LAST week we spent three days cycling in Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire on bikes we hired in Oxford.

Before returning our bikes on Saturday night we stopped at Oxford Covered Market for a spot of tea, leaving our locked bikes outside in Market Street.

We emerged 20 minutes later to find both bikes gone. However, an observant young Portuguese man had seen two suspicious characters unlocking the locks very quickly.

He then raced off in the direction they had gone with us behind in hot pursuit. We caught a fat woman wheeling my wife´s bike and she then fled. But we did not find the man.

However, a very helpful young English cyclist set off and scoured central Oxford in search of my bike. But to no avail.

I would like to commend the public-spiritedness of these two people in particular and all of those members who did their best to help us.

Cornmarket Street is maybe not the smartest place to park a bike. But I think we were dealing with professionals.

MICHAEL FERGUS
Sandakerveien, Oslo, Norway