PHIL BUYS MASTER THE SKILLS

Career highlights: London Olympian, multiple African and SA XCO champion

W take-home message: take chances

When I discovered mountain biking, at the age of 13, I always challenged myself to ride difficult obstacles and do the tricks I saw top riders do. I was quite a reckless rider, and broke plenty of bicycles. No bones, luckily – I’ve never actually broken a bone in my life.

At a young age, you’re less scared of doing silly stuff, so you take chances; and when you crash, you don’t break, you bounce – so it’s the ideal time to develop your skills. Up until I was 20, my riding was all about having fun and doing tricks. When I started signing pro contracts I became more careful, and focused on my fitness and career goals. A small crash can easily put me out for a week, which I can’t afford at pro level.

don’t underestimate the benefit of developing your skills on a mountain bike. Mountain biking is not just all about getting your fitness up. Better bike-handling skills make you more efficient, and prevent you tensing up as much, thus wasting less energy. They also make your riding experience a lot more enjoyable.

I recommend riding with riders who have better skills than you. Soon you will start mimicking what they do, and adapt to a better and smoother riding style. Taking part in a skills clinic with an experienced instructor is a good starting point. Proper bike set-up, tyre pressures and suspension set-up will also give you

W what has the road to rio been like?

My build-up has been close to the plan set out with my coach, Jeroen Swart. I also have great sponsors, and I’m confident in our equipment. The build-up has been stressful at times, because it is a steady build-up to be at my best in August, so I wasn’t in top shape at the beginning of the season – I constantly finished third in the first few qualifying races. The plan is to start hitting top shape with the few qualifying races, and make sure I get the wins then.

W your hopes for the olympics?

I had no back-up or support team in 2012, so one of my goals has been to build a solid support structure and team around me. We now have that in the form of Team Scott LCB Factory Racing. A solid team is essential for achieving top results. If I qualify for Rio 2016, my goal is to have a problem-free race and get that top-15 result.