Gravity Check
How can I go faster? If you haven’t recently asked that question of yourself, you definitely haven’t asked that question out loud in front of your mates either. Deep down that question is simmering away though, even if you haven’t felt the need to face it just yet.
No matter who you are or where you ride, the question sits with all of us. From weekend warriors all the way through to World Champions. The difference is the World Champ is asking that question of themselves every day, but there was a time when even those select few didn’t know they were fast, and they were in the same boat as everyone else, trying to figure out how to be fast.
Once you’ve got past that nonsense of trial and error, dusting yourself off crash after crash, having concluded that if ol’ mate Barry can do it you can do it too, a bit more thought and self-preservation starts to kicks in. That’s when most in the bike game tell you that your time has come, once you start thinking about self-preservation you should hang the boots up, leave it to those with fresh bones and fresh livers.
Going fast is a head game as much a physical one, an infinite number of self-styled coaches are feeding off this vacuum surrounding mental strength in an attempt to build up a roster of paying clients, offering to build up a rider’s confidence, and trophy cabinet, off the back of promoting mental strength through physical conditioning. All great catch words, but little in terms of so-called mental help. Being hyper-focused on a singular result so far out from a major event is often the go-to for wannabe coaching programs. This leads an athlete to either overdose on excitement before the race begins, or lose interest as the build up has taken so much out of them before the main event even gets underway,
Downhill racing is a perfect illustration of what I’m talking about, more often than not you can see in the start gate before a race run gets underway who might be, or not be, in the right state of mind to ignore any thought of self-preservation for the next few minutes. As much as we all might want to believe, that’s not how riders live out every minute of their lives, building up to a successful, risky race run is a long chain of calculated risks, put together well before the timing beacon goes green.
Unfortunately, if you were hoping that I’m about to drop a how-to manual for race runs you’re out of luck, it’s different for everyone so not one rule applies to all. There are some riders out there that can get comfortable in this environment to risk it all on a late Sunday afternoon, no matter if it’s a local club warrior or one of those annoying Frenchies atop a World Cup podium.
Getting comfortable taking risks sounds more like destructive behaviour than a sought-after skillset required at the highest level, but when you begin to do it more and more, it stops becoming risk taking altogether and just becomes the new normal, so it is true what they say then “if we are what we repeatadly do, excellence then is not an act, but a habit”. If only our habits didn’t involve buzzing past trees at fifty kays an hour. But then again, we wouldn’t be mountain bikers if we didn’t.