Recently in Road Racing Category

It sits there in the hallway, untouched. It pleads with me every time I pass it, but I ignore it.

I ignore it as long as I can. But there comes a point where you have to take the bike out of the box and reassemble it.

Out it comes, number still attached to the centre of the bars, dustier than I remember. The frame sticky with a coating of sweat, energy drink and road dirt.

It's almost a week since the Etape and it's the first time I've looked at my bike since packing it away for the journey back. I've ridden the 4km to work a couple of times without thinking much about exerting myself and that's as much as I've concerned myself with riding a bike.

What are you meant to do after you've achieved a goal as massive as the Etape? There's no reason to go out and ride it again. (There wasn't much reason other than the "because it's there" one in the first place)

Mentally there's no next step to take. Physically my body craves rest and complains when I so much as suggest exertion.

I take myself down to Hillingdon on Tuesday for the first ride since the Etape. People say how much they liked my video piece while I fret about my handlebars not being on straight.

It's the usual 4th Cat routine, so I try my legs in the first quarter hour to see how they feel. Sore, no snap when I click up a gear and push the pace.

So I do what I always do: wait for a slight lull in the pace, then increase the effort and move off the front.

My breathing is steady but I can feel the pain rising. Nobody will come across the gap, they'll just drag me back within a lap or two.

Then there's suddenly someone across and we're two away. He's pulling harder than I can manage and every time I try to come through my legs choke, forcing me to drop back into the wheel.

A few more riders come across but I can't hold the wheels, my legs are numb. I need to let this one go. So near to making that magical break happen.

Shuffle back through the pack, I've done my turn.

Wait for three laps to go and the watching to begin. There'll be a drop in pace and that's the time to go hard.

There it is. Bit too far back but I'm going anyway. Pace hasn't dropped as much as I thought and there's still two to go.

Another Dynamo follows the counter and goes away. That's the ticket: attack in pairs or follow the chaser and use them.

He's away, I'm spent, sit in the back and let the race go away from me.

Don't see the finish. Wonder where and when I'll find the courage to stop making excuses for not getting up there in the sprint.

SPRINT! DAMN YOU! CORNER, DON'T TAKE ANYONE OUT! SPRINT! CORNER! BRAKE... NO DON'T BRAKE! PEDAL HARDER! HILL!!!!! PEDAL HARDER! *SPORZA COMMENTARY VOICE* "OY-OY-OY-OY-OY!" BREATH DAMN YOU LUNGS. (REPEAT X25)

And that's pretty much how it goes for roughly an hour. Fun, yes? HELL YEAH!

Hillingdon, you go for the tea and cake and pottering round trying not to get knocked off on an entirely innocuous circuit where you don't need to brake if you're riding it properly and there's only one corner of any difficulty.

You hope to get lucky in a bunch gallop and probably spend most of the race waiting for the three laps to go board. It's all good stuff and if you attack enough it amounts to a decent workout. It's a bit like waiting for Bon Jovi to play Livin' On A Prayer.

Crystal Palace on the other hand is like AC/DC: deafeningly loud, relentless hit after hit. No sneaking off to the back for a rest because if they're not playing Thunderstruck, it's all Dirty Deeds Done Cheap, Back In Black, you name it.

Let's take a trip round the lap...

180 degree left-hand hairpin round tree with metal post exactly where you'll end up if you don't get round.

Sprint out of that and up to a sharp downhill right hander running away down the hill and about the only place you can get any recovery.

Touch of brake then blind, flat out 90 degree left hand round a bush with tree and grass bank to fall down if you get it wrong.

The hill doesn't look much but when you ride round it before the race. Then you hurtle through the left-hand corner at race pace on the first lap and every part of your body laughs in your face at the folly. Big ring, little ring, it all hurts like hell and it's a fight to get on top of the right gear.

Recover across the top section while trying not to let a gap go and then it starts again.

I think I lasted all of three laps before I got shelled out the main bunch and joined a small grupetto that enjoyed its own race within a race up until they pulled out the lapped riders. I think I got lapped at least twice, maybe three times.

I say "I think" because frankly I was a dribbling mess just trying to keep going. And the worst thing is I know I'll be back, work permitting, to take another beating. Damn you Stu for persuading me this is a good idea.

It works out quite well as the ride there and back plus race works out at around a 3 hour ride. Perfect midweek stuff really.

One of the joys of being a London cyclist is that once the weather is good enough, there's a good choice of weekday racing a short pedal from your doorstep.

Tuesday night is the big night with a choice between Crystal Palace and Hillingdon. Palace starts this week (Tuesday 20 April) while Hillingdon started a week earlier. Here's a brief overview of what's on offer.

Crystal Palace

• South London, in the middle of the historic park- the one with the Victorian dinosaurs, athletics stadium and remains of an historic motor racing circuit.
• Run on tarmac park pathways
• Brake, corner, accelerate, repeat
• Separate E/1/2 and 3/4 races
• A test of handling, legs and lungs - one for the strong
• Offers women's racing

Hillingdon

• West London, just past Southall on a windswept piece of parkland.
• Purpose built road circuit
• Nothing technical, barely even need for braking
• Separate E/1/2/3 and 4 races
• Ideal introduction to racing and good exercise in bunch racing - 4th Cat race almost always ends in bunch sprint

The Hog Hill summer league gets under way on Thursday 13 May and there's also LVRC racing available for those who qualify as a "veteran".

If you're looking for more information Londoncyclesport is the indispensable guide to all things that involve bikes and racing in London. And John who runs it is a top bloke.

You'll probably find me hanging about the 4th Cat bunch down at Hillingdon, continuing the longest losing streak in cycling - no points since I started racing in 2006. If I move up to 3rd Cat I've promised I'll treat myself to a trip down to Crystal Palace.

Dave Brailsford in a BBC interview says that the Team Sky project is all about inspiring participation.

But I keep on coming back to the same question I asked back at the Worlds in September: where are the women?

It's not like there aren't great squads that could do with a sponsor and come ready formed. Say, for example, Equipe NÜRNBERGER Versicherung who have just folded due to their new sponsor running away at the last moment.

Take a look at some of the riders on their 2009 team roster and factor in that Nicole Cooke was due to ride for them in 2010.

Actually, let's go back to the basics of a team with a British core: Lizzie Armitstead has moved teams this season, along with Sharon Laws, to join Emma Pooley at Cervelo.

Pooley's pretty happy where she is, but if you say the other two were on the market along with Cooke and all the riders in her now defunct Vision 1 Racing team, then it's not hard to assemble a race-winning roster of a dozen or so riders without having to look too hard.

Throw in a good handful of young British riders who could benefit from the development opportunity with 2012 in mind and it's looking pretty progressive.

But given that both Vision 1 and Nurnberger have gone under for want of a sponsor, perhaps women's cycling is still at an awkward chicken/egg stage where it needs a raised profile to attract committed sponsors but can't raise that profile without committed sponsors.

I've spent the last year or so trying to do something about the profile by writing about women's cycling where I can but it's tough to get race information without being at the races, something no one is currently willing to pay me to do.

One solution would be more races organised alongside the higher profile men's ones, like they do at the Tour of Flanders and Amstel Gold. Then there'd be no excuse for journalists not having access and the ability to cover the races.

So what are your thoughts on the lack of a Team Sky women's squad and how women's cycling can raise its profile?

Like ying and yang, for every list of bad news, there is good. So here's my predictions for good things that might happen this year. (I've updated this to correct a couple of errors and add a couple of links 04/10/2010)

• The arrival of significant new teams will increase interest in cycling outside of the specialist press

Like it or not, Team Radioshack and Team Sky will be the two teams that people will be interested in beyond cycling's core audience.

On the one hand you have the Armstrong factor: a sporting star who has transcended the boundaries of their sport and spilled into the wider public consciousness.

On the other a global corporation trying to push forward on the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) platform as well as looking to acquire a brand association with Britain's most successful Olympic sport.

Then there's BMC, who've signed a host of talent, including World Champion Cadel Evans and will be looking to be this season's Cervelo Test Team by making a big impact in the major races and raising the profile of a bike manufacturer.

The gulf between BMC and Team Sky, both cultural and budget, is striking. BMC are the modern evolution of the "trade team" model whereas Team Sky is the arrival of modern professional sport in cycling's parochial world.

Witness the way they used contract law to ensure that Bradley Wiggins was able to make his much-cherished move and their attitude to rider selection and media management. It has more in common with the management style of Manchester United than Astana.

• Sponsors and broadcasters will wake up to the growth potential of women's cycling

Someone will spot the low investment cost and figure out that Cervelo Test Team and Columbia-HTC have got a pretty good model to build on. I can't be the only person who thinks Team Sky have missed a trick by not having ambitions to put together a women's team around any one of Nicole Cooke, Lizzie Armitstead or Emma Pooley. Same goes for Radioshack with the pool of talent in North America.

• The professional peloton will start to get a little bit less white

Let's face it, for all the increasing internationalism of the top flight calendar, there is an alarming absence of non-white riders in the big teams. Fumy Beppu is one of the few and a favourite in our household.

Daniel Teklehaimanot from Eritrea could be in the vanguard of African riders to break through. He's got a great story - life and career threatened by heart condition - and sixth at this year's Tour de l'Avenir ahead of some highly-rated riders like Stetina and Gallopin say he's got the ability to step up.

It was the Rwandan Adrien Niyonshuti, riding for MTN who garnered particular press interest when he raced alongside Lance Armstrong at the Tour of Ireland and the story of Team Rwanda writes itself.

Eritrea is cycling mad, a legacy of Italian colonialism, and there could be no more fitting country to produce the breakthrough rider. Combined with projects like Kenyan Cyclist and Jock Boyer's marshalling of the Rwandan national team it represents the beginning of something important.

I've got other predictions but I'm always keen to get other people's in the hope that it will provoke debate and bring knowledge to the table.