In the brilliant early spring sunshine, I went for my first cycle of the year this afternoon. As the photo below shows, the weather was stunning, with a totally clear blue sky and a bright sun warming my clothing. However, that clothing was still the winter cycling kit as the temperature was only in single figures – but with the sun and some pedalling, I was very toasty.

There weren’t many other signs of spring around; only a few patches of snowdrops in some of the villages and a single field with lambs. The roads were still very wintery with mud in some of the dips and run-off from the waterlogged fields. I’m hoping it won’t be too long until I can swap from road bike to hybrid and head onto the byways and bridleways but I suspect there’ll need to be a long period of dry weather to make the current muddy fields passable.

After doing a lot of night running over the course of winter, now might be the time to move over to cycling in the coming lighter evenings.