Like many kids in the 1980’s I went everywhere and did everything on my bike. BMX was at its height, and Mountain Biking was yet to take off in a big way, but from an early age I showed an unhealthy interest in road racing and Lycra shorts. After a very short and undistinguished career as a junior with my school cycling club came the unfortunate realisation that despite devouring every training tip that Winning Magazine and Cycling Weekly published, my chances of becoming the next Robert Millar were becoming increasingly unlikely.

Work, beer and girls all distracted and helped me get over my disappointment over the next decade or so, but I never quite stopped riding. A mountain bike had replaced my faithful Vitus 979 and my hirsute legs never saw a razor. This was the innocent time when long travel suspension meant 80mm, Steve Peat rode cross country races and Trail centres were a gleam in the Forestry Comissions accountants eyes.

Fast forward to today and as a forty something I’ve acquired much to my wife’s exasperation several more bikes than I can really usefully ride, partly due to just liking the process of acquiring and building and then fiddling with them, and partly due to the increasingly desperate hope that by improving/changing/getting another widget my riding and fitness will also magically improve. I suspect like thousands of others I’m clinging to the hope that my lowly ranking on local Strava segments is entirely due to not having that vital £2000 aero carbon fibre bar and stem set up fitted……….