“I’ve nailed my cadence. Not that silly spinning you did in the Southern Sportive, but more of a Cameron Meyer/Dan Martin sort of thing.” Thus quoth Dave “Diesel Quads” Arthur this morning apropos nothing much, although I did prompt something of a response by claiming to have enjoyed my ride in.

Cadence, or how to get it higher, has been a regular conversational topic between us for a couple of weeks, ever since I announced a plan to get mine up over 100rpm by the start of next season. The shine on DA’s otherwise fine form this year has been slighty dulled – in his view, seemingly – by a steadily slowing cadence that has altered in inverse proportion to the gradual growth of his quads.

Hoping to provoke him into doing something about it, I embarked on a programme of twiddling that reached its zenith during the first hour of the 2010 Southern Sportive, during which I must have turned each pedal at least 6600 times – as I vainly attempted to hold the wheel of Juan “Juannosaurus Rex” Christen and his eventual nemesis, Diesel Quads himself.

So impressive was my cadence that DA must have tried something of the sort himself, for at one point he obseved that “this fast pedalling really hurts the calves.” Shortly afterwards he saw sense, geared up and cleared off with Juan, leaving me to my windmill impression and moderate road speed.

Still, the purpose of the exercise is not to adopt at all times a cadence of 120rpm plus but to prevent one’s regular and, with luck, rapid cadence from slowing up. And, if nothing else, it has got DA thinking.