A few years back I went for a ride with former pro Sean Yates. It was a ride notable for the unceasing rain, and for a voice in my head telling me that if you’re riding with a top-10 Paris-Roubaix finisher, you don’t complain about the rain.
On a smallish, steepish hill, he dropped to the small chainring. This surprised me; not a fortnight earlier I’d read that Sean had never used the small chainring in the UK, because the hills weren’t big enough.
