On doctor’s orders: 10 rules to keep healthy on the bike during winter

How to stay safe and healthy on the bike this winter – what would a cycling doctor do? Josephine Perry, herself a doctor of psychology, calls up her colleagues to find out

As I sat in the waiting room of my doctor’s surgery, dreading having my worries dismissed because I was there with a cycling injury, the sight of my GP’s bike helmet hanging on the back of the door instantly dissolved my fears. I hoped that, as a cycling medic, she would ‘get’ why cycling mattered and sympathise with my frustration at being sidelined from the sport I love, while doing her best to help me back on the bike. And she did.

Doctors seem to love cycling. The Whitfield Surgery in Dundee, Scotland, has just bought its own fleet of electric bikes for home visits. Bike racks outside hospitals are rammed, and when time-trial start sheets used to include titles, a surprising number of names were prefixed “Dr”. So why not make the most of our sport being full of health experts?

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