The Eastern Road has resembled the Tour De France – but I hope they all still cycling once lockdown is eased

For most of the last few weeks, since Boris imposed lockdown, this has been a familiar scene. After all, after rain had relentlessly swept across the region from early October to the middle of March, it has been virtual non-stop sunshine since Monday, March 23 (Boris announcing lockdown). So many nice days for family members, stuck at home and getting increasingly bored, to chirp: ‘Let’s go on a bike ride - I’m feeling immortal today, so don’t worry about the helmets!’The Eastern Road might well have been virtually empty of cars at times but you can guarantee having to move over on the pavement (walking up towards Farlington, and both sides on the bridge itself) at regular intervals during lockdown as cyclists merrily ring their bells and ask you politely to move over. Apart from the ones that just whizz past, within an inch of causing bloodshed, that is.I feel the need to state here and now this is not an ‘anti-cycling’ column. Far from it. I have a bike and I regularly ride it. I wish I rode more. In a way, it has been a wonderful sight these past few weeks to see so many families snaking their way up the Eastern Road. Cycling is fantastic exercise, so much better for you than jogging. But in the same way I’ve never seen more dogs being walked in the last seven weeks, so I have never seen more people on bikes. The Eastern Road has been busier recently in terms of cyclists than at the height of last summer. It will probably be less busier once lockdown is totalled eased.I have my suspicions that not everyone I have seen is a regular cyclist - I return here to the lack of helmets and bell ringing - but have only done what Norman Tebbit once told the UK jobless to go out and do because it’s a good way, a great way actually, of fitting in an extra reason to leave your house - a second hour-long exercise, in other words, INSTEAD OF JUST ONE! Yeah, call me cynical if you want. I’m a journalist, it’s in our DNA - the same as sarcasm.I wish for many things after lockdown, and one of them is the hope I will continue to see so many families out in the sunshine on their bikes. What would they have been doing these past few weeks if Covid-19 had not extended its tentacles across the globe? Queuing up in McDonald’s or some other fast-food valhalla, or just staying in and not enjoying the fresh air? I don’t know which option is worse. Almost certainly, being told we have to stay INDOORS for most of the day has ended with some people, some families, actually spending more time OUTDOORS than they would otherwise have done. I’m probably one of those people. Almost without fail, I’ve gone on a brisk hour-long walk every evening during lockdown. Did I do that in the seven weeks prior to lockdown? Of course I didn’t.That’s not to say lockdown has made me fitter. It certainly hasn’t, despite my power walking. More ciders than usual have been quaffed, which is saying something, and I’ve been a prolific evening snacker of crisps and cheese. But while I’m now managing to reduce the snacks, it is harder to give up the drink. So many sunny early summer evenings have been missed, with regards to a country pub and a pint, and once pubs reopen - admittedly, we might all be a lot older by then - you’ll find me at The Lawrence Arms with a glass of real cider. Feel free to say ‘hello’, even though I’m cynical and sarcastic ...