Go for a ride, stop for a coffee to talk about the issues of the day then head home for some sex. If Harvard University is to be believed, and why shouldn’t they be, this is the secret to happiness.



Through cycling you can kill the first two birds with one stone – most rides are dominated by conversation – which could lead to the third.



The research also found that people were less happy when their minds wandered. So basically we’re happiest when living in the moment and being fully absorbed in what we’re doing.



On the weekend I rode the Ventou Mt Macedon Challenge and after the event I did my own post ride analysis to see if my focus group of one - me - could verify Harvard’s finding.



Was I happy when riding 130km, over the top of Mt Macedon, accompanied by appalling conditions that saw almost the average monthly rainfall on the day of the ride?



As a disclaimer I’m desperately unfit. Yes I know every cyclist on the planet has hardly done any training and is always a little underdone but this time I’m serious.



So at the start of the ride my mind was only focused on survival. I had a simply strategy – eat as much as possible, drink as much as possible, sit on at any opportunity and stick to the 39x27 for the climb.



At the bottom of the climb itself I punctured. This was a blessing in disguise as it prevented my ego from trying to stay with the leaders up the climb, allowing me to ride at my own pace, in my own little world of pleasant suffering.



Tick one for the Harvard happiness findings. I wasn’t distracted by chores that needed to be done at home, bills that needed to be paid or phone calls that needed to be returned. My mind was in the moment.



Once over the top of the climb there was barely a flat stretch of road and I was so wet my wrinkled hands looked like I'd been in the swimming pool all day.



At this point I needed a little group to work with if I was ever going to see the finish line in one piece.



This is where conversation came into it’s own in my pursuit of happiness.



Thankfully I hooked up with David Petrie, who I’d never met before, and Richard “the V8” McCorkell, who was one of the strongest riders on the Australian domestic circuit in the 1980s.



Working turns with David and Richard, we told a few lies about how well we were going to distract ourselves from the conditions and the relentless terrain.



Coming into one of the feed zones there was a sign showing 46km to go. ‘I can do this on my ear,’ I thought. I even stepped up the tempo a little.



Then it dawned on me that the longest ride I’d done in the past few months was about 45km.



It was a long final 46km but eventually I crawled across the finish line. Another tick for Harvard’s research – the conversation made it a pleasant experience.



For the entire 130km I’d lived in the moment, enjoyed the company and was genuinely happy. The Harvard scientists are onto something.



As for the third component in the Harvard findings......well, by the time I got home I was too exhausted to cram all the elements of the study into the one day. Plus I’m married with a nine-month old daughter so sex is kind of a distant memory.



So, thanks Harvard University, we have another legitimate excuse to go for a ride and take a long coffee stop at the end.



