The point of cycling is not to be better than everyone else. It is to be better than you were yesterday.

Around this time two years ago I went to my local bike shop to purchase a bike.  The first bike i had owned in around 20 years since I last saw an old Peugeot Race bike which had taken me to my summer job of cleaning M&S.

My reason for this was having been convinced to ride the length of the UK for charity and complete Land's End to Jon o Groats.  We achieved this during the summer of 2012 but it was no good, I was bitten by the cycling bug.   Things have not improved since then and I was please to receive three sets of bike cleaning fluid and five cans of WD40 as Christmas presents.

Whilst I thought the cost of getting myself initially kitted out for LEJOG was quite high in the grand scheme of things, I have subsequently bought lots of new kit all with the aim of finding improvement in my performance. Marginal gains being the new holy grail as I justified why I really needed that new jacket/shirt/wheelset/bike...

Now I am not Bradley Wiggins or Chris Froome, so my gains are not measured truly scientifically on VO2 max levels and sustained power outputs but more on times during particular sportives and my new addiction to Strava personal records.  Now as a 38 year old however, finding that I can still improve my physical performance at something is an achievement I gratefully accept and so the search for those gains continues.

Personally, this year I have just one main goal on my bike; To ride the Etape Cymru in September quicker than my brother in law did it last year.  This is an improvement in my time of around 30 mins or nearly 10% which is a reasonable target and would continue the trend from 2012 to 2013 where the time improved by around 55 minutes.  The group of friends I regularly ride with as part of the Man or Muppet Velcro Team (MMVT for short - you can see we don't take ourselves that seriously) also have their own goals that we will all work together to try and achieve as a group.

As I enjoyed the blog on LEJOG I am going to keep track of the fun that we have with MMVT this year.  I will also chart our progress through some interim sportives,  searches for new kit and perhaps another long charity ride should we be able to align our holiday calenders.

 Mostly, it will be to find out the answer to our team question.  Man or a muppet?