think most successful MTBers (& any other sport) come from areas good for training, if you’re not, the time & financial commitment is a significant disadvantage.
Yeah funny you say that lol. We've discussed moving house.
Crazy, maybe.
I've started doing the club 10 mile TT if I'm not needed to marshall. I am consistently the slowest male.
Only competing with myself, but getting slightly less slow each week, and learning new things
Do you race ? If so… why ? If not… why not ?
Nah. My easy-going nature masks a fairly competitive spirit, and I'm just not good enough to enjoy competing and being shit. It's not a matter of "I'll only play if I win" - being midpack would be a giggle, but being mediocre is just no fun.
being midpack would be a giggle, but being mediocre is just no fun
It can be hard, like a bit disheartening at times yes. But I mostly race the course, not the riders. The courses are interesting enough and challenging enough that anything else is a bonus
I don't race. Mebbee could as I think I'm fairly punchy, but that's not why I ride. Nowt to prove to anybody really; I just love being out and about and farting around. Preferably on my own.
Race against myself really.
Age isn’t a barrier. It’s an excuse. 😉
Ok scotroutes - old enough to know better 🙂
I race Enduro’s ccasionally, but usually only venues that can only be ridden when participating in the race.
I’m not really interested I competing, I’d much rather enjoy a ride for fun with some mates, it’s just an opportunity to ride somewhere different.
@MoreCashThanDash - getting into TTing will sort out your username, one way or another!
I miss the days of doing the full UKGE national series
I'm never going to win, lucky if I finish halfway down the field, but I still love it, a big loop with trails you can't normally ride and good friends, there's a nice racing community
There's definitely something about focusing as hard as you can to get one tough descent just right.
It just pushes me to improve & test myself the way I never do on a non race ride, even on the same trails.
Getting the most you can out of yourself and your bike
And the thing I love about enduro is that you get time on the transitions to mess with mates and stop to take in the view
I'll do maybe 3 races a year now, but they have to be challenging ones, to make it worth the cost (financially and time away from the family)
I used to do road races and crits, doing just about any race I could reasonably easily get to. Absolutely loved getting stuck in, learning how to ride the bunch and occasionally even getting the chance to use some tactics. I wasn't very good, but still got a couple of ok results. I had a bit of a revelation that you don't need to cross the line first to 'win' and that really upped my enjoyment. I had to give up for health reasons and I do miss it sometimes - I kind of wish we had a race scene like New Zealand where there's tons of unlicensed road racing and you can just choose a challenge level to suit you.
I still follow a training plan, but that's mostly just because I enjoy doing intervals for their own sake.
Racing is a great excuse for owning a ridiculous amount of tyres.
It’s nice to challenge myself, mostly be mid pack with the occasional decent result with a few terrible results.
It’ll keep me out the pub, so that’s the entry paid (Most Enduro races cost roughly a night out). It was also a huge motivator to stop smoking.
Pretty much everything Kimbers said too.
Nope. I'm a hyper-competitive mentalist, so racing really stresses me out.
I could never do a race in the past without giving absolutely 110% and completely destroying myself. I was seen apparently turning 'grey' as I crossed a finish line once - while my vision was fading in on itself like a tunnel. I used to race as a junior and was pretty good at it, regularly placing top five and was selected to represent my county multiple times in the cross-country (running) Nationals.
At some point, however, I simply realised I just wasn't enjoying any of it at all. There's some weird peer pressure or group expectation thing - that if you are I really committed to being good at something - then of course you absolutely have to race. I just realised I enjoyed the training - on my own - so that's what I kept up with.
Fast forward 25 years or so and in my 40s I now have paroximal atrial fibrulation, so any form of high-intensity exercise is pretty much off the cards . I pootle about the place somewhat slower than I used to and find I actually enjoy my running and cycling a lot more now.
I short, I don't actually believe racing is all that healthy (nor the competitive mindset that goes with it).
Or "Expensive and ultimately pointless" - as someone above quite brilliantly put it 😂
But I mostly race the course, not the riders.
So why pay to "compete" when by your own admission you're not really competing to win? Just go for a ride.
I don't. I grew up really enjoying team sports and played to a good standard. I was super competitive but to the point that I'd sooner have a great game and lose than a crap one and win.
Weirdly I'm not sure that would work the same on a bike. I know i'm not a 'proper' cyclist and although I have my moments the mates I ride with push a lot harder and have time to dedicate to racing preparation and fitness... and the money to spend.
However, my kids have shown no interest in team sports so I haven't found myself following them around football grounds like my parents did. They're reaching racing age now and are interested, so I think there's a chance we'll give it a try - they can race 2-4 years out of the minimum age and so feel no pressure to do well.
The cost puts me off as a lot of the races where we are involve long drives and overnight stays. I only have hardtails so gravity enduro will be interesting.
I used to - even when there was a kid - but I got fed up with always coming 30% of the way down the field so I told myself I wouldn't until I lost enough weight to be decent. I did lose some weight, but I thought I'd lose more so didn't enter, then I put it all back on again after the second kid. That was 12 years ago.
I've done a few triathlons just out of curiousity and to capitalise on the fact I can actually swim alright. But I vowed I'd only do off-road ones with interesting courses, and there aren't many of those so it's a one-a-year effort, and that's mostly for the sake of the trip away. Last year I went to Aviemore for three days for a 2hr race 🙂
So why pay to “compete” when by your own admission you’re not really competing to win? Just go for a ride.
Well, when it's a race you can rag everything flat out in a way you can't when there might be people, dogs, kids etc on the trails.
I don't race and have no interest in it. I ride to get out in nature and away from large groups of people. Yes it's fun to ride fast and to challenge myself on harder trails and find the limits in all sorts of ways, but I don't need an organised event to do that.
I used to chat to racing mates about this. Once you've done some degree of training, you are about as good as you're going to get. Sure you can improve slightly but essentially whatever we tried we'd always be roughly in the same place in the field.
Now when I turned 40 this was fighting for the podium at London League cx, however the usual winner Steve was always 2mins ahead of me, so essentially in another league to me. I got 13 podiums in two years I think but never stood on the top step.
It was a fun and wild few years but gradually the training and stress wore me down to the point where I hated racing. So I stopped. It wasn't easy, felt defined by my abilities but I gradually weaned myself off my dependence. Getting into race promotion was a real balm and after putting on our club race at Sommerhill a few times I realised that I loved this more than the actual peddling and still got to see everyone.
5 years later I've got into running. Turns out I'm reasonably quick (17.46 parkrun pb so far), but I'm very cautious about where I take it. I love the feeling of fitness and power, adore the structure of training, and enjoy working with others in a group to get the best out of myself. So to this end racing may figure again. However I've set personal challenges as my main goals. The simple target of 'can I cruise through the landscape all day at a reasonable pace?' is an alluring goal and worthy of a lot of work. If I use ultramarathons to help with the logistics of this then fine, but I'm wary of chasing times. I don't wear any data devices and run purely on feel. An occasional parkrun shows my progress but once again my pb has only come down 30seconds in the two years I've been doing it. I actually spend more time helping out at parkruns. All the laughs, none of the stress, one big happy family at my local event.
Getting older (now approaching 50) has its benefits. I've made peace with myself and I'm not defined by my results. Friendships are friendships regardless. They'd be piss poor if they were dependent on a number.
I look at Trainerroad forum quite often and think what a neurotic bunch of people they are, obsessing over every detail and arguing all the time about definitions and protocols etc. It's clear that training can be as addictive as any class A drug.
I don't look down on them. I used to be exactly like that. But I do feel relief that I escaped.
All my experience has been on the endurance side of things. I tried an enduro once but all the waiting around ruined my flow and frustrated me.
No. I don’t need another commitment in my life. Racing is time consuming and can be expensive. I have neither spare time nor spare money.
So why pay to “compete” when by your own admission you’re not really competing to win? Just go for a ride.
Many of the race events are on private land.. So can't be ridden outside of race time.
Racing the course may have been taken out of context, it's the desire to complete said course rather than just pedalling round. The courses are to me, tricky, so it's putting me in a scenario where i can push boundaries, limits, skills etc.
Used to race XC, the odd marathon and 10-Under type stuff (not with any hope of winning). Did it for pretty much the same reasons as listed by the OP. Largely stopped when I had a kid: just no time to train, travel, etc.
- Since then, this type of racing has been dying a slow death, while enduro has taken off. Would love to have a go at enduro (it's the type of riding I mostly do these days), but the lack of training time kills any such ambition in the crib. You can cut corners when training for XC by improving your fitness by means other than mountain biking. However, for enduro, there's no substitute for riding your bike a lot on steep, tough terrain. Time to do this will always be at a premium for me.
No!
Raced one evening xc event with mates - came dead last and because I never saw them again after the start it wasn’t a laugh; felt like s**t.
Did a PMBA enduro - had male riders bearing down on me during practice forcing me to repeatedly jump off the trail and never getting into the flow; sat in the van after practice feeling like s***t and didn’t do race.
Did an orienteering event with a friend who was a GB running orienteer. Dropped my dibber and had to go back and find it; felt like s**t.
None of those experiences lead to an enjoyable relaxing ride. Just busy with loads of other people and feeling very stressed. I am competitive but I’ve made a decision to not make my leisure time competitive (I used to play a lot of tennis when I was younger, so know what the commitment is like); my job does more than enough of that in my life. I like riding to see the scenery, eat cake and get away from people.
get away from people
To be fair, if you're a really good racer or a really bad one you can do this in a race too 🙂
I do about 5 races a year . I started after having our first child as having a date in the diary was handy to keep me motivated to keep some semblance of fitness and it gave me 2 days of riding . This turned into me doing a couple of the tweedlove enduros , dunkeld , pmba at kirroughtree and fair city enduro . I'm very much a back marker but the racing for me has been about being fit enough to finish and trying to improve my riding to be able to ride the stages ok, it keeps me riding and going to the gym in winter so when racing comes round I'm able to enjoy it .
None of my riding mates are into it so I've always gone on my own and you always end up chatting to someone as for the most part every one is pretty friendly and you have at least one thing in common.
It is getting pretty pricey though once you add in the cost of petrol or a hotel if you need it but I always felt I got my money's worth , except for possibly the EWS . I did the 80 the first year it came back to the tweed valley and although I enjoyed it I did feel like it wasn't worth 3 times the price of a tweedlove event .
I did the 80 the first year it came back to the tweed valley and although I enjoyed it I did feel like it wasn’t worth 3 times the price of a tweedlove event
That's an interesting one for me as potentially next year we'll end up at an EWS80/100 (i need to work out which he can do at 15 next year). Well it's either that or an IXS DH round or French DH... something Euro anyway along with the usual UK rounds.
On another tangent, but events is something I struggle to enter. They are often quite expensive and you have to commit to the date when potentially you may travel quite a distance to ride in atrocious weather on trails you could otherwise ride outside of the event.
This is probably why all my riding is from the front door when it's not wet.
BMCR and TLI road races up until about this time last year, a second broken collarone on the left side has left me pretty wary of going over on it again. So just enjoying my riding at the moment, still love the training (mostly!) but without the commitment of racing it's nice to take a day off here and there.
That said I've pre-entered some local night races, hoping these will tie me over. As much as I miss them I don't miss the getting up and loading the car etc. every Sunday morning, and I get my Saturdays back!
Not anymore ,but loved it back in the day(90s-2000s), raced XC,CX and road.
The national events were(at the time) an nice escape from London at weekends.
There was a great crowd around the XC scene then, and I have made some life long friends.
I also really liked the personal challenge of getting faster and testing myself physically (and mentally)in a race.
It can become quite an addiction 😉 😆
Got a few decent results,but often the best and most enjoyable racing wasn't at the pointy end,but when trying to catch/stay in front of riders I knew.
A bit like being in a Squash ladder,when the person above and below you in the ladder are so well matched,you really have to be on top form ,and every move counts.
I would always tell people to have a go at racing,you will never really know until you pin a number on. 👍 😃
I’ve not really touched a bike properly in 5+ years and I’m now in the process of selling everything off as there’s no point hanging on to it.
This has made me really sad
I've done a few races, XC and 24hr and if I'm honest hated every moment of it. I much prefer to ride solo or with a few mates and be able to stop and enjoy the view or a chat as we ride along.
Of course, in road racing, you have the incentive to make that once in a lifetime transition to Cat 3. I think that’s quite a cool idea in a way. Even when I’m old and grey I’ll still be able to tell the yoof’s that I’m a Cat 3 👴🏻 🤣
An eternal reminder of that two year obsession.
I wouldn’t say British Cycling are particularly good at fostering the enthusiasm of hobbyist racers though. Other countries seem (via social media at least) to be better at making people feel special for having the racing craic regardless of their ability.
Don't be sad! 🙂
I've just moved on. I tried getting back into it a few times but I'd do 2 or 3 rides and the spark just wasn't there anymore.
But I spent 25+ years cycling all over the country and doing tens of 1000's of miles. Not bad for someone who bough one of these 'new fangled' mountain bikes back in 1990 on a whim from Kays catalogue! The wife went crazy at the time (we'd only recently got married and were skint!).
I'm getting great pleasure doing long walks with the dog now.
Not officially any more, dabbled in CX and XC most recently but not really fit enough to enjoy the more explosive racing, I spend the whole hour just holding on and not really enjoying the actual riding or racing.
The last couple of CX races in particular just became solo slogs once the pack strung out.
I enjoy longer distance 'events' and sportives as they suit my fitness and training better and also feel less like a whole lot of traveling for 1 hour of pain, e.g. was glad to travel 3hrs to the Lakes for a gravel sportive. They might not be racing as such but there is still a competitive motivation which always makes me ride harder, chasing groups, subtly trying to drop people on climbs etc. 😎
Would fancy trying some longer gravel events whether sportives or actual races, possibly something for next year.
Ok I'll bite. I've always been competitive, and turned to cycling after being too broken for Rugby any more. Racing for me gives me the reason, commitment and focus to stay fit, at a lower weight and healthy - well with the exception I broke another finger last night 😀
I go through ups and downs, but ultimately having a reason to stay fit suits my nature and I enjoy being part of the race scene. I'm not shy of saying that the lure of social riding, plus cold beers and the sofa in the evening in lieu of Training is getting ever more attractive, but I also know how uncomfortable I feel whenever I have time off to do that - I'd need a balance.
With my eldest now qualifying for National level Tri events, and my daughter at County level for Swimming I can see a time nearing where time and money defers to them and my own racing takes a backseat, but even so I'll find a way to keep Kryton C Nesbitt at bay.
I dont agree with the view that if you aren't winning you're just some kind of loser. Staying fit, healthy and improving yourself even if its only yourself you're improving against is winning at life to me however you achieve it whether that's racing or just being able to enjoy a decent ride out with your mates. Each to their own.
I've done a few enduro's for fun but I'm faster in practice when there's less pressure (not fast fast..). That said, I am really glad I've done them, it makes for a really great weekend with your mates.
These days, I'm happy just to enjoy riding my bikes. My plan was to go back to arranging some away days such as Bike Parks and Scotland but life keeps getting in the way. I guess the Enduro's work because you book them in a long time in advance so we all keep those weekends free.
Better planning on my part required!
Erm yes,
Enduro because it's a laugh riding trails faster than you really ought to between tape, just not on a very competitive level. I might actually train and prepare one of these days, but I fear that raising expectation of any result would take the fun out of it. I'm quite happy being a few places below the M50 podium rather than missing out on a step by a handful of seconds. Achievement without high levels of success is my personal key to low stress enjoyment!
I'll usually do one of the Maxiavalanche races, just not this year due to family scheduling. Mass start gravity races are really good fun, the Maxi series have a bit less of the bucket list attraction than the Mega itself meaning less of the ladz (sorry ladz, but you know what I mean) and I'm gutted that I missed Vallnord last weekend.
I'll probably do the amateur race at Loudenvielle this year with my daughter. It's the first year she's moved up out of the kids races, but she'll have higher expectations than myself. @weeksy FYI she's a 2008 and as I understand it, the ews100 is no more and everyone does the 80.
yep i enjoy them, sometimes. tend to meet decent friendly folk.
ardmoors, really didnt want to ride all week, lower back had been aching, and been taken to cleaners at the pmba graithwaite. went up for the race without practise, although ridden a few times in the past couple of years.
so a bit of imposter syndrome to start, should i be here, am i good enough to keep out the way of the fast guys.
had a good clean run on stage 1 . felt good after that..
made the mistake thinking stage5 is simple so didnt watch the youtubes , for some reason i was thinking it was a stage at kirroughtree. so missed the first corner. a stupid run off on s6, knocked me down
midpack and top 40% in age , but cam ehome on a high..
AE forest next week. aim for mid table i should think
To be fair, if you’re a really good racer or a really bad one you can do this in a race too
Or a completely average one, like I was! My problem in XC racing was I was a good starter, but after the 1st lap I'd completely blow up... spend the 2nd lap all on my own almost puking up and losing most of the places I'd gained in the first lap.. then I'd recover and get into my rhythm.. but by then the first 25-30 had disappeared into the distance and I was left overtaking a few stragglers before the finish. When I'd drop dead again. Then have to spend the next week recovering!
Enduro was different, I just crashed all the time 😆
I register and turn up to a few but that doesn't mean I'm racing (perhaps).
Reasons ?
Its expensive... I'm paying as someone else said to ride somewhere I don't usually get the chance. (Hence Miland)
It's a day out with mates (was really nice to do a few stages with you)... I did a couple with some other mates but a bit pointless in some ways other than social when I was riding the HT and they were on £10,000+ ebikes. (Nod was better for that as there are some stages the HT will piss all over the unrestricted ones)
I usually prefer to camp ... just dilutes the costs making it into a 2 day thing but 3-4 hours... so that also influences which ones I do.
At the cost I allow 3 or maybe 4 a year and try and make sure it's somewhere new or similar.
@stevextc sounds like this weekend at Tiverton is right up your street. We're camping Sat night, BBQ, beers, banter. Tracks look sweepy swoppy ferny.
I've raced a bit, on and off when I was younger. did a couple of longer events, the then Schwinn 100 in Builth, and a mountain mayhem once.
early days I was very much of the opinion that it's not worth it if I can't give my best. I was never racing in any significant category despite being relatively fit, so only raced when I felt good.
I was probably at my fittest maybe 17 or so years ago, but I quickly realised that I am not competitive, at all. and that's the crux of it.
it's nice to be fast when you're fast, not so much to beat your mates, but to get that felling of flying along a trail, barely able to keep traction, keeping on pushing, and pushing. I watched Nino last weekend and it reminded me of how that feels, just to be able to keep pushing, not even the ground can interrupt your focus. (not that I was every anywhere near Nino's speed!)
I sometimes get the ghost of that, along a trail, everything comes together and you're on rails, powered by someone elses engine.
however, racing against folk for the win, I'd love to have done that, but I haven't got the mentality for it and just ride for myself.
Having spent every weekend from the age of five until my mid twenty's racing MX and Enduros I don't race any more.
I got pretty high up the ladder with sponsorship from Yamaha GB doing British championships in the pro class and also some European rounds and represented the GB team a few times at the ISDE.
Then I slowly realised that I'd never be able to make a living at it and that I was never going to be able to beat full on pros who didn't work.
Having to work for a living and miss out on so many other things in life to be able to race just didn't seem worth it any more so I stopped and started riding MTB's just for shits and giggles.
I'd never want to ruin riding my MTB by racing in the way that racing MX and Enduros ruined my fun of riding offroad bikes.
Mates have tried to tempt me into doing some enduros but I just don't see the point.
Not enough riding and too much waiting around for me. Then there's the whole aspect of traveling up and down the country which doesn't sit right with me any more either.
I'd much rather meet up with mates and ride unrestricted from start times and waiting around.
Staying fit, healthy and improving yourself even if its only yourself you’re improving against is winning at life to me however you achieve it whether that’s racing or just being able to enjoy a decent ride out with your mates.
Yep. This is why I do that one "event" per year, though it might just be some sort of challenge that I set myself (like doing the Cairngorm Loop in less than 40 hrs or riding all of NCN78 in less than 24 hrs). TBH it's also making more sense the older I get, just to try to stave off the inevitable.
No - I mostly prefer riding on my own, for leisure rather than to win. A nice view, peace, solitude, working out where to go, all much more fun to me that getting repeatedly lapped by much fitter and more technically able riders. I've done a couple of sportifs and whilst I quite enjoyed the atmosphere especially the closed road ones, but my times make clear I definitely was not racing!
I don't race... yet...
After going from 16.5 stone in 2018 to 23 stone by end of 2022 due to poor diet, no excercise and too much beer I'm still carrying too much weight to really handle any 2500ft and 25 mile enduro races, max I've done this year is 17 miles with 1800ft before I bonked out. I'd like to be able to handle 2500ft and 25 miles and still feel like I've got enough in the bank otherwise I'm asking for a bad crash at the final stage.
Not to say this wont change over the next few years though
Do I race, yes. Why?
Well because I enjoy it, I've always been competitive from footie and athletics at school, then I took up fishing, had a go at a match, kinda got hooked, pardon the pun and then match fished from the age of 12 right up to my early twenties until the usual things like women, beer and cars put a stop to that. I did well, very well to be fair, regularly winning junior level stuff, competing with the adults, fishing big opens, regional champs and at National level up to Division 1. I then got into it again in my early 30's about the same time as I started riding bikes, naturally I was fishing matches again, doing well, picking up money pretty much every time I fished but it was starting to get expensive and I lost the will to do it.
Then came the bikes, I started off as just owning one for riding round the woods nearby, after a couple of years and an awful lot fitter and a fair chunk lighter, my then mate suggested I have a go in a local XC race with him, I was crap but I enjoyed it and I was bitten. I got fitter, I raced more, I got fitter, I was doing better, I even managed a couple of XC podiums. Then this 24hr thing caught my attention, initially as part of a team which just didn't suit me as there were other people to make a mess of things, I'm fine with me messing things up, but if others who commit to a team don't commit in the same way it doesn't to well with me if I'm honest. So soloing it was, I did alright, I never won anything, but I came bloody close and had a podium or two and big events. But it was taking up too much time, the training, the prep, the events themselves.
I tried pairs a couple of times. went rather well, more podium visits, then that scene pretty much died on it's arse to back to XC, a few years older and not as fast, I do alright, I can muster a mid-pack finish and occasionally end up inside the top 10 if the course suits me. I enjoy it , it keeps me fit and it's a nice scene.
My eldest is really into it, so I'm now racing as he's racing, I'm there so I might as well enter the old duffers later on in the day and be constantly heckled by him and his increasingly fast mates and we have a great time.
CX is the same, I've done a few seasons, scrape top 20, have a laugh, but the kids love it.
