Back to the future

Your columnist writes a letter to his 13-year-old self to reassure him cycling will get better after a miserable 80-mile round trip to his Auntie Annie's caravan

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Boy, have I got news for you.

First of all, Eddy Merckx, that grainy, handsome figure you get to see a few minutes of on World Of Sport each Saturday in July and who you want to be when you grow up - well, he’s no longer the best there ever was. Another rider, from a country that didn’t even exist back then, will rewrite the history books.

And those weekly few minutes of TV highlights from the Tour de France, presented by the magnificently coiffured Dickie Davies? Well, in the future you're going to get live coverage of not just the Tour de France but loads of other races that you didn’t even know existed. And you'll be able to watch them all on a device that fits in your pocket and can also be used to order pizza and taxis.

Anyway, the reason I'm writing is I know you've just cycled from your home in Liverpool to your Auntie Annie’s caravan in North Wales on a three-speed racing bike wearing jeans, trainers and an anorak, and had to get the train most of the way home because you hadn't realised it was 40 miles away and that she might not be in.