ON DOCTOR'S ORDERS

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

- Josephine Perry

Meet the doctors

PROFESSOR CHRIS OLIVER, RETIRED ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON

Endurance rider who once rode 3,415 miles across the USA with his daughter

DR DAVID SPITZER, GP

Recent convert to cycling who enjoys weekend rides with his friends

STEPHEN EASTAUGH-WARING, ORTHOPEDIC & TRAUMA SURGEON

Member of Rapha Cycle Club who is happiest climbing hills in the Dolomites or, failing that, the Yorkshire Dales

DR JAMES CHAN, EMERGENCY MEDICINE DOCTOR

Real-world rider who uses his bike mainly for commuting to hospital

DR NICKY KEAY, SPORTS ENDOCRINOLOGIST

Often found doing laps of Richmond Park chasing her cat-one racer son

ALAN CURRIE, CONSULTANT PSYCHIATRIST

Happiest on a long Sunday ride in the countryside of northern England

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.