You’re riding along, but you know that not far ahead of you is something you fear. Your muscles tense, your heart starts beating harder, you find it hard to focus on anything other than the upcoming obstacle. You might detour to avoid it, freeze in your tracks, or go through it with your heart in your mouth.

Whether you’re a road rider, mountain biker or commuter, the scenario above will be familiar to a lot of you. Fear, and overcoming it, is to a greater or lesser extent part of cycling.

What can further complicate things is that people are fearful for different reasons; it might be a fear of injury, or a fear of failure.

The thing is, sometimes your perception of the danger is much greater than it actually is. Add to this the complication that the type of fear people experience can be different for each person, or a combination of types. Identifying which type or types of fear you are experiencing can help you overcome the feeling more effectively.