To use a term that would infuriate evolutionary biologists – we’re existing outside of our ‘design life’. Which leaves fundamental questions unanswered for those of us who not only seek to survive into middle-age but also to perform into middle-age and beyond. On a Borg Scale this would still be quite low — maybe 12 or 13, where 6 is lying on a bed reading a book and 20 is full effort.

Cycling has seen a participation uplift unprecedented in any sport, especially in the 40, 50 and 60-year-old age groups.

I think even Eddy Merckx agreed with that sentiment after racing there in 1977 (he lost to Sid Barrass). Nature did not anticipate that the human being would need to live past, shall we say, the age of 30, and therefore there was no reason to prepare, or worse, select against it.

An ever-growing number of us are determined to scale the highest peaks of elite physical fitness into middle-age and beyond. Indeed, if you take a strictly gene-centric view, there’s actually a selective advantage to me losing a sprint for survival against a younger close family member, so they can survive and propagate shared genes through their offspring. If you do fall off, your injuries will often be no worse than a moment of embarrassment or cuts and bruises. I had a serious dehydration experience about a month ago, literally while I was reading the chapter on heart conditions. A recent study by BioMed Central found that just over a third of UK adults in their forties had two or more underlying and chronic health issues, such as high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, arthritis and so on.In ‘Food for Sport’, we ponder how our nutritional requirements alter as we get older, but as we still endeavour to exercise at the highest level possible. If a problem is tackled early, or during its acute phase, removal of the underlying cause is enough to instantly deal with the pain, and the problem goes away. My concern when my clients ride too much indoors is that they are going too hard too much of the time. And underpinning this startling mismatch is a fundamental misunderstanding about how the human body works, and therefore improves. We also examine the first principles surrounding these miraculous machines – how did the bike evolve in the first place?

One Saturday, almost a quarter of a century ago, I raced at the Eastway criterium circuit in East London. My passion for cycling and competition pervades my every thought and is a prism through which I view the world.

In Chapter Two, It Is About the Bike, the author lays out a brilliant argument for how the UCI thwarted the evolution of the bicycle and credited it with its present state of suspended animation in Victorian design. Brian was warm, generous and sincere off the circuit, but a caged fighter in the heat of criterium combat. As I remember, the only other ‘London’ rider in the break was Garry Baker (but I don’t trust my memory in this instance for reasons that will become clear). If you want to be a great endurance athlete, most of your training should be at a level where you can have a fairly normal conversation with the person next to you, or sing a whole verse of a song without stopping and gasping for breath.