His approach aligns well with that of the Lord, who taught us the criticalness of the 1 percent-even at the expense of the 99 percent. Said Brailsford, “The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improved it by 1 percent, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together.” 2 It’s somewhat akin to the prophet Samuel the Lamanite’s notion of “walk circumspectly.” 1 This broader, more holistic view avoids the trap of being myopically fixated on just the obvious problem or sin at hand. That meant constantly measuring key statistics and targeting specific weaknesses. Unlike previous coaches who attempted dramatic, overnight turnarounds, Sir Brailsford instead committed to a strategy he referred to as “the aggregation of marginal gains.” This entailed implementing small improvements in everything. So what happened in British cycling that has great relevance to our personal pursuit to be better daughters and sons of God?

That new approach would also reveal an eternal principle-with a promise-regarding our ofttimes perplexing mortal quest to improve ourselves. Nothing, that is, until 2003, when a small, largely unnoticed change occurred that would forever alter the trajectory of British cycling.

Clean hands and pure heart elder bednar