One of the more interesting quirks of taking on a personalised training plan from The Endurance Coach to target the 1200km Paris-Brest-Paris road ride in August has been the introduction of mountain biking to my life.
As a road rider of some 25 years standing I have consistently turned my back on the pleasures of the trail. Itâs not that I ever had anything against the MTB crowd, indeed I have often looked on in awe at their downhill antics, but I never thought it was for me. After all, itâs enough of an effort just to keep my road bikes and kit clean without making things worse by deliberately seeking out filth.
That all changed when my coach Nick Thomas advised me that he would be scheduling weekly MTB rides into my winter training plan to add variety, keep me warm and help me work on my technical skills. With some trepidation I approached our friends on What Mountain Bike for a loan, borrowed a lovely Canyon Lux CF and, after a couple of brief forays into the hills around Bath, set off for the Brecon Beacons and a weekend of wide wheels, wild countryside and February snow.
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Just to cut to the chase, anyone looking for tales of âsick dropsâ and awesome handling skills should look away now, what youâre going to get here is the story of a rider tentatively picking their way around some relatively straightforward trails but, in doing so, beginning to learn that there is a whole other cycling world out there: one thatâs great fun.
My MTB education actually began a couple of weeks prior to this trip, falling off within a minute of turning my bike away from the road and onto a steep, muddy downhill track to the south of Bath. Fortunately I was travelling at approximately 1mph, aware that I was completely out of my depth, when the tumble took place, so it was definitely more of a topple than a stack.
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