THE TOP 10 THINGS SUSAN SWARBRICK LOVES ABOUT LIFE ON TWO WHEELS

AS resident cycling geek of this fine newspaper, I often get asked what made me fall in love with bicycles. It’s a question I should be able to answer in a pedal stroke, but strangely always struggle to summarise.

“Well, please try,” said the editor. “Isn’t that what we pay you for?” So, for a long time I stared at the computer screen. I went onto YouTube and watched some classic Tour de France. I found a clip titled “man rides bike with cat on his shoulder” and another of Copenhagen in rush hour.

Finally, I began to write. So here, in no particular order, is a list of reasons why cycling gives me goosebumps (and I don’t mean the kind you get on a chilly winter commute through Glasgow’s east end).

1) Joy. No matter what is happen- ing in my life, a 10-minute spin never fails to send the endorphins soaring. I once heard someone describe it as “mental floss” because it clears out all the gunk.

2) Cafe stops. The only time that cake is an acceptable part of exercise. In fact, it’s actively encouraged.

3) It’s a pursuit where the men generally have bigger thighs than I do.

4) Almost anyone can do it. Be it the Lycra-clad pros ascending Alpe d’Huez or a 90-year-old man ambling along to get his weekly messages on a rickety butcher’s bike with a basket on the front, throw a leg over the saddle and off you go.

5) We all ride bikes for different reasons, each of us belonging to our own tribe. But for everyone I know, cycling equates to passion, escapism and camaraderie. It’s the moment when a complete stranger hands you their only spare inner tube to mend a puncture.

6) The Danes have a saying: “You’re safer on the bicycle than on the sofa.” In short, a sedentary lifestyle is a potentially greater threat to longevity. I used to be clinically obese. I’m now not.

7) It is thrilling, intoxicating, frustrating, challenging and financially ruinous. I own an embarrassingly large collection of cycling shorts. I want more.

8) That we can repeatedly mislay our house keys, go blank on someone’s name, lose money, friends, even our marbles but, no matter what, you never forget how to ride a bike.

9) The sublime beauty of the aerial roundabout shot.

10) Getting to the top of a steep climb, red faced and puffing, to see a spectacular view. Then whizzing back down the other side.