Tell us about your weekend ride

Got hopelessly lost and ended up doing a huge loop and 20 miles in we were only about 3 miles west of Cambridge and had to hit the A roads - not particularly fun.

I never feel fully equipped unless I've got a good map with me.

When I first started going on HDW training runs (see above) I was near the start of a long drawn out comeback - it took me a long time to get back to where I was when I was fourteen. At that time our TR's were pretty ferocious - they were led by Martyn Roach who was then the current national 12 hour champion, and there was no question of waiting for anyone who weakened - it was a case of 'see you Wednesday' (at the clubroom, that is). Martyn, who always rode at the front, would rarely say where he was taking us and would just work on what he called a 'need to know basis' - e.g. 'we're turning left in 100 yards'. The thinking behind this was to stop the faint hearted from turning off and leaving the group before we came to a big climb.

I would usually get dropped miles out into unknown territory and be in such a state that I would not want to be waited for, preferring to crawl home on my own.

And that was why one of my essential bits of kit was a small scale map of the whole of the area north, west and south of Staines to enable me to find the easiest route back.

Don't be put off by reading this from coming out with us - we're a lot mellower nowadays.