by Jay 

How 1% Improvements Turned Team Sky Into World Champions

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In the mid-2000s, Team Sky, Great Britain’s professional cycling team, was nothing special.

Their track record wasn’t impressive—they had only won one Olympic gold medal in a hundred years, from 1908 to 2008.

And despite cycling being such a big deal in Europe, they had never won the most important race of all: the Tour de France.

But everything started to change around 2010 when the team made a bold decision. 

They hired a man named Dave Brailsford.

Brailsford wasn’t your typical coach. He didn’t come in with flashy speeches or promises of overnight success.

Instead, when asked how he planned to turn the team around, he shared a simple idea- the aggregation of marginal gains.

It sounded complicated, but his explanation was simple:

“If we can improve everything we do by just 1%, those tiny gains will add up to something huge.”

The team was curious—and a bit skeptical—but they gave him the chance.

Brailsford and his team got to work. They started with the obvious things:

  • They made the bike tires lighter for faster rides.
  • They found more comfortable seats to help riders perform better during long races.
  • They used sensors to track how each cyclist responded to training.
  • They even had the riders wear indoor racing suits during outdoor events because the suits were lighter and more aerodynamic.

But Brailsford didn’t stop there. He believed that even the smallest details could make a difference.

So, they tested different massage gels to see which one helped muscles recover faster.

They taught the riders the best way to wash their hands to avoid getting sick before races.

They even figured out which pillows helped each rider sleep better—and packed those pillows for every race, so the riders could rest well, even in hotel rooms.

All of these changes seemed small on their own. 

A lighter tire? A better pillow? Washing your hands differently?

None of that seemed like it would win a race. But Brailsford believed that if they kept stacking up these tiny improvements, day after day, they’d see big results.

He told the team,

“If we stick to this plan, we’ll win the Tour de France in five years.”

But he was wrong.

They won it in three years.

And they didn’t stop there. The very next year, they won it again—with a different rider!

By 2012, Team Sky had gone from an average team to the best in the world. That year, at the London Olympics, they won 70% of the gold medals in cycling.

The transformation was unbelievable.

All because of a simple idea: tiny improvements add up to massive success.

This post was inspired by James Clear video, What Happens if You Get 1% Better Every Day?”

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