime with the potential for black ice on the roads!

This wasn’t the wisest of moves. But I had a spare couple of hours, and there was blue sky up above.

I’ve been pretty much trapped in Weird Wiv over the past fortnight. All roads in, and all roads out have been closed for various roadworks.

That’s an exaggeration, obvs. But it has been a right bloody pain to plot a circular route with constant road closures.

I wasn’t entirely sure that I had a clear run in front of me. I decided to chance my luck.

Five minutes in and I was dismounting and pushing the Raleigh electric around a blockade of roadworks.

Arse.

I was already bloody cold, and didn’t really warm up for the next hour and a half or so.

I headed out around the lame Bobby George BONER of a route. It’s a not very challenging 30km or so circuit. It was the first time I have ridden these lanes in over a month.

Nothing had changed, natch.

The highlight was catching some local kids at Alresford receiving some road training on their bicycles.

I believe the children are our future, etc.

Chapeau!

I’m still bloody cold as I type.

Muddy Hell at Herne Hill Velo was a hell of a lot of fun.

It was a Halloween themed Cyclo X ride, that was slightly out of season, taking place a week or so after All Hallows' Eve.

The cycling calendar tends to get a little congested.

Muddy Hell however proved be anything but. The rather seasonal weather meant that the cross country parts of the circuit were rather dry.

Boo, hiss, etc.

The sizeable crowd had only come along to see riders come tumbling down, right?

The course was a mixture of some track riding, a large ramp, some bunny hop hurdles through a tent, and then the back of the Velo cross-country style.

It looked challenging during the fading light for the youth race; come darkness when the big boys and girls came out to race, and rather you than me.

The kids were great. This wasn’t so much about winning, but enjoying the track and surrounds in fancy dress.

With darkness descending around Herne Hill, the Best Costume race for the adults followed.

There was some ACE efforts. Shout out to Action Man, ET and the dude in a blow up dinosaur costume - who I think had to abandon after it became clear that his costume wasn’t compatible with cycling?

A full on proper race followed. Apologies, but time was tight for me and I couldn’t hang around.

I bloody love le Velo and all that it has grown to become in the past ten years or so.

I ride to work year round. Here are my top tips for making it actually enjoyable through the gloomy months ahead

Physical separation between cyclists, pedestrians and motorists key to safer streets, research shows No shit.