And with Derby being an official demonstration town for Cycling England, there has never been a better time to get on your bike.

At the start of the New Year, there are always plenty of resolutions and good intentions as people aim to get fitter and healthier.

It is really good that the start of a new year can focus people's minds on their health, but if people are too ambitious then all too often the good intentions do not last long.

Because of this, at World Cancer Research Fund we advise people to try to incorporate physical activity into their daily routine because by taking this approach they are much more likely to stick to it. Cycling is a great example of this because as well as a being great for working up a sweat, it is an environmentally friendly way of getting from A to B.

We recommend that for cancer prevention people should be moderately active for at least 30 minutes every day. Then, as fitness improves, they should aim for at least 60 minutes of moderate activity or 30 minutes of vigorous activity every day.

Whether or not cycling is counted as moderate or vigorous activity largely depends on how fast you go. As a general rule, cycling counts as vigorous activity if you are out of breath to the extent that you find it difficult to talk in long sentences.

It is difficult to be exact about how much energy you are using when you cycle. But to give you a rough idea, if you weighed 10 stone and had an average build, you could expect to burn about 445 calories an hour by cycling at between 12 to 14 mph. That's more than playing tennis or having a leisurely swim.

It has been well known for some time that being physically active is important for good health, and it can help prevent a number of chronic diseases. But since the 1990s, the evidence has become increasingly strong that physical activity also protects against cancer.

Experts believe there is convincing evidence that being physically active protects against bowel cancer, and it also probably protects against post-menopausal breast cancer and cancer of the womb lining (endometrium).

So how does physical activity such as cycling reduce cancer risk? One way is by lowering levels of hormones in the body that raise the risk of breast and endometrial cancers.

Regular physical activity also keeps the digestive system working well. Speeding up how long it takes food to move through the digestive system may be associated with a lower incidence of bowel cancer.

As well as helping to protect against cancer in its own right, physical activity can also help you control your weight. This means that physical activity has a kind of double effect, because maintaining a healthy weight is one of the best things you can do for preventing cancer.

In fact, there are six types of cancer where the evidence is convincing that having excess body fat increases your risk. So if you are cycling every day – or doing any other form of physical activity – then you are less likely to become overweight than if you are not physically active.

An hour of physical activity every day might seem daunting, but it really is not as much as it sounds. Remember that you do not have to do it all in one go, so you can space it out throughout the day.

This means that if you are cycling 20 minutes to and from work, then that adds up to 40 minutes a day before you do anything else. So even if you are only going at a leisurely pace, that still counts as two thirds of your recommended daily exercise.

When you think of it like this, cycling instead of taking the bus or car makes a lot of sense. And as well as using the bike around town, it can be really relaxing to take it out into the country at the weekend.

In Derby there are plans for big increases to the number of young people on bikes in the area, so it is a great time to start. After all, this is one New Year's resolution that can bring long-term health benefits.