START AT THE END BY DAN BIGHAM

On the surface this is the story of how Dan Bigham and his amateur Huub-wattbike squad broke records, beat Team GB and generally upset the track-cycling applecart by doing things their own way – and it’s a classic David and Goliath tale with a huge feelgood factor.

But there’s much more to it than that: it’s also a self-improvement book – though Bigham points out that it’s not a shortcut or a life hack: “In this book we are going to examine each step of my journey towards success, show you how I plotted the road to success and draw out the ideas that will help you achieve your own ambitions,” he writes.

“In every part of our lives, whether in sport, business or education, there is a highly evolved system for filtering out talented individuals. What if you never even get into the system? Every hierarchical system based on performance contains some element of complacency, of lazy thinking and of vested interest. And that means that these systems can be beaten.”

What it isn’t is a Haynes manual of aerodynamic optimisation or performance gains and that’s because Bigham encourages you to go off and do your own innovating.

Original thinkers are rare, and to be celebrated. Bigham is undoubtedly one.

■ £14.99 (Hardback)

■ Welbeck Publishing Group