The morning after the 2013 MTB World Champs I woke up feeling excited. I was inspired by seeing Australians excel across the board and admire that many of them have been able to do so despite little funding from the governing bodies for our sport.
Nutting out what excited me most led to a feature article for Flow Mountain Bike looking at the weekend in a broader context. It’s not that these riders are dominating in one discipline of cycling, many of them are doing so in several. At a personal level, this makes me want to jump on any old bike and go for a ride. It’s nice to be reminded that getting outside and having fun on one type of bike is helping me to become a better rider in other areas as well.
Academically speaking, I find it interesting that we’re seeing riders adopt methods of training and racing that go against a traditional view of focusing on one discipline alone. I’d love to look further into the ways riders see skill sets and expertise from one type of racing coming in handy in – or hindering – another.
After the story was published on Flow I was invited to participate in the weekly podcast for Cycling Central over at SBS. You can listen to the conversation here.
If I was excited the morning after Worlds, I’m even more excited now. The fact that more people are talking positively about cycling more often? That feels like the biggest win of all.
Kath Bicknell 