Take Your Riding to the Next Level

Words by By Piotr Slusarz

Five, four, three, two, one, Go! The adrenaline jumps into action, all leg muscles tighten up as you put in that first mega pedal stroke. You look ahead to your first obstacle, a rock garden or maybe a tight berm. Thinking back to your warm up runs you try to hit, what you anticipated, to be the ideal line. You hit your marks but blow it out wide or overshoot your exit. What happened? Why? You failed to account for the extra pace you found when you heard GO and every fiber of your being focused on going as fast as your body allowed. That is racing! Racing has the ability to extract the most out ofyour current fitness and skill level, sometimes even unintentionally.

Why should you give racing a shot? Why put that extra pressure on yourself and take the time out of your weekend to put it all on the line for a plastic medal or just the pride of being the fastest in your class on that day? Turns out you have much more to gain than you know! There are many benefits, as I have found out during my short racing career, and some drawbacks, as there is no reward without sacrifice.

I have been racing mountain bikes since 2021, when a buddy and I first discovered a local Enduro race series. I have been riding in San Diego since 2012 yet I had never heard of any racing that would tailor to the riding style I enjoyed. We made a commitment to start “training” for the race that was a couple months away. What were we getting ourselves into? We knew we were not slow, with Strava giving some indication that we would not fall flat on our face, but a formal race environment seemed so foreign. The idea of going blind into a racing series with no real understanding of how things worked felt intimidating. So intimidating that my buddy backed out of it shortly before the race. I managed to recruit another victim, I mean buddy, to join me as I was mentally fully committed to see this through.

All it took was one race. One race to get hooked. One race to get myself on the podium. One race to experience that podium feeling, a feeling that now I am always in endless pursuit of. One race to find out that my whole life, even when making a PR attempt on Strava, I have been a casual rider leaving a ton of time on the trail. Racing has so many positives, that I believe, everyone would benefit from giving it a try no matter the type of riding you favor.

The greatest improvement that can be gained is a new found mindset of riding for speed. As a new rider, the primary focus is just getting to the end of the trail, but once you are able to do that with ease you start to focus on going faster with each run. For many, this ends at pedaling more and braking later. Nothing wrong with that, especially when on a leisurely spin to clear the head after a long week of work. But when racing jumps into the picture, it highlights the realization that every flat section is an opportunity to pedal. Every undulation in the trail is a possibility of additional speed if pumped correctly. On every section of mountain bike trail there is something you should be doing, whether it be cornering, braking, pedaling, or pumping. Racing brings this to light more than anything I have experienced.

Another significant riding advancement is seeing the trail from a perspective of the “fastest” line, and not just riding the middle of the singletrack. In automotive racing there is a saying, “You paid for the whole track, use it.” This is an aspect I believe many MTB riders do not pay attention to. Race tracks have painted curbs that reveal where you probably want to be, but on a mountain bike trail this needs to be consciously applied. Even in a section of single track no wider than a foot, there is extra speed to be found if you place yourself on the outside of a corner entry, making the trail just that little but straighter and helping you carry more speed through the corner and down the next straight.

Fast forward 3 years since my first race, I am still finding areas of improvement. The deeper I go into racing I am surprised by the seemingly endless layers of riding skills to advance, each layer building on the foundation that I have been forming since I first started riding the trails.

So give racing a shot! Find yourself a local race series for a riding style you enjoy and go for it. Just one race, one weekend if not just a day. Who knows what you might discover about yourself and your riding potential. It could start a whole new chapter of your life that could keep your soul happy for years to come.