THE wonderful thing about this adventure is that I can indulge in other hobbies at the same time.

Collecting wildlife, for instance.

I have spent the last ten minutes trying to extricate the fly that has inadvertently taken up residence behind my left eyeball, while simultaneously removing all traces of flying paraphenalia from my teeth.

But that’s just a small part of the joy, heartache, exultation and frustration that comes with a hobby/sport that provokes so much reaction and offers no end of satisfaction.

Much has been written and said – mainly in the pages of the Echo and its bolshier little sister the Echo website – about the cyclists who ride along what is lovingly referred to as ‘The Prom’.

After discovering I am allergic to uphill slopes, I’ve been using the lovely flat 14-mile round trip as an integral part of my training regime.

I’m fairly easy to spot in the evenings as I am one of the few observing the speed limit – I was doing 9.9 miles per hour officer – and I am the only one singing Bruce Springsteen songs embarrassingly loudly with my MP3 player.

In truth, it’s actually very difficult riding a bike like mine that’s built for speed under ten miles per hour without balancing a sack of cement across the crossbar.

But it’s all about care, not speed.

Even a novice like me knows that the amount of care you have to take is directly proportionate to the number of people sharing the prom with you.

One hot Bank Holiday Monday evening, I’m weaving carefully amidst the pedestrians, dogs, kids and other cyclists with not a hope of exceeding the speed limit.

But on a cloudy Tuesday evening, there’s barely a soul about and I’m head-butting flies every few minutes as the speedo I’ve somehow managed to work out how to use registers something slightly above the ‘legal’ limit.

Of course, there are a few nutters around who think they’re Lance Armstrong and I guess there’s not a great deal you’re going to do to persuade them that the whole of Dorset is not their cycling playground.

I was actually on Jeremy Vine’s Radio 2 show (Wednesday, June 10) talking about the issue of speeding cyclists on the prom, but I still can’t work out what’s best for all concerned.

The speed limit’s pointless if it can’t be adequately enforced.

The prom ban in July and August is, I have to admit, a real result for cyclists given that if you were mad enough to try it, you could legally be sharing the prom with up to 100,000 beachgoers on the sunny weekends in May and June.

But crowds of people and bikes just don’t mix and I’m guessing that it may take one serious accident for the councils locally to come down a lot harder.