With friends like these, who needs turbos?

Winter has finally arrived and it's safe to say that the balmy November weather is distance memory now. The longs are "out" and the mornings and nights are miserable and dark. All the more reason to pop in to the shed/ garage/ back bedroom and put on some inspirational music and blast away on the Turbo trainer.Except that the Turbo trainer is cycling's equivalent to "the rack", or the sublimely bad "pear of anguish". Well maybe not quite that bad.

The advantage of the turbo though, is that you can control the variables which ordinarily you cannot; you can also watch the telly while you do it; and you can get off and have a cup of tea within minutes of finishing.

The flip side is that all of these things are massively distracting or make it easy to simply pack up. I attempted a gallant 30 minute interval session on Tuesday but the chain on the bike I was on developed an unusual kink (it's an oldish chain and I think it wanted to let me know that it was off to "Time Team" to be analysed and recorded as some form artifcact ancien). Either that, or it was just shagged because I'd managed to make it slip off the "big ring" and get wedged in the derailleur, thereby bending it. Clot.

Anyway, my motivation for this folly was partly to avoid all manner of pre-Christmas tedium and also because of: SomeoneIknowisontheTurbosothereforeIneedtodomoretimeonitthanhimbecausethat'swhat's goingtomatterinthenewseason Syndrome.

Having been described as a racing "Nemesis" I have now taken it upon myself to ensure I beat my goader by the narrowest of margins, e.g. by one-tenth of a second (like at Sharpenhoe 2003), just to cause the highest degree of annoyance  - in the nicest possible sense.

Everyone needs a yin to their yang. I suggest you find a designated Nemesis too, competition is good for the market and all that.

The feeling of losing by 1/10th of a second...

Cheers Steve, this is going to be an interesting season.