The weather is warming up, the roads were dry and the sun was shining. What better excuse than to dust the bikes down.

After a couple of manic weeks of school holidays, my fridge found itself with the detritus of several family guests not singing from the same shopping list hymn sheet. What was one to do with the remnants of several varieties of cheese, all of which were in the ‘mild’ category by my standards and thereby unlikely to make it onto a cheese board as the stars of the show.

A couple of jars of chutney enthusiastically purchased at Christmas under the miss-guided principle that more choice was always better, especially when it came to cheese condiments, were also still taking up more than their fair share of shelf space. Alas, the fact that a good cheese needs nothing but a few hours at room temperature and a good knife was forgotten at the vital moment in Christmas food shopping and so here I was faced with a vast quantity of ‘real ale chutney’ and March only just around the corner.

Then there was the inevitable pile of rapidly drying bread.

Never one to complain, the penny dropped that as well as being ill-prepared for a winter bike ride as regards clothing, the cupboards were also bereft of any so-called ‘sports nutrition’. We needed cycling fuel if we were going to make it through the first alpine climbs of the year, what better fuel than cheesy, chutney bread. A sort of ploughman’s, packaged up neatly into one easy to transport package. I’m sure that’s exactly what Chris Froome would have wanted, given half the chance.

It didn’t quite solve the problem of having no cycling gloves but cheese can warm you up in any weather. Tomato, Brie & Chutney Picnic loaf was perfect.

Read the recipe here or watch the highlights below.