Why cycling in the rain is amazing.

Cycling home the other night in the first really autumnal -feeling rain shower I've rarely been happier. I honestly think that wind and rain is in my top three favourite types of cycling weather (the other two being cold, crisp and bright December days and warm early spring).

I pitied the pedestrians clutching vainly at their buckling umbrellas, faces screwed up against the downpour, colliding like grumpy bumper cars. Cycling on wet days makes me feel connected with nature even on the mean streets of North London. Clearly, if I wasn't a Christian I'd be a pagan, but I believe that even those less obsessed with the outdoors than me would be better to embrace, rather than fight, the elements. You're never going to win. Everyone will end up at least a bit wet and wind-blown, even if you only have a short scurry from office to station to home. Rather than trying to protect yourself from the cold and the wet, why not get on a bike and embrace it? Bombing along at speed you somehow feel part of the storm, it becomes a friend not a foe, an exilerating energiser to speed you to your destination. You can dry off at the other end and have a nice cup of tea. Emersing yourself in the weather is good for the soul, and it leaves you with rosy cheeks and a smile. It's an antidote to a day in a temperature controlled office staring at a screen. It reminds you you're alive, dammit.

Unlike close proximity with a steaming, soggy, scowling, overcrowded tube of Londoners. Which is more likely to make you wish you were dead.