Sorry, Jim, I won’t fix it for you to marry me

I've met Jimmy Savile twice now. He's from Otley where I grew up and where my family still live and he's a bit of a figure around there — you often see him going for a run.

I remember him running past me one day and saying "hello gorgeous" and recently I bumped into him at a charity event and this time he asked me to marry him.

I didn't have a reply, so I just laughed it off. Anyway, he's a funny character and was one of the few celebrities at the event I recognised. There were a lot of legends of cycling there and, since I'm pretty new to the sport, I'm ashamed to admit I didn't recognise a lot of them.

I was introduced to them as though I should have known who they were but, hopefully, I got away with just saying "nice to meet you". Jimmy, though, was someone I did recognise, although I didn't write to him when I was growing up — Jim'll Fix It was before my time!

I was hoping to be in the Cayman Islands right now where the Team Garmin men's squad are having their pre-season get-together but, unfortunately, the women's team didn't get invited.

We've been told it's because the sponsors of the event had already been set up before the women's team (Garmin-Cervelo) had even been thought of, so sadly we missed out which is a blow.

It could be worse, though. We've got a training camp in Spain next month and I actually flew to the country on Sunday for a week's training with another team-mate, Lucy Martin, a fellow British cyclist.

Recently it has just been too cold for training in England, so we booked an easyJet flight and a cheap villa near Malaga for a week's intense work.

We're roughly doing four hours on the bike as well as some core stability work every day — sit-ups, push-ups — not very much fun but it has to be done.

I can't confess to doing anything particularly exciting in the evening as we're too knackered from all the training. However, we've been able to pick up some English TV channels, which is a bonus, as we can keep up with X Factor.

Come to think of it, Wagner reminds me a bit of Jimmy. I find it staggering he was kept in for so long by people voting because they hate the programme. I just hope Rebecca wins — she's clearly the best.

Back to the cycling, the World Cup track season begins in Melbourne tomorrow but I'm not due to compete until Beijing next month. I met with British track officials to ask to be excused from the meets in Australia and Colombia as I've had a really full season.

I was in danger of having raced either on the track or the road for 12 continuous months so, thankfully, they agreed the break would serve me better. And anyway, I'm confident in my ability that I'll be able to gain the Olympic qualification points at my two World Cup events and the World Championships.

Lizzie Armitstead is sponsored by adidas, the official sportswear supplier to the London 2012 Games. Visit adidas.com/london2012