Audacity makes the difference

As we're trying to get back on the saddle and reacquainted with all the subtleties of mountain biking, I'm discovering, once more, how similar that sport is to alpine skiing. Believe you'll clear a hairpin turn and you'll clear it, have doubts about the outcome and you'll bite the dust!

Until this season, banked turns have always be by nemesis and it's only now that I can muster the audacity to launch into them, enter as high as I dare to, and the end result is that I come out in the perfect spot with good speed.

That says a lot about the psychology of mountain biking and its requirement for lots of guts if not aggressive behavior. Hard to do at first when one's “over the hill,” but achievable as long as one is rewarded by some tangible, positive results!