What is your limit. Those limits can be physical, emotional, or any combination thereof. When it comes to biking we always think about pushing our physical fitness levels in order to be a strong rider. My question then becomes, does your level of physical fitness define how strong of a rider you are? We, at Team Perpetual, are competitive Cat 1 XC racers. Realistically, I don't think we could stand a chance at being competitive in Cat 1 road racing. So, the real question is,
What makes a strong mountain bike rider?
From a mountain biking perspective there's a lot that comes into play. Let's look at three key skill sets:
- level of fitness
- riding ability
- course interpretation
Looking at these in detail...
Level of Fitness
Of the three mountain biking traits this is the easiest one to understand and the easiest one to work on. Some of you may disagree with me, but it is very easy to judge how you're progressing in your training. Do an ITT every week and see if you're getting faster (extremely simplified to make my point). Naturally, the more fit you are, the harder you can push up hills and on the flats. Keep in mind that your level of fitness normally doesn't come into play when descending on a bike. I would venture to say that it's more important to be strongest on the climbs, because that's where the race is most likely won.
Riding Ability
This skill set is closely linked to experience on a bike, but not always correlated. I'm suggesting that person X can have 10 times more experience on a bike than person Y, but person Y may just have more natural ability and therefore may be more technically capable. Everyone has some degree of naturally ability on a bike. For some people this natural ability comes in the form of physical fitness, for others it's the skills needed to ride over technical terrain or descending. Either way, the amount of effort you put into riding your bike is proportional to your ability level on the bike. Not all people will advance at the same pace, but individually you will improve! Earlier, I mentioned that a race is won on the climbs, conversely a race can be lost on the descents. This is why racing within your technical capacity is extremely important.
Course Interpretation
This is one of those skill sets that's hard to define, it's not like the previous two which are tangible. I think your ability to interpret the course terrain is largely dependent on your mental state. The better mental state you're in, the more ability you'll have to process what you see while riding. Imagine your eyes as a video recorder. Your eyes record the trail a few seconds (actual times vary while riding) ahead of where you're current at on the trail (like driving a car on the road). You mentally note key features in the trail such as rocks, ruts, roots, turns, etc. All the visual stimuli that you're taking in allows you to create a line that you think is optimal for your riding ability. As you're riding along, you are physically responding to the optimal line you've created a few moments before. This way, you're navigating what's under your wheels and simultaneously processing what's coming up. The more focused you get, the farther ahead you can look and the more speed you can carry through each section of the course.
It's important to continually develop and mature these skills, as a package, while you train. Thankfully, you can easily train for all three while out on a ride. Climb the nearest hill for fitness, then build your ability on the bike while reading the terrain as you descend! In my opinion, it's a combination of these skills that, when properly brought together, create a strong rider. They can form to make the strongest rider on the course, or they can come together to make you the strongest rider you've ever been.
