“YOU HAVE TO RIDE SMOOTH TO GO FAST.”

so you need to be better at navigating those sections. Some descents can also be pretty rugged, so that’s another skill that you need to practise. If you want to stay with a fast group in a race, you need to be good at descending sketchy gravel sections. In races, if you don’t know the rider in front of you, give them space: you have no idea how good they are technically.— Lynebessette

Don’t forget everything you know about nutrition. You still need to drink water, you still need to eat food. And this is where the hydration pack comes in: it’s so easy to drink from that thing as opposed to trying to reach down for your bottle while on a chunky road. It’s easy just to forget to drink because it’s so hard to do. Have your nutrition really accessible. If you are doing a big race where there’s support and you can do a bottle exchange, consider having your pit crew just hand you a second pack that you’ve pre-loaded with your food, hydration, tools, CO2S and tire plugs. You’ll save so much time if all you need to do is swap a pack.— Michaelvandenham

Practise your nutrition as much as you practise training. Be sure that you’re able to digest whatever you’re planning on using. Make sure that your belly can handle it. You don’t know how you’re going to react to it until you try it, especially as the race gets longer. Maybe after six hours, you just can’t handle sugar anymore. So if that’s the case, what’s your plan going to be? You don’t want to have to figure that out during the race.— Maghalierochette