No petrol problems for cycling-mad Harry Dunlop as he lives it up in lycra

The fuel crisis may prompt a few more people to take to the road on push bikes, but one Lambourn face is already smitten with two wheels – and if the village can cope with a topless Jamie Osborne showjumping at its annual open day a few years ago, it has probably accepted a lycra-clad Harry Dunlop.

Dunlop was bitten by the cycling bug a few years ago on a trip to the Somme battlefields in northern France and has since completed a handful of long-distance hauls, boosting his physical and mental health as well as securing time for some inner thoughts – something a busy Flat trainer and father of two sports-mad boys might normally find hard to do.

"The exercise, obviously, makes you feel better, but it does give you time to think," says the trainer, who has set up a syndicate, Velocity Racing, to combine his hobby and trade.