The legendary SPAMBiking Winter Challenge Enduro will once again herald the new year with 25, 35 or 50km of Salisbury Plain gruntiness combined with a choice (not made by you) of variously-testing weather. It might be freezing, in which case it’ll be fast-rolling but you might lose some extremities. Or it might be warmer, in which case you won’t die of exposure but the going will be best described as “soft”.

Whichever way you look at it, the Winter Challenge is aptly named. While the course is never the most technical (and in response to generally warmer conditions over the last few years, it’s been incorporating gradually-increasing mileages of all-weather track and Tarmac), if conditions are right there’ll be some wiggly woody bits. That’s not really the point of the Winter Challenge, though – it’s more about getting out there in the depths of winter with several hundred like-minded others. And soup. Soup is important.

The SPAMBiking Winter Challenge Enduro takes place on Sunday 3 January 2010, starting from Erlestoke, Wiltshire. Further details and online entry are available now at www.spambiking.co.uk/events.asp.