Just in case you're interested, I'm now back on my bike. Just as the doctor predicted, I spent three to four weeks on crutches, plus the occasional hour or two after that when I grew tired or the pain got a bit too much.

But then I thought it was time to try riding again, just to see what happened. I rode a mere 2km the first time, up the road and back, then waited to see if I would double up in agony. I didn't.

Next day I went twice as far, and still nothing happened.

Well, this isn't a mountainous area but nevertheless you can't ride more than 2km in a straight line without coming to a short hill. That was going to be the test, something on which I'd have to push rather than just turn the pedals. And so I set off to the village 10km away where I usually ride to buy bread. Twenty kilometres there and back.

It was a salutary ride, in that I had to plunge to my 30 ring and my 23 sprocket - this was on my road rather than my touring bike - on the slightest rise. Even then I struggled. And riding « en danseuse » was then and remains now out of the question.

Everything hurt when I got back, including parts of me I didn't even know had been injured. But successive rides got steadily better and my longest ride is now 45km with a 3km hill in it. I am still alive.

I now know that I can ride further, so I shall. Things don't feel wholly right and I still can't dance on the pedals. But am I happy?

YES, I AM!!