There are two sorts of cyclist – those who understand the numbers and those who don’t. I’m not adding another category to make a cheap joke because that would be comedy, and this is a serious matter.
A brief history of numbers in cycling, then. Once upon a time there were only two numbers. One was distance – how far you’d ridden in a day, a week, a month, a year or a lifetime. Every rider used to know these numbers. Many can still tell you their lifetime mileage, updated to this morning.
The other number was the gearing. Firstly, in a time of single-fixed, it mattered more. And secondly, well, it was the only other number anyone could think of. So if you were a ‘numbers’ rider, you had…
