When Philippe Gilbert attacked on the final climb in the World Championships, it was an expected move. Every single rider in the lead bunch knew Gilbert’s track record on punchy uphill finishes.

Yet, when he made his move, no one could go with him. They just could not do anything about it.

I know how it feels. There have been so many times in our Sunday races when I could see it all happening in front of me and I just could not respond. I remember one race when Peter Milostic squeezed past me on my right. He had to ride over the edge of the track to get pass. It was the right wheel to get onto – but I could not do anything about it. He just blasted pass and soloed to one of his classic wins.

I used to be able to put things into two distinct categories. One was things that I could do something about and the other was things I could do nothing about. Now that I have some life experience under my belt, it is gradually dawning on me that it was a useless exercise. There is nothing in this life that I can do anything about.

We have never been ‘masters of our own destiny’ – despite what we have been taught all our lives.

My daughter is just about to have her second baby. No one knows whether it will be a girl or a boy. Everyone has their opinions. The shape of the tummy, the mother’s posture, the fact that her first was a boy and a whole lot of stories, are supposed to point to the signs that it is another boy. There is a whole industry dedicated to how conceive a boy or a girl. But it is only there to take your money. You have no say about the gender of your baby.

Smokers will tell you that they can give up if they wanted to. The diet industry will have you believe that you can do something about your weight. Your kid’s teacher will tell you that he can make a doctor out of your child. It is all like me saying that I can make tomorrow’s sun refuse to rise. It might happen, but it is not because I made it happen.

The funny thing is that once I decided that I could do nothing about anything…things started happening on their own accord quite effortlessly. The classic “Being” as opposed to “Doing”…