But before all the power meter users out there come to hunt me down with the intention of burning me at the stake of progress, I’ll follow it up with this: anyone who doesn’t think a power meter is the single best training tool for a cyclist is only kidding themselves. If you want one thing that’ll help you to become a stronger rider, a power meter is it. Nothing on a bike compares to the accuracy and, most importantly, repeatability of a power meter while remaining as unaffected by external variables.

The power meter, just like a heart rate monitor, is a tool designed to help you become a stronger rider (and unlike heart rate, power doesn’t have the same day to day fluctuations as heart rate, hence why power meters have become so pervasive at the pro level). Think about that for a moment. Very few pieces of bike kit are designed with the goal of helping you improve physiologically. Aero wheels, aero helmets, skinsuits, time trial bikes and almost everything else out there actually have a different goal; and that’s to help you make the most of what you already have. A TT bike is designed to make you more aerodynamic and, as a result, help you go faster. But it won’t give you the ability to produce more watts, just make sure that those watts are being used in the most effective manner possible. It is, if you like, a tool directed towards increasing efficiency, not boosting power.

You can pick up a unit for as little as £500 now from an established brand, and do even better than that if you wait until sale time, and if you think about that relative to the cost of most other bike-related kit, it doesn’t actually seem too bad considering the potential gains that can be made. If you want a set of carbon wheels, almost every set out there will cost you more than, say, a Stages, unless you buy some unbranded rims from China in which case there’s a danger that you’ll get exactly what you paid for. I quite often see people out riding in well over £500 worth of bike gear and while I’m not suggesting you should ride naked in order to save money (please, please don’t do that), the point is that if you kit yourself out in full Assos or Rapha then tell me that a power meter is too expensive, I probably won’t believe you.

Ultimately whether or not you need a power meter comes down to what your goals are. If you just want to ride your bike and enjoy yourself, there really is no point. A power meter is a specialised tool for riders who want to increase wattage and increase their on-bike strength but it can actually take away a lot of the pure enjoyment from riding. If you race, or really want to improve your fitness, then following a structured training plan using power zones can do wonders, and it’ll give you a measurable way to track improvement over time. But does any rider actually need one? No, of course not.