I BELIEVE THAT SUPERSTITIONS HELP ME PERFORM, BUT WHAT DOES THE SCIENCE SAY?

Despite all the success multiple Olympic gold medallist Laura Kenny had in her career, and the cutting-edge know-how that helped her get there, she still had to step on her lucky wet towel, pre race.

-  Mark Bailey

“It sounds stupid, but I had to race with a wet sock in the omnium final at the Junior Worlds after I trod on a wet towel, and I won the race. So, I just do it all the time now.”

Despite the rise of sports science and psychological training, the dark arts of superstition and ritual still pervade the sporting world. American rider Evelyn Stevens, a four-time world team time-trial champion, carried a lucky marble. Thirty-five-time Tour de France stage winner Mark Cavendish refused to pin his number on his jersey until the morning of a race. Former world time-trial champion Emma Pooley wouldn't pack a team cap for the post-race podium presentation, so as not to tempt fate. And American Andy Hampsten, the 1988 Giro d'Italia winner, would only use even-numbered cogs when on climbs.

Behind its sleek and scientific façade, the pro peloton is a bubbling cauldron of mumbo-jumbo and hocus-pocus. Riders who get the number 13 bib wear it upside down to banish any unlucky vibes. Pros never shave their legs on the morning of a race. Some like to align the labels on their tyres with the valves of their inner tubes.

So if you like to ride in a pair of lucky socks or kiss your necklace for good fortune before a race, you're in good company. A survey of elite athletes, published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, found that 80.3% perform one or more superstitions before an event. company (www.innerdrive.co.uk), these dark arts remain one of the most fascinating and frustrating mysteries in modern sport.

"It's amazing that we're talking about multi-million pound organisations like British Cycling, and riders at the pinnacles of their careers, and yet before a big race it still comes down to 'this quirky superstition makes me feel good so I'll do it'," says Busch, whose clients have included Olympic medallists and Manchester United footballers.