OK. I'm not proud. I'll get this one back on track then. In my first ever audax I was repeatedly overtaken by a little old lady in a long skirt, riding an old-fashioned sit-up-and- beg bike with a wicker basket on the front. Every time I hit a steep hill, I could hear her coming, because she even had enough breath left to sing a little song to herself as she climbed. Whenever I got to the top of a hill I hurtled past her downhill like a meteorite and left her in my trail ... only to see the next hill approaching, with the inevitability of hearing her approach, singing la-di-da, tra la la etc all over again. It was my first time over 60 miles, and I was gasping like a fish at least 20 miles before the end. She looked like she was just nipping to the church fete. Every blasted hill I hit, she reeled me in again like a mullet. Eventually, I caught a good look at her at one of the rest breaks ... gnarled, muscular legs, proper cycling kit beneath her skirt, not as old as she was dressed - totally sporty type and about a third of my weight. She must have had a right laugh conning and picking off unsuspecting newbies on her way round. I now take no account of age or gender when sizing up my fellow riders. We are all just cyclists. We probably all suffer on the hills - you have to, to earn muscles like that. It's just that some can hide it better than others.