GRASP YOUR MENTAL STRENGTH

From instilling ambition to assembling support to conjuring a racier sense of self, sports psychologist Dr. Josephine Perry has a five-point strategy to fortify your cycling mindset

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Mark Cavendish was all but written off prior to the 2007 Tour de France. His numbers just weren’t up to snuff, reckoned one T-Mobile Team coach. Over the next 12 years and 140 professional wins, the Manxman showed that success isn’t all about physiological data — especially when your will to win outstrips that of your rivals. Of course you need great fitness and physicality, but once those are in place, racing becomes a brain game — and this is why mental fitness matters more than you might realise.

Some riders have great mental fitness already — it is part of their package of talents. But for those of us without that talent, we don’t need to miss out, we just need to set aside time for learning the basic mental skills and strategies. My work with riders as a sports psychologist does just this: working together, we focus on five key areas which, when considered and incorporated into our training and racing, put us in the best position to achieve success. Once we have fully GR ASP’d these basics — Goals, Racing, self-Awareness, Support and Preparation — we’re ready to step up our performance.

Goals: trust in your target

We all have things we want to accomplish, but how often do we write them down, plan them out and really work out in depth how we are going to achieve them? Successful cyclists do this religiously. There are hundreds of studies showing that setting clear, specific, realistic and timely goals that are completely within your control can increase your motivation, commitment, concentration and confidence.

Going through a formal goal-setting process gets you crystal clear on the skills and improvements you’ll need to make. Done well, you’ll get regular achievements to tick off and a surge of confidence that you have done everything in your power to succeed.