Yet another challenge, but this time one we were involved in during September. As part of European Mobility Week a number of national events were taking place - all under the slogan 'Clever Commuting'. Invariably this means that somewhere a race is going to take place between cars, buses and bikes. Edinburgh duly obliged. And citycycling got signed up.

We were informed at all points that this was not a 'race' but a 'challenge'. Apparently designed to show people that cycling is quick, and if it happens to be raining they can jump no a bus and it's just as quick. Having spoken to a number of people who had taken part in these before the pressure was definitely on. It seems the bike always wins...

Now here's a quick tip. If you're going to be involved in a race in the morning where you want to assert the bike's authority over internally-combusted modes of transport the last thing you want to do is have a late night the day before. You also wouldn't want to get a touch tipsy winning a pub quiz. And you definitely wouldn't want to delay going to bed till the wee small hours because the room spins when you close your eyes. And above all else you don't want a raging hangover to hover over you while you are riding in the aforementioned race.

These would not be good things.

With this in mind, and the promise of tv crews at the end, I was on a 3 mile (ish) all uphill route, which was managed in 13 and a half minutes, which in my state (and with my natural ability to catch every red light) I was quite pleased with. As pleasing was the fact that the other cyclist on my route then came in at 15 minutes (though he was taking the 'scenic' route), with the car straggling a further 3 minutes or so back, and the bus taking a whopping 30 minutes in total.

The car driver had to find somewhere he could park for at least 8 hours (to resemble driving to work) and walk to the finish point so I always knew I'd have a good chance, even after he passed me a third of the way in with the holiday weekend-lightened traffic working to his advantage. That the bus took so long confirmed quite a few suspicions, and gained no publicity in the pro-bus council's press release the following day.

Funny that.