It's Bike-To-Work day today, and if all went according to plan, I arrived at Mountain Avenue this morning on two wheels.

I know it's not something to crow about; lots of people do it every day, but for me, it was a big step forward.

I tried it once two months ago and hated it.

For years, I'd dreamed about getting fit, saving gas money and being ecologically holy. For years, I'd envied my kids, who cycle to school six months of the year whether they like it or not.

It makes sense for busy people, I'd always argued -- especially sedentary people who sit in front of screens or in meetings all day. Why drive to the gym before work to ride a stationary bike when you can ride a real bike to work and skip the gym altogether?

But reality has a way of ruining a perfectly good fantasy.

Reality last time started with a heart-stopping encounter on Portage Avenue with eight lanes of rush-hour traffic; up a bleak, rutted Wall Street to Notre Dame, then McPhillips, jostling for elbow room with cars going 60 kilometres an hour and faster; under a dark and pungent Logan Street underpass.

Every once in a while, just to make it a little more unpleasant, the unseasonably hot south wind whipped up the winter's leftover road salt and crud and sandblasted it into my face.

All in all, it was an ugly ride.

I've cycled on holidays -- in France, in the Netherlands and, last September, the family cycled Le P'tit Train du Nord -- a fabulous 200-kilometre bike trail built on an abandoned train line that winds its way up to the Laurentians.

We saw hundreds of ruddy-faced, Lycraed cyclists speeding along that route and many more-laid-back folks out enjoying a short trek or a lunch-hour picnic.

These are urban bike trails, too, which bring hundreds of cyclists into the cities every day on wide, smooth asphalt or crushed gravel. Like Winnipeg's expansive riverside bike trails, they are well-used and well-loved.

Montreal itself has more than 600 kilometres of bike trails. Winnipeg has about 100.

My kids think cycling is the only way to travel; close to the ground, slow enough to really see and smell and touch where you are. It seems to press more of the place you're visiting into your bones.

Our holidays have often made me wish that the city would embrace its lovely flat terrain, show some vision and build a decent urban bike-trail system.

Yes, there are at least five months a year when cycling here is as much fun as toboganning in July, but if we celebrate winter with ice rinks and skating trails, why not embrace the summer in like-minded fashion?

Last week, I ran into an old friend who cycles yearround. She looked 10 years younger than the last time I'd seen her; lithe and fit and full of energy.

I told her I had tried to bike to work, but explained that my route was just too industrial and gritty.

She looked puzzled.

Apparently, she takes almost the same route north as I do, only it's a whole lot farther -- 30 kilometres in total from south Winnipeg to the Maples. And she loves it.

It took me a few days to figure out where I'd gone wrong. But today -- and until city council builds a better commuter system for cyclists -- I offer some hard-learned tips on how to get to work on a bike and not completely hate it.

Change your route. Forget about the congested urban thoroughfares. Take back roads and lanes. They're more interesting, more fun, and a lot less scary.

Change your routine. I left earlier today to avoid the morning rush hour, and read the papers at the office, instead.

Change your perspective. This is not just exercise and it's not just a commute. It's both. So if it takes longer to get somewhere that's a good thing.

Now if one person can be inspired by one person's example, maybe city hall should take a look at the hundreds of shiny examples out there today on two wheels -- and help Winnipeg change for the better, too.

Margo Goodhand is editor of the Free Press.