What does an XC mountain biker need to have to be a success?? apart from a bike

What do you mean by ‘success’?

Phenomenal bike handling skills.

epo?

Very fit, good bike handler, good genetic make-up.

Someone who wins races, and at a high level

Focus and discipline.

A full trophy cabinet!

Sugar, spice and all things nice

Asking Team McCoy might be too late….

http://www.myspace.com/richiemccoyofficial/blog

Power to weight mostly.

Speaking from second hand knowledge – this is what the ‘top’ XC riders that I know do:

– Over 20 hours a week ride time

– Gym sessions regularly

– Yoga

– calorie controlled diets

– Bank of Mum and Dad (or other external source of funding). Very few pro’s in the XC world are on Salary.

– Desire beyond all desire to ride bikes.

– Ability to talk about Watts per kilogram, FTP and TSS for days on end.

– Adoration for their bathroom scales.

– Bike handling skills like you wouldn’t believe.

– Ability to utilise said bike handling skills when heart is going at 200, after 1:45 of racing. This, I think, is the actual secret!

Not getting bored of training for hours on end, ridiculous bike handling (riding faster than pretty much everyone on here, on 100mm hardtails), high pain threshold and an ability to suffer.

Bike handling and fitness play a huge part as others have said!

Also a really strong mental attitude as well, especially for endurance racing!

I’d say everything Kitz said +1

The love of road riding, as thats where a hell of a lot of the training will be done.
So none of this weird prejudice that seems to go on from both road and mtb sides. Plus pure genetics that you cant train. A lot of people can get train to the point of gettig a great power weight ratio, but then it still leaves them way short of the mark to compete at the very very top. Its natural physiology.

Excellent post Kitz, that just about sums up my experience knowing a salaried Pro.

The love of road riding, as thats where a hell of a lot of the training will be done.

Not in all cases, a good friend of mine (who is rather fast) does less on the road than I do! Crazy amounts of riding, but plenty of intervals on the turbo or 6+ hour MTB rides!

gnarr + v2omax 2

Train, train some more, recover properly then train some more.

There’s a school of thought that anyone can achieve anything depending on practise
See here..

There was a test done somewhere taking a cross-section of violin players and basically those that were the most successful were those that had practised more than anyone else.

Not sure how this translates to physical activity but having read a bit about it, it does seem that the term ‘Athlete’ is banded about quite a bit.

I’m not so sure myself, I can’t see how practise could make say, a 100m sprinter as fast as Mr Bolt purely based on his physical structure but it’s an interesting point….

And yes, I did post a link to some bloke talking about playing the horn….

everything Kitz said…. incl balls the size of footballs and the will to win..

So none of this weird prejudice that seems to go on from both road and mtb sides

On here at least, that’s just banter.

I spoke to a very successful triathlete recently who had a mate who was a similarly successful national cyclocross racer. He trained one 40 min turbo session a week. Although I think he was racing most weekends!

There was a test done somewhere taking a cross-section of violin players and basically those that were the most successful were those that had practised more than anyone else

But the ability and desire to single-mindedly train/practice is genetic in itself, so it’s a moot point. As is the ability to really hurt yourself in races, and to WANT to really hurt yourself.

Not sure how this translates to physical activity but having read a bit about it, it does seem that the term ‘Athlete’ is banded about quite a bit.

is it not generally thought that the top(road) cyclists have above normal vo2 max and lung capacity. the very best have both

Whilst I am sure you can level the playing field massively with appropriate amounts of training I think there is a genetic predisposition which is hard to do much about.

To refer back to the aforementioned friend… we went to Uni together, me racing since 2000, he started in 2006, both had some reasonably alright results, but nothing special.

Both got fit for 2007 season, trained a lot together and were very even, both won a couple of races, various podiums, finished dead level on points. Both took October as a month off the bike totally, rode together in early November. I’d lost a lot of fitness, he really hadn’t. Never been close to him again – he just retained fitness so much better than me, and continued to get fitter. I just plateaued.

But the ability and desire to single-mindedly train/practice is genetic in itself, so it’s a moot point.

Erm, not its not, apparently. It can be as much to do with your upbringing or influences as it does inbuilt desire to train

BTW, I’m not saying its definitely the case – just what I’ve read.

According to Friel, the worlds greatest cyclist is probably laid on the sofa smoking 40 tabs a day having never sat on a bike….

According to Friel, the worlds greatest cyclist is probably laid on the sofa smoking 40 tabs a day having never sat on a bike….

That does make me smile every time I read that…

Erm, not its not, apparently. It can be as much to do with your upbringing or influences as it does inbuilt desire to train

Well you can’t choose your upbringing, can you? And even if you could you’d choose the one you wanted based on your in-built desires. I could’ve been a much better cyclist if there’d been a road club to get started with when I was 16 or so getting into cycling. As it was, I didn’t know anything about training or racing. However, my recreationally biased upbringing is as much a part of me as my genes so it’s still moot.

Well you can’t choose your upbringing, can you? And even if you could you’d choose the one you wanted based on your in-built desires. I could’ve been a much better cyclist if there’d been a road club to get started with when I was 16 or so getting into cycling. As it was, I didn’t know anything about training or racing. However, my recreationally biased upbringing is as much a part of me as my genes so it’s still moot.

Eh? Your original statement was that the desire to train is genetic. Which is isn’t (from what I’ve read). So its not moot is it.

The desire to succeed, to sacrifice everything to satisfy the need to be the best at your chosen discipline isn’t genetic.

knowing an ex GB cyclocross IST I think alot of it is mental ability to train & race very hard. Example, he said on training rides he could vomit or get cramp and just ride through it. At that point id be saying **** that!

You also need the right physical build too.

Have any of the top XC guys raced with a dropper post on a ‘technical’ course yet ?

The desire to succeed, to sacrifice everything to satisfy the need to be the best at your chosen discipline isn’t genetic

I think it is – but aside from that, a lot of factors have to come together to create someone who succeeds in anything difficult. My point is that whilst some factors are genetic and some aren’t, it doesn’t actually matter because they are fairly random overall but with a strong degree of heritability. By which I mean that if your folks are big into bike racing or music or whatever, you’re going to get a good deal of exposure to it and will be more likely to become a top racer/whatever than someone whose parents aren’t into it at all.

Have any of the top XC guys raced with a dropper post on a ‘technical’ course yet

Nope. Sure it’ll happen, but I expect it’ll be in the lower ranks long before the WC. The top guys just aren’t losing the time on the descents to justify it.