Matt de Neef helps us how to survive sportives and epics. They create the perfect environment to challenge your physical and mental limits. Finding ways to survive any epic ride you're about to do will not only increase your chances of enjoying it more but finishing the ride in the first place. This show focuses on the Scody 3 Peaks Challenge in Australia, but the lessons apply to any epic adventure you set out to conquer.
Find out the answers to these questions (and more):
How do you put this together, and how do you use it during the ride?
Do you ever use other metrics like power or heart rate?
What do you pack?
How about accounting for stops - do you rely on the provided food and drink?
How can a rider minimise the time spent at the feed stations?
How can we be better prepared for a climb than just relying on the average gradient?
Gradients and climbs push riders out of their comfort zone, especially when you’re making your way up the final climb. When you’re not riding by heart rate anymore you’re riding by heart. This can happen on a ride with your mates, a long training ride and especially sportive events that push you beyond your physical abilities.
One such moment that you wrote about is your final climb up the front side of Falls Creek in one year of the 3 peaks.
This is what you wrote:
“It had stopped being fun long ago, but by this point I was starting to question why I was even doing this ride, why I even ride a bike at all. I resolved to stop riding for at least a month after 3 Peaks, lest I feel the urge to get myself into a situation like this again.”
This sounds pretty drastic, but I’m sure it’s familiar to most people listening. How about the mental ups and downs...how do you get through them?
It wasn’t the same feeling of unadulterated joy and elation I felt the previous two years with the plateau-and-downhill finish of the regular 3 Peaks route. Instead it was a pure feeling of relief. The pain was over. I could get off the bike. Finally.
-Matt de Neef describing the moment of finishing his third 3 Peaks event
