Saddle up for a girly trip wheeling through zoo

Cycletta South is a 40km course, starting and ending at Whipsnade Zoo. All roads will be free from traffic to give beginners confidence, while seasoned cyclists can race for their best time.

It’s a fantastic opportunity to get fit and raise money for charities including Macmillan Cancer Support and hosts Whipsnade Zoo, who have 50 charity places available.

If you ever fancied trying cycling but didn’t know where to start, this is a chance to pedal your way to success with the support of a whole team of experts and enthusiasts, including Olympic gold medallist Victoria Pendleton, comedienne Miranda Hart and TV presenter Clare Balding.

Ambassador Victoria Pendleton said: “Through Cycletta I want to inspire women to join me and cycle – as a hobby, a sport, a way to get fit and healthy or a way to escape. Whatever your reasoning, cycling can improve your life and Cycletta events will bring women of all abilities together to take on their own cycling challenge.”

In the spirit of the occasion, I have decided to dust off my pedals and give Cycletta a go, too. The last time I was in the saddle was when I was about 14, and highlights of my childhood cycling memories include flipping over the front wheel of my bike and landing on my head, crashing my brand new bike into the garden fence while secretly trying it out the night before my sixth birthday, and getting completely lost on a family holiday in France, struggling to stay on the bike and locate my family through floods of tears.

I am hoping that at Cycletta getting lost won’t be a problem as long as I stick with the crowd, and as for avoiding recreating the front wheel flip injury, that could probably be prevented by wearing a helmet and refraining from tying clothing round the handlebars.

My first step on the way to a summer of cycling success was to visit www.cycletta.co.uk and download Olympist Victoria’s training tips to find out how an amateur like me should prepare for the event.

One of Victoria’s first tips said: “Although it might provide a bit of a mental break reading a magazine while on the exercise bike, I can guarantee that if you can see it, let alone read it, you are not working hard enough to improve your condition.”

My gym sessions have always consisted of doing exactly that which probably explains why I haven’t seen much improvement to my fitness levels.

Victoria’s training tip number nine is: “One of the most unsafe things you can do is carry things hanging off the end of your handlebars.” That explains the front wheel flip then.

There is plenty of information on the site so armed with my new-found cycling knowledge, I set off to my garden shed to see what kind of condition my trusty old bike was in.

Unfortunately, I seem to have grown significantly since I last used it (told you it had been a while), and it looks like I’m going to need a brand new bike.

So, I’m off to browse the bike shops of Luton, but in the meantime, if you want to join in the fun and enter Cycletta, click on the CYCLETTA link to the right for more information and to sign up. You can’t be much worse than me so give it a go, and let me know if you do!

Spectators on the day will receive a discounted entry into Whipsnade Zoo and ZSL is also offering prizes for those who raise more than £500 in sponsorship. For more details click on the WHIPSNADE AND CYCLETTA link to the right.