While winter feels like the right time to hunker down and campaign for better facilities for cyclists, summer is very much about getting out there and doing it. For too long I’d become an armchair pundit, and it was only until several acquaintances with zero interest in cycling bought their first road bikes that I realised it was high time I rode further than the dentist’s.

The newbies have tended to ride on their own, as much out of choice as necessity. For them, riding is about the open road and enjoying their internal monologues. I don’t get it. For me, whether I’m riding to Brill and back by road, or on bridleways in the Chilterns, having a few mates to share the thrills and spills is very much part of the ride.

On long climbs, you’ll always get 15 minutes of head-down introspection, in fact you need it. If you spend long climbs thinking about the incline, your aching legs, which gear to use and your bursting lungs, then any hill will be a struggle.

The secret to getting to the top of a steep hill, and to enjoying the climb, is losing yourself completely in your thoughts. If you’re fitter than me, chatting also works, but I tend to need my breath for the climb. Either way, distraction is the only way to get to the top unscathed.

Riding with others is key to enjoying both on-and off-road riding. It’s about camaraderie and pushing your partners.

Of course, those that take their road biking seriously get into club riding and slipstreaming each other to take the pain out of long, fast rides. But on your own, what’s the appeal of riding 30-plus miles on tarmac shared with buses and trucks, with no one to distract you from the tedium of flat black tarmac rushing under your front wheel?

Off-road, the need to ride with others is as pragmatic as it is psychological This summer we’ve had punctures, broken brakes, a snapped spoke and a snapped chain, and it always seems or be someone else who’s got the right tool to fix it.

Without partners, you could be up the Chilterns without a paddle. Plus, with mountain biking, you really need to ride with at least one other person. If you come off in a remote ditch and break something or end up unconscious – which is a distinct possibility – you’ll need someone to help you.

For the past two months, three of us have gone up to the Chilterns for a gruelling belt around the dusty bridleways followed by a much-needed ale. Bikes and beer: Monday evenings simply do not get any better. Takes me back to when I first fell in love with mountain biking back in the summer of ’95.

The best mountain biking I’ve ever done was a long weekend this summer, staying at hebdenhideaway.co.uk and riding the wild moors around hilly Hebden Bridge. The trails and the views are stunning, the accommodation cool and comfy, the pubs not to be sniffed at.