"It's not a race..."

Of course not. Wouldn't dream of thinking of it that way. This was an examination of the different ways to get to work in the morning, showing the merits of each, and opening people's minds to a change of mode.

Not a race.

The 2006 Commuter Challenge in Edinburgh followed the previous incarnation with an identical aim, if only slightly different routes.

There were four of those, showing a range of distances, from a 3 mile hop coming from a shopping centre, to a 10 mile slog in from an outskirts park n' ride.

My own route was sitting between these, at around 4.5 miles, heading from the city hospital to the central endpoint. A well-subscribed route saw five competitors: the car driver was in a 'City Car Club' car; while bus timetables had been digested to find the swiftest route by public transport; which left three bikes. And all three displayed differing bike and rider styles. One standard, old road bike who got the jump on the other two of us at the first set of lights (note, a jump on US not the lights); one rather superb looking Nazca Paseo recumbent; and me, on my skip-rescued fixed-wheel.

As the countdown to our synchronised-watches start neared zero we all readied ourselves for the 'challenge'. Our road bike headed off in what looked like the wrong direction straight off the start, but this turned out to be a stroke of genius as we sat behind a red light and watched him sail past.

A full four minutes passed, as the car driver waited behind us, and the bus passenger had yet to board. And then we were properly on our way. The car certainly was as he breezed by in the light traffic, and soon after that, as we hit a downslope, I watched the 'bent move off into the distance.

At least with a bus to follow me I wasn't going to be last!