STRONG LEGS, STRONGER HEAD

It takes a special kind of person to attempt epic feats such as the Transcontinental and Atlas Mountain races. But James Mark Hayden – two-time winner of the 4,000km Transcontinental – believes that mental resilience isn’t genetic, it’s learned. “You can be the fittest person in the world, but if you don’t have mental strength, you won’t go far,” he says.

Amazingly, 29-year-old James didn’t start cycling until he was 20, but he quickly fell in love with the freedom of MTB. What led him to attempt challenges of this scale was simply the curiosity to see what he was capable of. “Ultraendurance racing lets you develop skills beyond those of normal life,” James explains. “The sense of fulfilment from overcoming sink-or-swim situations is massive.” This is also what makes the races so hard, but a key tactic, he says, is to split the task into chunks. “At some point, you will suffer,” he says, “be it heat, rain, pain, lack of food, or all at once. Finishing the race is as much about overcoming negative thoughts as it is about riding!”

James has raced everywhere from the Cairngorms to Kyrgyzstan and, right now, he’s got his sights set on breaking some UK bikepacking records – the Lakeland 200 and Highland 550. His advice for anyone thinking of having a go is: “Just get on with it! I’ve failed at a lot of things, but I’ve learned more when it’s gone wrong than when it’s gone right. The only failure is not trying at all.”