from where I sit

I have a bike set up on a turbo trainer for the days I can’t get out on my ‘proper’ bike. I never find it boring - I have a special playlist on my iPod, but if I don’t feel like listening I often visualise a familiar training route. I can see the turns and hills in my mind. I slow into the corners, accelerate out of them and then spin up the hills.

If I sit up and look around the room I can see photographs of my childhood cycling heroes - Jacque Anquetil and Eddy Merckx. There are latter day heroes too - Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish.

I have a photo of Anniemay competing in a big charity cycle ride, next to a piece of the old wooden track from the Manchester velodrome before they built the new one. And a faded picture of me, age 16, competing in my first time trial.

This is not some strange fantasy world - it is simply a new reality. Cancer caused me to sell my beloved road bike and hang up my lycra for good. But in my mind I’m still pounding down the road and when I’ve got my head down, this is what I see.