Downhill specialist: Nino Schurter
Nino Schurter is regarded as the best downhill rider on the cross-country circuit. The Swiss world champion can even take on seasoned enduro cracks. The more technical the course, the more likely the 27-year-old is to win.
Is it a bird, is it an aeroplane? No, it's Nino Schurter. Yes, this motto, which is usually used by Superman, fits the Swiss rider perfectly. No matter which bike Schurter is on, he always cuts a fine figure. The 27-year-old can basically do everything - he is the bike superman among the action heroes. Uphill, downhill, enduro, racing bike or even on skis - Schurter outdoes them all, especially when it gets steep, technical and simply unrideable. Even the experts wonder how he does it. Was it a meteor shower over his home town of Flims, or is it that strong, flavoursome alpine cheese? Schurter shakes his head and tries to look like a normal person. "It's all training," he says and sets off on the next trail, which is actually unrideable.
Downhill tips from Nino Schurter
1. balance and strength training on the slackline: The slackline is the tool to get fit for difficult downhills. Decoupling from bike training stimulates the sense of balance and strengthens muscle interaction. Initially, you should only be able to keep your balance, followed later by squats - both one-legged and two-legged.
2. more suspension travel: If you ride with a little more suspension travel than usual, you can master difficult passages better. Freeriders simply iron out any initial fear of jumps and rough sections. This can later be transferred to cross-country or marathon biking. Freeriding is also a great activity in autumn when there are no competitions. Simply let yourself be shuttled up and race down.
3. seek a challenge: If you are travelling with friends, you should see every demanding passage as a challenge and keep trying until you get through. Advantage: You can help each other and if you fall, someone will be there right away. Endurance training can also be neglected from time to time. Having fun is the priority.
Uphill machine: Wolfram Kurschat
As soon as the climb begins, the bike elite fear Wolfram Kurschat's attack. He is regarded as the strongest climber in cross-country and ignites his turbo from the very first metre uphill.
If you cut open Wolfram Kurschat's skin, you will most likely find an apparatus consisting of cylinders, combustion engines and a lot of wires. The Neustädter's uphill performances are legendary and are basically part of motorsport. A glance at the watt display makes even sports scientists wonder: 500 watts of continuous power over 15 minutes and that with a body weight of 70 kilos. The 39-year-old regularly scares his flesh-and-blood opponents - especially when the pistons are well lubricated. After all, it's unfair to let people ride against this machine. For fun, the bike pro recently ventured into unfamiliar territory: at the German Mountain Championships, he outdistanced the entire road elite and became German champion.
Climbing tips from Wolfram Kurschat
1. short basic units:
If you want to ride dynamically, short and fast, as is required in cross country, then you should only do long training sessions on the bike in moderation. Kurschat trains short but fast basic units that last no longer than three hours. The Neustadt native often eats nothing to improve his fat metabolism.
2. eat iron: Hardly any biker does squats as intensively as the runner-up in this year's German Championships. Kurschat starts at the beginning of the season with many repetitions with over 100 kilos. Once he has completed 30 squats with 130 kilos, he begins maximum strength training. He only does four sets of five repetitions. The weight is correspondingly high. He didn't want to reveal how high.
3. in the torture chamber: Kurschat has reserved a room in his house for roller training. The training itself is so tough that even his competitors shake their heads and see it more as torture than an effective stimulus. It works for Kurschat. For example, 60 minutes with 4 x 10 minutes at 450 watts. Or ten 40-second intervals at 600 watts, during which he rests for 20 seconds.
Mentalist: Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå
If Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå wasn't biking, she could use her mental abilities to break glass or read minds. Luckily, she has decided in favour of biking and only tortures her competitors.
As soon as Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå climbs onto the roller to warm up, she looks like she's pulling roots out of 15-digit numbers. No other bike pro looks as fierce and can focus better than the Norwegian. This is becoming increasingly apparent as she gets older. Dahle Flesjå stares with the gaze of a Medusa as she rolls to the start and switches off the rest around her. "I'm in a kind of racing trance that makes me focus one hundred per cent on the competition. You have to force yourself to think only about that. I've perfected this over the years," explains the 42-year-old. In the interview and in her training tips, she explains that this tactic is not only effective in races but also in training.
Mental training tips from Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå
1. focussing: Gunn-Rita has a simple guiding principle for her focussing technique: do everything with 100 percent and don't let yourself be distracted. For her training, this means no distracting mobile phone calls in between or thinking about problems. She literally forces herself to concentrate on the training content she wants to complete.
2. visualise: Knowing the race course is a big part of the Norwegian's training. The 42-year-old looks at important race courses six months in advance, films them and recalls key sections again and again. The closer the competition, the more often she does this. The visualisation is done as an
as an independent training session and not simply in between.
3. analyse: Dahle Flesjå analyses every competition in detail. The process begins as soon as she crosses the finish line. She discusses good and bad situations with her husband Kenneth. A few days later, the training programme for the competition is checked to see where there is room for improvement. With this knowledge, processes can later be automated and require less mental work.
Grip champion: Julien Absalon
As soon as the heavens open the floodgates and transform the race track into a muddy course, Julien Absalon's time has come. The Frenchman defies physics and seems to drive through the muddy sludge more effortlessly than anyone else.
Is it the fresh water in the Vosges or is Julien Absalon eating kryptonite for breakfast - nobody can explain it exactly, but anyone who sees the 33-year-old racing around the World Cup courses in the worst weather will have their jaw dropping. While his competitors and the spectators skid across the race course, Absalon seems to form a special bond with the ground. Absalon doesn't slip, Absalon doesn't crash, Absalon doesn't slow down - he rides like a model railway over an imaginary rail network that seems to be stretched over the muddy competition course. Even his opponents despair and frantically try to stay on the series winner's rear wheel. The result: crashes or material failure. Absalon's strength in bad weather lies not only in the downhill, but also in the uphill. "When it gets very muddy, I shoulder the bike and run uphill. This usually gives me clean lugs on the descent, which gives me more grip," explains the Frenchman. But how do you become a bad weather god? Julien Absalon let us in on some of his training secrets.
Training tips for rain and mud from Julien Absalon
1. train with experts: Julien Absalon has perhaps the best downhill coach at his side - his brother Remy. Remy Absalon is one of the crème de la crème in the enduro circus. Absalon regularly has uphill and downhill duels with him. Absalon therefore recommends simply training with enduro bikers or downhillers and trying to stay on their back wheels.
2. stay supple: Wet roots and stones mean that studs offer hardly any grip, and the rubber just slides over these surfaces. However, the Frenchman does not react nervously or frantically. He lets his tyres do their thing. If the tyre slips briefly, it usually finds a centimetre more grip if you stay relaxed and have set the tyre pressure low enough. Also good: balance training on wobble boards.
3. cross-country racing: If you really want to ride in bad weather conditions, you should take part in cross-country races in winter. The muddy tracks, which are tackled with very narrow studded tyres, improve your riding technique enormously. Absalon is not the only one to do this. Swiss bikers such as Florian Vogel and Andi Frischknecht also take to the cyclocross tracks in winter.
