Don’t buy upgrades, ride up grades – Eddy Merckx

When The Cannibal speaks, it’s worth listening. The best way to ride faster is to, well, just get out and ride. There’s no substitute for time in the saddle, training, hard work and experience – you’ll save money and have a load of fun along the way, too.

There are ways to upgrade your engine, too – or at least give yourself the chance to – by investing in a turbo to train when the weather says otherwise or time’s short, or by booking a fitness test to put the building blocks in place for a training plan. If you’ve got a few kilograms to lose, then it’s little use spending hundreds of pounds to save a few grams on a lighter handlebar.

But that won’t stop us and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

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