Sharp As A Marble

If you live in the Northern hemisphere, the riding season is a distant memory for most of us. Winter is firmly entrenched, the days short, it's cold, wet and gloomy. It's perfect weather to be a couch potato, but if you are like most hardcore shredders, you need to scratch that itch - that itchy urge to go ride your bike. And if you are a competitor, you want to preserve all of that fitness and skill base that you worked so hard on during the rest of the year, and if you are dedicated, build on that base so next year you come out stronger than ever.

Scott Sharples and Jill Kintner talk strategy at the top of the Leogang World Cup track.
Most of the riders that I have worked with in the past, like Sam Hill and Bryn Atkinson, have had the benefit of living in Australia in the off season (for those that failed geography, Christmas is Summer time in the southern hemisphere. If you don’t know what the Southern hemisphere is you need a smack). Training and playing on your bike is so much more fun when the days are long and warm - you can get in a ride in the morning and you don’t have to wait for the ground to thaw. You can then relax in during the hottest part of the day, followed by some playing/training again in the late afternoon. For us that live where the days are short, we need to be a little better prepared, and we need to make some minor changes to the way we do things...


If your favorite track is covered in snow, or too wet, what do you do to maintain your skills? Here is a list of things you can do to help relieve the monotony of winter.



Ride BMX A dirt jump/street bike works as well. Most good BMX tracks don’t get too badly effected by the rain, and they usually have lights, so you can go in the evening time. You can get a solid skills work out at the same time as a fitness workout, and it can be done in a very short time. Even Jared Graves, with his 'monkey butt' power packs developed through his BMX training, could still make most people look amateurish on the DH bike. Go street thrashing, practice your ‘flat land’ tricks, a few wall rides, a bit of urban trials, mix it up. There is a load of fun to be had in a parking lot, especially if you have a bunch of mates to do it with. This type of riding gives you a great opportunity to practice the fundamental skills, which are so often over looked. Don’t give mountain bikers a bad name by f*cking up other people’s property.

You don't need to be Jeff Lenosky to have fun riding street
Surfing, Snow boarding , skiing or Skateboarding. All of these activities require a certain agility, balance, coordination, core strength, and confidence. Carving down a mountain, picking lines between trees, using the terrain, committing to a turn, it's all the same mental approach, but you are on edges sliding instead of wheels rolling. Shawn Palmer is an example of how these two sports go together. When you practice the technique of turning on a board, you can apply that same practice technique to cornering on a bike.

Ball sports All ball sports, offer some kind of benefit (with the exception of beer pong). From ping pong to dodge ball, apart form the athleticism involved, there are benefits to practicing hand/eye co-ordination, core strength, agility, focus and adaptation skills. The more skills you acquire, the more confidence you will have to be yourself and be your best. The confidence you get from any sport will help you in your biking.


Scott Sharples returns in 'Sharp as a Marble' next month to answer your questions on how to get faster. Curious about pre-race routine? Unsure of which exercises to do? Looking for some fun cross training? Put those questions down below and, if you're lucky, Scott will give you an answer in his upcoming column!