The evenings are lighter so the bike has come out...

With more cyclists on the road, car drivers are learning how to show more respect
The Tour de FranceThe Tour de France
The Tour de France

Cycling to work is now back on the menu.

Finishing at 8pm is no fun when you have to cycle in the dark and the route back for me takes in some very quick but very dark roads, like Titchfield Road or the bus way to Gosport.

Now though, it’s light enough and dressed like up a Belisha beacon, I feel I’m now visible enough, even though my flashing LED lights are considered a hazard to aviation.

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One of the problems I have with cycling to work is my competitiveness.

I cannot just enjoy the ride and take in the wonderful scenery along the Lee-on-the-Solent seafront.

No, I have to go for it.

I’m racing against the clock. Work is almost 10 miles from my home in Alverstoke and I want to do it in under 30 minutes.

Another problem, I’ve just watched once of the first cycle races on TV, the Tour of Flanders and witnessed the impressive Peter Sagan’s victory.

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Powering my way past the Hovercraft Museum without even a side glimpse of the Princess Margaret I make quick progress.

I’m doing 22mph approaching Stubbington.

Driver courtesy was top notch. After three British winners of the Tour de France in the last four years and so much Olympic success, cycling has taken off in the UK and with more of us on the road, car drivers are learning how to show more respect.

That said, it works on the other foot too. I always stop at red lights and try my best to keep close to the kerb to allow plenty of room to be overtaken.

But here now lies the other problem. With a race bike with rock hard, thin tyres and our awful road surfaces, I’m forced away from the kerbs to avoid deep drops into drain covers.

And the most painful problem of them all...

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After getting home, a certain part 
of my body has taken a right old 
battering and I end up walking like John Wayne!

Great for kudos, less so for the weekly shopping run

One of the coolest TV cars has just gone on sale.

It’s a 2.8 litre injection Ford Capri, the actual one used in the first few series of the detective drama The Professionals.

What a great car, even if it is up for £45,000!

Mind you, I think most men of a certain age would prefer the KITT car from Knightrider, a very smart Pontiac Trans AM.

But the ultimate car of the screen must be the time machine built into a DeLorean for the 1985 movie Back to the Future – not just stylish, but capable of time travel when it hits 88mph. How cool is that?

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Then again, if I had one, I’d look a bit of a prat trying to get out of it at the Gosport Asda with those ‘gull-winged’ doors!

At 33 years old, now that’s what I call a musical success

Can you guess what the best selling album of 2016 is so far?

You’d be pretty well off the mark if you said David Bowie.

He shifted around 175,000 copies, but the number one so far has sold 230,000 and is climbing.

Can you believe it’s the latest of the Now That’s What I Call Music CDs? We are now at number 93.

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It seems we still love this ‘mix-tape’-style double compilation CD.

The first appeared in 1983 and CD versions from 1984.

Vinyl copies ended in 1996 and cassettes as late as 2006. I bet you have bought at least one in your time.

The format doesn’t change, neither do the TV ads with Mark Goodier.

Those albums have put his kids through university!