Mincing round the Ard Rock Enduro at the weekend highlighted that the weakest (quite literally) area of my riding is when I’m on long gnarly descents. I find that my legs just haven’t enough strength to be able to remain in a good standing attack position on the bike, when I’m taking a sustained pummelling. My overall fitness, arm strength and bar grip is fine. I finished the event feeling like I could go on for miles more, so it looks like the riding I’ve put in the last year has paid off in that respect.
What generally happens is I’m stood up on the pedals, but after a few minutes of descending rough terrain at speed, my legs weaken and I end up crouching down or trying to sit on the saddle to get a break. This ends up making my legs even worse. I become a passenger rather than a rider. Shorter descents or descents on relatively non-techy trails are fine.
There is obviously a limit to anyone’s strength/endurance when descending, but how do I improve mine drastically?
I’m guessing some gym work to really strengthen my Glutes and the back of my legs? I probably need to also work on my riding position as well, but that seems secondary if I can’t maintain it due to my legs giving out.
As background I generally ride about 40-50 miles a week on fairly techy (for UK) terrain, but don’t do any gym work at all.