Jérémy Martin maintains a long season by racing and resting a lot

Racing in Belgium had prepared Jérémy Martin for the slippery and muddy course at the cyclocross national championships in Sherbrooke, Que. “I had learned a lot about riding ruts and riding off-camber, and knowing when a section is worth running or riding,” Martin said of his time in Europe from December 2015 to early in 2016. Those lessons helped him roughly 10 months later to win the elite men’s title at nationals.

He also had some hard lessons from his time in Northern Europe. The eight weeks he spent in Belgium riding in the cold and wet, and racing wore him down. He got ill and could barely train before worlds. This year, he avoided all that by doing fewer ’cross races, getting well-rested and training somewhere with better weather: Tucson, Ariz. “It’s probably different from what everyone else is doing to prepare for worlds,” he said. “I race two seasons full-time, so I do a lot of things differently training-wise.”

While Martin may have raced less at start of 2017 compared with 2016, he actually did a lot of racing throughout the 2016 season. He estimates he did roughly 40 race weekends and close to 55 race days, which included cyclocross, cross country and longer mountain bike races. “I’m a strong believer that everything you do complements other disciplines,” he said. “I think my strength in climbing in mountain biking is good for ’cross and some of my technique and explosivity from ’cross is good for mountain biking. The endurance you get from marathon is really good as well.” It seems a balanced diet of racing mixed with some good breaks makes for a long, productive season.