DI.A 2015 Breakout Sessions | Racing Vs Fun, Striking a Balance

So you’re a racer, it’s what you now do, you take this stuff real seriously and live for the competition. I’m sure lots of racers out there can identify with this. As a racer I love the thrill and the challenge of the competition, although I’m a complete amateur it can rule my life like a pro. In the famous words of Steve McQueen “Racing is life, anything before or after is just waiting” I train because I race, I try to eat healthy because I race, I love the drive, and racing keeps me sane!

But then there are the play days, the long or short rides with your best mates; the rides where racing is just a distant crazy idea of organization, a numbers game that is far too serious. The fitness acquired from the race training can only make these days out with mates better though, longer rides, less fatigue equals a better day on the bike, so in a way they compliment each other. Although I live for racing, I can sometimes hate it, the times when I know I’m not relaxed, or even pressurize myself into a state of self defeat, this never happens on a group ride with good mates, the fun just rules it out. I have favourite races, but it’s always the practice days that I love, not the actual race day; practice is so much more like a day’s trail riding than the seriousness of timed transitions and flat-out stages.

I’ve always thought, how I’d love to be able to race with the same mind-set of a day’s trail riding with mates. My cornering would be faster, legs stronger, just more fluid down each stage and this is down to one thing, being relaxed; relaxation brought on by the feeling of having fun. It’s a real strange one for me, because the logical thing to do would be to quit racing, surely I would always have fun on my bike then? Oh no, I’ve tried that and it worked the other way, my drive to be fit and healthy just dwindled, replaced with a kind of ‘what’s the point’ attitude. I know now it all goes hand in hand, I need the racing to keep me driven and make the mates riding fun, just as I need the trail days to look forward to the racing. It’s all just one thing in the end; riding, even if I don’t enjoy a race because it’s tough or I’m not riding too well, when I get home and settle into the following week, I look back on it and always realize how much I loved it, cancelling out the tougher bits, just remembering the fantastic social times and best bits of the tracks.

It’s always interested me how other racers think of such dilemmas, so at the recent Design & Innovation Award 2015 out in Italy I asked the judges, Manuel Fumic, Nico Lau and Vali Holl, to get their opinions on this complicated topic.

Manuel: “I actually don’t have that much time any more for steady rides with my friends, as I’m always training and trying to get better. But it’s still so good to get out for a ride with my buddies. It is definitely the most fun, riding with friends, because cycling is just such a social sport. You get out of the stress, out of the town and into the countryside, in the beginning you may be all stiff and stuff, but once you are warm, you relax and enjoy yourself. When you have a social ride with friends you feel like you escape to another world and that’s what I like so much. You have that experience for the first time when you ride with your buddies, then you don’t want to miss it ever again! Now we are racing top level World Cup stuff all the racers have pretty much the same objective, to do as well as they can. My schedule is now so full of pro races that I can’t just pull up at an amateur event and just have a fun ride, which is a shame, as I’d love to do that from time to time.”

Nico: “Well I began mountain biking riding with my friends, and I think it’s really important to ride with friends and share all the moments of a ride. I sometimes find it difficult to have to take it easy on a ride, when I spend all the season riding as fast as I can and constantly trying to push my limits. Although I think it’s very important to ride with slower riders than yourself, because it reminds me of the beginning of my story of mountain biking. I like to push my limits in racing, but in the off-season (like now) I find it great to go on a chilled out ride. When it comes to racing, for sure there is pressure when you race your bike, I mean you live for that, you can’t crash and take real bad lines. When you live this sort of global life as a world racer, you have to make some big decisions about your future, but they don’t really come into play when you are riding. When I first started racing it was a matter of taking the brain out!

At first my best results came when I kind of didn’t care and just felt totally relaxed and happy about riding. I always seem to ride my best when everything goes well, good event, tracks, atmosphere and karma, when things are like that I can feel un-touchable. Enduro really is a mental game, you can stay fit, but if something happens in your life that is out of the ordinary it can become very hard to perform at a high level. But as for the riders with the slower results, every rider has a different background lifestyle, you can’t compare. I think all the top riders have so much fun on their bikes; you can see and feel that on the transitions as you all share your stories. Like for instance, sometimes I will pull some unusual line choices, they may not always be the fastest lines, but sometimes they can be the most fun. I think really the best results I have had have been when I have just simply been enjoying myself the most.”

Vali: “Yes it’s definitely more fun just riding out with your friends, because you don’t have to concentrate and can feel more relaxed. When you ride with your friends you can play around on the bike, whipping jumps and just messing about. Of course, as a pro you get money, when I was learning my parents paid the whole time, I mean in a way it’s less pressure if you have big sponsors like Red Bull or Monster because they would take care of a lot of stuff for you which would take a certain amount of pressure off. The only negative is that as you get better you can get loads more stressed at a race if you crash, because winning means so much more to you.”

So after all it would seem there is no real answer to the question ‘how do you find that perfect balance between racing and joy?’ More of a mixed bag of conclusions, summed up by saying you make you own choices, you have to do whatever suits you and makes you happy, whether it’s racing flat out or just occasionally; all you have to do is have fun riding your bike and strike that correct balance.

Words: Jim Buchanan Photos: Trev Worsey and Christoph Bayer