XC Mountain Biking | Dreamscape Images ®

You peddle up the long hill, gasping for breath looking for the top of the ridge. How much longer you’re thinking? Am I almost there? Out of the corner of your eye you notice the breathtaking scenery below. You’ll have to enjoy that later…too much pain right now.

What if you could get to the top of the hill faster with the same fitness level? You can you know. Many XC mountain bike riders are not aware they are losing power below their knees…in their pedal stroke. Read the rest of this entry

ScienceDaily (Feb. 7, 2011) — Mountain biking, also known as off-road biking, is a great way to stay physically active while enjoying nature and exploring the outdoors. The good news is that mountain biking-related injuries have decreased. A new study conducted by researchers at the Center for Injury Research and Policy of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital found the number of mountain bike-related injuries decreased 56 percent over the 14-year study period (1994 to 2007) — going from a high of more than 23,000 injuries in 1995 to just over 10,000 injuries in 2007. Read the rest of this entry

Article source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/02/110203113812.htm

USA Cycling has released the selection procedures that will be used to determine the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team across all four Olympic disciplines — road, mountain bike, track and BMX. Read the rest of this entry

Article source: http://velonews.competitor.com/2011/01/news/olympic-selection-process-revealed-the-road-or-trail-or-track-to-london-gets-clearer_157059

Tomorrow you will become the master of MTB braking skills.  Who cares you may think.  Why is braking so important?

Your XC mountain bike training is a lot of work and you work hard to get faster.  Essentially, you are working out to improve your energy output.  MTB braking is about dissipating the energy you’ve worked hard to create.  Or if it’s a downhill ride, you’re dissipating the energy gravity generated for you.

If you under or over brake from the optimum, you could be singing the blues if you fly off your XC mountain bike into a cactus bush where you’ll spend the next 30 minutes pulling thorns out of your behind.  If you over brake, you could also be wasting valuable energy and losing XC MTB speed.

Brake For Speed…

Good braking can make you a faster XC mountain biker.   Buy one to three seconds per corner or section of a trail and you’ll be done with your first Clif Bar and bottle of Gatorade before your friends arrive.  Take these MTB brake skills to the races and you’ll move up in the race rankings. 

Improve your braking and you’ll also use less energy getting to the finish line.

Become a master of MTB braking skills with these ten XC mountain bike tips: Read the rest of this entry

You’re climbing the long hill, your legs turning slowly, when all of a sudden your buddy rides past you spinning at high rpm.  You down shift and try to spin faster to catch up but your legs start to burn too much and you slow.  Why can’t you spin faster?  Should you spin faster?

Although most riders and experts will tell you that spinning at higher rpm is usually more efficient, the perfect pedal stroke cadence for you is very much dependent on your genetic muscle strength, cardio fitness level, and current xc mountain bike training.

Everyone has different pedal stroke skills, leg strength, knee health, cardio fitness levels, and fast/slow twitch muscle composition.   Some of us use hard big gears like a tractor, and some of us spin our way to the top like a windmill.

Expand Your XC Mountain Bike Torque and Horsepower Read the rest of this entry

So you’ve tackled some long climbs up some steep hills this Fall and Winter. But can you fight to the finish line the last quarter of a mile of the race? Can you overtake a competitor up the steep climb? Can you sprint out of the starting gate and get to the front before the bottleneck of the single track portion of the course begins?

Consider these five xc mountain bike tips to take your sprinting skills to the next level.

1. Attack and give 100% – Commit all your resources to driving the pedals and maximizing your speed as soon as possible. Make every effort to reach your maximum rpm in the fewest pedal strokes possible. Shoot for 20 pedal strokes…then 15…then 10 and so on. Read the rest of this entry

17 Championship Events Announced for the 12 Disciplines of Cycling -
Championships open in 2011 with BMX in April followed by Collegiate and Pro Road
ITT in May

2011 USA
National Championships

Read the rest of this entry

Article source: http://www.dailypeloton.com/displayarticle.asp?pk=17952