Tunnel vision

There's nothing like cycling against a strong headwind to get me gritting my teeth. I'm trying to get fit for the RATS Ride from Lincoln to the north-east coast with my cousins next month, and did a three-hour ride at the weekend. The outward leg over the Mendips with a tailwind was fine but the ride back against the wind was gruelling. What made it bearable was cycling through a tunnel on the Strawberry Line, a disused railway that's now a multi-use path. It was a test of blind faith: I couldn't see a thing in the dank darkness apart from the line of solar-powered cat's eyes and trusted that nobody was taking a nap on the floor.