2013 was an incredible year for pro mountain biker Tracy Moseley. Racing in the inaugural Enduro World Series, she won the majority of the events and clinched the overall title, adding yet another victory to her already impressive palmares. What does 2014 have in store for her?
“I can’t believe it’s been four months since the end of the season! I am always amazed just how quickly the winter months pass by, which this year has to have been a good thing as the last two months have not been the best for bike riding in the UK!
After such a good 2013 season I took some time to reflect and decide what was next for me and my 2014 plans.
Every time I see my osteopath he asks me when am I going to retire, as my body is getting older and I can’t keep punishing it like I do. But I have to say I am feeling fitter than ever since doing a lot more endurance-focused training, and I am loving the challenge of Enduro racing.
So it’s full steam ahead for 2014 with my main goal to try and retain my Enduro World Series title!
I think everyone who raced the EWS last year will be looking at their training this winter and finding ways to improve for next season. We all have a better idea of what the demands of the events are and what a full race season feels like.
I decided that my endurance fitness was still the main weakness of my Enduro riding, so this winter I have focused on having a proper training structure to improve my base fitness and work on more cross country-type race fitness.
I have had the opportunity to ride with the Team XC Academy mountain bike girls Beth Crumpton and Alice Barnes regularly over the winter. In return for me giving them some skills coaching I have been treated to a good workout trying to keep up with them on the climbs!
I also did a 3 week block of cyclocross racing over New Year, doing two local races and two national events. I don’t think it was the best timing for my cyclocross debut as the rain did not stop and they were apparently some of the worst races of the whole season!
Still, it was a great experience and highlighted the areas of my fitness I really need to work on. I found it tough trying to push the pace for an entire 40 minutes of a race. I am good at shorter efforts of around 5-10 minutes, like you find on an endure race stage, but then I need to recover. So keeping that effort up for a much longer duration just killed me!
Tracy Moseley, Road Cyclist
To work on that consistent effort I have spent a lot of the winter on my road bike, getting involved in my local cycling club more and taking part in regular road rides and reliability rides. Getting dragged along by a big group, and burying myself in the middle of them to stay with the group has all been part of the experience!
I even had a go at a local circuit race. I rode 20 miles to it, spent 40mins going round in circles trying to stay with the bunch, failed, got lapped and then rode 20 miles home into an almighty headwind.
It’s all been great character building stuff, and they’re all experiences I can draw from when the going gets though this season – I hope!
I also took 2 trips away to escape the rain, one to Spain and one to Portugal again just with the road bike. Sometimes just going away from home and all those normal day to day jobs is so good for training, as there is nothing to do but eat, ride and sleep. I always manage to get much better recovery when I go away.
There were both mentally pretty tough trips just pounding the same roads, doing the same efforts and intervals, but I know that when I get on my MTB and ride some amazing trails in the summer I will appreciate being off road so much more.
Racing Downhill at the Forest of Dean
That said, with all the road riding I felt as though I needed to make sure I hadn’t forgotten how to ride off road! With that in mind I entered a Mini Downhill race at the end of February at the Forest of Dean.
It had been nearly a year since I had last raced downhill race so I felt the pressure a little – especially with my lack of off road riding and with pro-racer Katy Curd competing!
It was always going to be a close race on a sub-one minute track and Katy took the first run by 0.7 seconds. I managed to let go a bit more on the second run and sneaked the win by 0.5seconds. It felt good to start the season off with a win and great to see Katy riding well and with her focus back on DH. I really hope she has a great season.
So I think I am all set for another season of racing. I’ll be joining back up with a Trek Factory team as they create the Trek Factory Enduro Team so I’ll benefit from the support of a team around me which will be great.
I will also be maintaining all of my personal sponsors that have supported me for the last 2 years, so I think I have a great combination for a successful 2014.”
Bring it on!
