to kind of get out on the bike and I think that’s why a lot of people love it. And I remember, you know, sort of starting out when I think, yeah, the first time I ever did it, I was driven to Warmley, left the car in the carpark there and then rode to Bath and back. And I remember being in so much pain at the end! [laughs] And I remember seeing, like, when you’re approaching that crossing by the Warmley waiting room and you could see it, and it was just like, “oh my God, the car is just there, it’s gonna be so good!”. And so going from that to this being like a sort of, sometimes if I just feel like I want to get out and ride quickly for a couple of hours, it’s just like, I just nip out to Bath and back and then and then get on with my day. It’s this path has probably seen quite a lot of progress in that respect. And when I first started riding on a drop bar bike, which I found terrifying. You know, I first did it here because it was easy to stop. You know, it’s all flat, and you could see where you’re going. And there’s nothing unexpected. And the same when I when first clipped in, I came down here with my clippy shoes, swapped shoes, swapped pedals and then just like kept going sort of stopping at every lamp post and saying, “when I get to that lamp post, I’m going to unclip and stop”, “When I get to that lamp post…”

Dulce: Did you fall?

Mildred: No, I didn’t! I think, I genuinely think, it’s because I did it that way. Like I just embedded it and it became easy. Not saying I’ve never fallen off, I have, it just took a few years for it to happen. I mean, it took a while for it to happen, but it did happen. [laughs]

…I mean, it relates to many, many aspects of it, because it’s, it’s my job. I am a writer and I write for a cycling publication. So, I write news about cycling and I write “how to” kind of features about cycling, I write reviews of cycling products. And you know, that involves having to go out and cycling for work.

Dulce: Sounds horrible.

Mildred: Yeah, it’s awful you know. I just like dread it every night… [laughs] No, it’s great. And I’m really very grateful for it. And yeah, so like, it’s a big part of my work. And it was a kind of a career move that meant that I had to actually really embed myself in the industry to even really just kind of get into… sorry...in the middle of something… yeah, like I had to really kind of embed myself in the industry just to kind of get my foot in because it’s not easy. So there’s that. And then my, my love of cycling actually is very tied up in my relationship, which is a bit weird. But it was my partner when I met him. It was him who got me into cycling in the first place. Yeah, I was commuting at that point. But it was just a way to get from A to B, where he got me cycling to Bath and then going further afield and trying new types of bikes to try and mountain biking. And he’s, he’s a really big cyclist, and it forms a huge part of what we do together. So not to say that if I stopped cycling, we wouldn’t have a relationship, but it would be a change. [laughs] It would be very changed. But yeah, that that marks like a really big part of my life, I guess.

And, and then also the, probably about 95% of my friendship group come from cycling as well. Because I, very shortly after, I started seeing my partner, and he encouraged me to go and volunteer at the Bristol Bike Project. And so like learning how to refurbish bikes. I went there with no knowledge at all, had no idea how a bike was put together. I really genuinely just went because I wanted to hang out with him. And it turned into a real love that I never thought I would have.

Dulce: For the bike or the boyfriend?