Yesterday I prayed to the lingerie gods (that is, asked on Twitter) for a bra that I could ride my bike in. After a long cycle through cobbledy Amsterdam on my scarcely roadworthy (but so beautiful) bike on Tuesday, my violently jiggled boobs hurt and my trusty Panache Tango plunge – usually my most reliable and practical day bra – had taken an premature trip to bra heaven. May she rest in peace.

Loathe to lose any more of my precious (and limited, for now) lingerie, I decided I needed a bra with added suspension: a  normal and fashionable bra that gave you additional support for moderate activity without you having to wear your sports bra down to the pub. Alas Twitter could not help me. I shuddered to think how many more lives The Bra Destroyer (AKA Cecil, above left) would claim.

And then I made a tremendous discovery. I don’t usually associate bras that give you eye-popping cleavage with support, but last night my Freya Deco avenged the death of its Panache friend.  Cycling in heels at rush hour and unsteadier than ever, my boobs felt fine.  Because it pushes the boobs up in the cup, the top of the breast can comfortably move and absorb the road shocks – like a wobbling jelly – without the painful judders I experienced in a less structured underwired bra. My boobs were comfortable and supported and safe and sound from Cecil’s non-existent suspension and the uneven Amsterdam roads.  And because the fit is good, it can do all of this without even needing to readjust on dismount.

I liked the Freya Deco before, but now I love it. It’s wonderfully contradictory: feminine and sexy, but practical and – it would seem – a little bit boisterous and sporty. And that is, I think, what underwear should be: something that simply enables you to get on and do and be all that you want to. Even if what you want to do is as contradictory as cycling stupidly fast to dinner in a push-up bra and heels…

It’s also just been released in delicious pistachio, which I think I need immediately. Not only is it a tremendous bra, but don’t you think that colour matches my bike…?