Heather Fell, Olympic silver medallist, writes about her life in the media and sports world.

IT has been a battering weekend for the Westcountry in both the weather and the sport.

I stupidly thought that we had left the worst of the winter weather behind us after one of the wettest Januarys on record, how wrong I was.

It was impossible to hide from the storms that battered all of the South West last weekend, the wind and rain were relentless for the second weekend in a row. The previous weekend I gave in and resorted to mountain biking, a form of exercise that is designed for such conditions; this weekend, however, I was determined to fight it. I headed out for an ambitious ride on my light carbon framed road bike, my mind set on proving the storms could not hamper my training any longer, sadly I lost.

Two punctures later as I was starting to lose the feeling in my digits I admitted defeat and turned my back on the gusting wind, racing home to thaw out. On Sunday I opted for the static spin bike, what a novelty it was to overheat whilst sitting on a bicycle.

The sun also refused to shine on Westcountry rugby as both Bath and Exeter lost at home in their respective matches. Last year’s Premiership finalists Bath have been struggling at the bottom of the table most of this season. They faced local rivals Gloucester, a team they had not lost to for several seasons. Yet frustratingly for them it was another nail in the coffin after an exciting Friday night derby saw Gloucester win the battle.

Exeter Chiefs faced current Premiership leaders Saracens, with the first chance of the season to knock them off that top spot. Having not lost at home for a record 13 months it was made all the more painful as they could not quite hold off the visitors in the second half, losing just 14-11.

It was not quite all doom and gloom though, thanks to an encouraging win for the England rugby team against Scotland at the start of the Six Nations tournament.