It’s happened again.

I’ve been ambushed by the trail pixies who in the past have managed to separate me from my bike lights, last week caused me to unclip spectacularly painfully on the Land Rover descent and now have run off with my cycling glasses.

This isn’t the first time I’ve managed to lose my glasses, nor am I the only one who has been forced to consider his cycling glasses as objects on which we only have a passing claim to ownership. Grasshopper.

Last night’s ride across the North Downs was an oddity, lethally slippy in places where rain has brought the customary greased eel feel to the chalk and clay tracks that make up the majority of our riding in Surrey. In other places it appeared that rain had been but a rumour, leaving us to approach each section with an even greater element of doubt about the outcome than normal.

There was also damp in the air, and the combination of moisture with the cool night air was enough to cause my Madison D’Arcs to mist up frustratingly. So, I took them off and hung them on my Camelbak straps. Which was fine, until I arrived at the pub and discovered my inevitable loss.

Trail Pixies again like I said. There’s probably a healthy stash of previously loved cycling glasses knocking around somewhere that’s keeping someone in a comfortable living, but it’s not me. I find myself wondering if the fact that the glasses are cheap makes me not look after them so much or if I would have only have suffered a bigger loss if I’d bought the Specialized ‘reactolites’ I’ve been thinking about all summer. I’m not sure but don’t want to take the chance on a more expensive pair to find out.

At least I have something to look for when we visit the 2007 London Cycle Show next Friday.