I cycled to work four days last week - the most commutes I've done.

I was too unnfit to do more than three days a week at first.

But now I could handle five days, work commitments allowing.

I tried to quantify the benefits of that week.

My commute is around eight miles each way and using precise and accurate research tools (i.e. whatever Internet sites came up first in google) I found that in those four days of cycling I:

* burned 2,800 calories, or almost six pork pies* saved £7.2 in petrol money, or almost eight pork pies* saved 14.3kg in CO2 emissions - there's no direct pork pie comparison for this. Maybe a methane figure is needed?

So there you go - cycling not only gives you the funds for pork pies, but then burns them off and leaves you with change.

What more excuse do you need to get on your bike?