Ah, you poor thing! Don't break anything else - it's not worth it!!

What I do (and I'm about your age) is ride with a female - she's 10 years younger and we seem pretty compatable ability wise (boosts my ego when I can be faster than her too!) Sometimes we ride with guys from our tri club (the older ones!!) and talk about the pace up front so everyone is happy.

My husband either rides with his mates and then does some rides with me and is happy to ride at our pace. Where we ride is a cycling mecca so he often tears off after packs and chases them down (gets his cycling kicks doing that ) and then either waits, or rides further and picks us up on his way back after we have turned around.

If you have a super competitive guy, I guess you have a problem but my man reckons he's happy to ride with us and perve at my bum After 28 years of marriage, am I gunna complain about that?!!

It's a bit of give and take - if he can't discipline himself to ride at your pace sometimes, then get yourself a gal to ride with. After all, isn't it about togetherness and encouragement?

We also mountain bike and we start our ride together but follow different routes and see who can get home the quickest. My head got a bit big recently when he said 'gee I didn't expect you back for a while, you were fast' I do a fair bit of gym work lately and I find that has strengthened me and my 'climbing' ability-not that I ever had much anyway