Breaking the Cycle

Whenever I have to go anywhere at speed, there’s really no contest for how I do it. Although I have a car – for journeys where it’s not just me who needs to get there, mostly – if there is somewhere I have to be in a short space of time, it’s on my bike every time. It means I can leave the beaten track and take short cuts if need be. I broke more than one bike trying to take on terrain that I really shouldn’t have, though, so although I held out for the longest time because I saw mountain bikes as being more for kids, I eventually bought one and I never looked back. It allows me so much more freedom, and freedom is a big thing for me.

It was kind of inevitable given my love for throwing myself into things that I would eventually join a club and get into cycling to some competitive level. Not road racing, although I do enjoy the feeling of cycling along open roads, particularly late at night when there’s hardly anyone else out there. No, the sport of mountain biking has really brought out my competitive edge. If you take up mountain bike racing and don’t quit halfway through the first big climb, then you’re probably in for life. I would know, trust me. The first time I took on a big hill, the language I used would have made a construction worker blush. And then I reached the top and somehow forgot about how I’d got there. I was hooked.

Since then I’ve been racing on an amateur basis for about three years. I wouldn’t say I’m the best in my category. Sometimes I win races, sometimes I don’t place in the top ten. It’s not because I lack competitive instincts, I just have a lot of other priorities which sometimes mean I cannot put the training in that would make me a potential professional. So not for want of commitment, I would say that I’m better off sticking to the occasional races, where at least I enjoy myself without the concern of knowing that results really matter. There’s plenty of other things I could do if the stress of competition was what I was after. Instead, I get to meet like-minded people, have a bit of friendly rivalry and see some great courses.

One course that really took some beating was a race that I took part in last month. Five separate climbs, each one of them presenting something subtly different to really throw you off your guard. In addition to that, the weather was good for terrain and bad for comfort. Man, it was hot. Without the hydration pack stashed away in my rucksack I’d have been toast. The front wheel actually came off my bike at one point, and re-attaching it lost me a good ten minutes. Despite that, in a field of forty I came sixth. Without the ten-minute holiday it would have been first, but then without the water I don’t think I would have finished at all.