I am not sure if it is a facet of old age, but I do like a bit of routine,  I am a creature of habit. I take great comfort in familiarity.

“If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it” is my motto.

Weetabix – We do have them with milk!

This routine extends to the preparation for a bike ride. Everything is organised the night before, the alarm goes, I get up, get dressed, have Weetabix for breakfast, then ride my bike. Occasionally I may have a bowl of Sultana Bran, but the routine is always the same.

So today’s decision to have bircher muesli for breakfast was a very left field decision. It’s what Chris Froome apparently has, there was a recipe on social media extolling its virtues. So conscious of needing to mix things up, given that I can’t really travel with over 100 Weetabix to France,  last night I made a batch.

Magical Chris Froome Muesli

It’s not cheap, after I paid for all the ingredients I probably should have paid a little bit extra to have Chris Froome come and feed it to me, but you need to invest in your health.

Robyn is a serious Weetabix consumer, if she doesn’t get her fix in the morning the rest of the day can be very hit and miss. But she also said she was up for the challenge, “if it works for Froomey then it will work for me”, was her approach.

So this morning at 4.50am, we were stood in the kitchen, dressed in our lycra making short work of the muesli. It tasted fine to me, a little exotic, but I was focused on the magical wholesome ingredients that were going to make me ride like a champion. I finished my first bowl and went for a second, yet strangely Robyn refused.

All was right with the world. It’s been warm here in Sydney and it was 25c as we set off into the inky dark of the morning. After a big day on the bike yesterday the legs felt tired but powered by the Magical Muesli I felt better than I could have expected.

We headed up out of North Sydney and onto Military Road, one of the main drags out of Sydney to the Northern Beaches. It was nice and quiet at this time in the morning so we could ride side by side.

I looked over at Robyn, “All good?”, I enquired.

“Not really”, was the blunt reply

“Why what’s wrong? Legs struggling after yesterday?”

“Legs are fine, that muesli had raisins in it, didn’t it?”, she asked somewhat accusingly.

“Yes, it’s part of the magical mix that makes you feel like a champion and allows you to ride for days”, came my reply. Well in my head it sounded something like that.

“Well they are going to be repeating for days, I don’t like raisins.”

So at 5.15 am on Sunday morning, the Mrs and I entered into a very heated discussion on the merits of raisins, how much effort goes into making muesli and how if the other party is not happy then they should bloody well look after themselves. On reflection maybe discussion is the wrong word, one-way rant would be a better description.

Once I shut up I could see that Robyn was smiling.

“What’s funny”, I demanded to know.

“If all we have to argue about is a few raisins then we are probably in a good space”, she replied.

She had a point, a very good point.  I apologised.

It is a good sign, as we increase the training and spend more hours on the bike we are in a good place. I’ll just remember not to put raisins in the Magical Chris Froome Muesli and she has agreed not to even suggest that we change anything else in our cycling routine.

That would be grounds for divorce.

With or without raisins it is rather good.