I’m such a cycle addict I can’t even go without a bike while on a week’s holiday. So what did I do after landing in the Indian Ocean last week after a ten hour flight?

I went straight out and found the nearest cycle hire venue to get back in the saddle.

It’s a real joy cycling on holiday and Reunion Island was no exception. On our cheap city bikes we cycled along the beach and through the harbours seeing as always, more interesting sights than we would on a day out in the car and, of course, more than is possible on foot.

While cycling with the sun beaming down upon us I couldn’t help but notice the similarities between this tiny tropical island and my far away home, Oxford.

For a start it was obvious the trend of the dreaded cable lock seems to have taken over this tiny little island as well.

At only 2,512 square kilometres you would expect bike theft to be low but to see every bike locked with puny pieces of metal and plastic and no regard to what they were safeguarding, which was sometimes thousands of pounds worth of bike, seemed foolish.

But just as in Oxford there were also some bikes that really didn’t deserve to be locked up. Albeit there were not as many abandoned bikes in Reunion as in Oxford but there was definitely a market for the BSO (meaning bike shaped object for those lucky enough to have not encountered one).

Reunion being an official overseas French department meant the Decathlon giant had certainly cornered the market, but mercifully not everyone was running these cheap mass produced bikes although my cycle hire place was a fan and I fitted into the local scene on a rather odd shaped Decathlon city bike.

Just like Oxford, in Reunion, traffic easing seemed to be a priority and a motorway had recently been added to the Island to ease the pressure on the small coastal roads that link the capital and airport to the port town.

With building still ongoing and dubbed “the most expensive road in France” due to special features that will withstand hurricane winds and large waves you can really get a sense of how the locals rely on their cars to cross the Island.

The prevailing memory of this island was the sight of a peloton passing, with the enthusiasm for Le Tour de France, these groups of riders were a common sight even on some very fast dual carriageways which surprisingly had a cycle lane in honour of them.

Cycling as sport is favoured on Reunion and thoroughly catered for but unfortunately domestic cycle lanes were severely lacking just like at home in Oxfordshire.

Being thousands of miles from Oxford and seeing the same issues showed me how far cycling as transport has yet to come.

I’m just glad my cycling addiction forced me onto a bike, the experience was wonderful despite the lack of cycling infrastructure.