Soon after I started riding with Broughton Cycling Group in 2014, I always spotted the same figure riding through Monkston on the way to and from the meet point. We got chatting and I met fellow cyclist and all-round top bloke Neil Arlett.

United by a dislike of hills, we struck up a friendship and soon realised the coincidence that Neil's wife, Ceri, had provided healthcare for both my daughters in 2006 and 2008 during her time as a community health nurse.

In the summer of 2016, when I was in the middle of a month long stay at the John Radcliife following a road crash, came the news that Neil had crashed on a group ride, sustaining significant injuries.

We exchanged messages from our hospital beds and resolved to support each other through a return to cycling, and even made the rash promise to ride a hundred miles. It took another couple of years, but we got there.

Along came Covid, and when the rules permitted, we rode together for mutual support, joined now by Bruce and Jim after the four of us had developed a passion for time trialling (or, more specifically, for the socialising that surrounded time trials).

Our Tuesday rides became a fixture throughout Covid.

In late 2022, after years in the making, Neil and Ceri sold up in Milton Keynes and made their dream move to the south coast near Brighton.

Then, on a regular, unremarkable morning in July 2023, came the tragic news that Ceri had suddenly died following a cardiac arrest.

It's natural to look for ways to support a friend at such a time; but of course there is nothing you can say. So we did the only thing we knew - we arranged to go on a bike ride.

Over a beer at Ceri's funeral, we resolved to ride the British Heart Foundation London-to-Brighton in June 2024, and to do it in Ceri's memory.

It'll be the first time the four of us have ridden together for about two years. Along the way, we're aiming to raise a few quid for the BHF in the hope that, through prevention or cure, families in the future can be spared the pain of the sudden loss of a loved one.