Some time ago I was approached by a journalist working on a piece about an old bike racer. He wanted to talk about how good the rider in question had been, which was easy to agree with because they’d been very good indeed. He also wanted help working out how good they’d have been today – would they still be as dominant?
This has become a very familiar line of enquiry, for riders from Eddy Merckx, to Beryl Burton, to Alf Engers, and I’m aware that since I’ve written about both cycling history and performance, it’s something I’m going to get asked about. It would be reasonable to say that if I can’t help with that, I probably can’t help with anything.
