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When I worked in a bike shop I spent many happy hours sat in the mechanic’s (slightly grubby) workshop. I watched and asked questions while eating my lunch or hiding from customers.

That was during my formative years in cycling, and I learnt a huge amount. Before that I was useless with anything mechanical. Once, to clean my chain,

I split a link and submerged it in white spirit. I didn’t realise this would weaken the link and completely dry out the chain. And I didn’t know how to correctly loop it back through the jockey wheels either.

So having put it back together I had to work out why I couldn’t get the rear wheel back in.

I then had to break it again, weaken another link and thread it back through.

But a couple of years learning from Pete Wise in Geoffrey Butler Cycles (and having him laugh at my skills) meant I quickly improved and became almost competent.

The workshop was also where the shop's regular customers would go, either to chat or to ply Pete with cake. That grubby room with oil-stained, worn-out carpets was the heart of the shop, as it is for any good bike shop. That’s why we set out to find Britain’s best mechanic.

Turn to page 22 to see who won.

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