Average Joe reviews... The Atherton's Training Day - Fundamentals

I don't know about other people but I swing from feeling like I'm pretty ok at riding to feeling pretty useless and frustrated with myself when I choke at a technical section or a challenge. I've considered training courses before but never really got off my arse to work out if they are worth the bucks. Like many, my biggest problem is committing to a particular trail challenge or obstacle. I find myself either dribbling through on the brakes or coming a cropper and eating dirt. I know that Peaty always says that 'speed is your friend' but to me I just cannot push my mental boundaries and most of the time I feel like I am riding within myself. Any point where I come across something big I've always got wife/baby/mortgage/career ringing in my head and out comes the big anchor! This finally pushed me to sign up to an Atherton's training day in North Wales at sunny Llandegla. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect and had vague notions that parting with some cash would make me a better rider. I guess meeting and riding with the Atherton's may have had something to do with it too. After a blown water pump and a nervous last 10 miles with a close eye on the temperature gauge, I limped into the trail centre (not a good start - late and limping already) and after dumping my bike outside joined the rest of the course. I was concerned about the course being full of very good riders, with me wheezing along behind like the fat asthmatic kid at the school cross country run but thankfully the group was a really pleasant mix. The participant list read like a list of all corners of the mtb world, from the kid with the downhill bike who had just come back from an injury, to the XC rider who wanted to get into more aggressive riding. There were blokes and girls and even a mum and her son (and before you cringe, they were both better than me). There were also the average guys with nice bikes and all the gear who needed some help with pretty much everything (me, me and me). After a quick brief and a short ride to a secret location we began in the drizzle with cornering. Dan, Gee and Bob (oneplanet) had designed a slippery rooty downhill set of corners which allowed us to learn a bit more about carrying speed and how slowing ourselves down and focusing on key points would make us smoother and ultimately better riders. Seeing the Atherton's blasting down the run was impressive to say the least. The period directly before lunch was the off camber section and the boys had pulled out all the stops to find a whole section of course that contoured down the hill in a seemingly precarious fashion. My love affair with the dirt was re-affirmed with three over the bars incidents taking much of the smaller foliage with me. I was starting to feel like a crash test dummy and would probably have given it up had it not been for Dan and Gee encouraging me to give it another go. I can't say I cleared it 100% but I certainly didn't go over the bars the fourth time. Lunch was back at the centre and involved a short ride back on the last section of the red route. While it may sound a little pretentious, it was great riding past other trail users with a 'yes that's right, we are out with the Athertons' look. Lunch was spent watching videos of my pretty average efforts from the morning and assessing what we needed to tune up on. Back to the spot in the woods for the afternoon and we were thrown straight back into cornering to reinforce some of the lessons from the morning. This showed how much most people had progressed as we all seemed smoother. Personally I would have liked to have been moving a bit faster at this point but I guess Rome wasn't built in a day. Drops were next and the boys showed us how it was done from a drop to a steep slope littered with trees. Most of us there wanted to practice on something a bit more sedate but having done bigger drops in the past I felt confident to give it a go. Sadly the run was pretty difficult and I didn't carry enough speed through the section for the drop. The next thing I know and I'm in a nose wheelie (not in a good way) careering through the trees to land head first for a fourth mouth full of pine needles. Needless to say I was a little frustrated that a drop that I knew I could handle had eluded me. I elected for some more sedate practice with Bob and the others rather than risk my neck further. The last part of the day was spent on the rhythm section and jump track which they had built at the bottom of the off camber section (yep I had to ride it again and faired better this time). This was made up of a set of four humps, a hip jump/hump into a steep descending turn followed by a step up and a double. We ran through pumping the whoops and some basic jumping theory and then all set about giving it a go. It seems like a stupid thing to say but I had never worked out how to pump rhythm sections and to my surprise this came pretty easily. Dan suggested I try manualling and so I set about trying to crack a more difficult skill. After a while the group spilt and the last half an hour was left to us to decide what to do. Everyone headed off for some more cornering and steep ground work with Gee but I wanted to stay and crack the manual if possible. I ended up with a great half hour which was just Dan, two of the centre guys and me so I pretty much got one on one tuition from Dan. By the end of this session, pretty much every muscle screamed and I was done-in but Dan had managed to get me to crack the odd manual intermittently which was a real buzz. A quick ride back to the centre, another review of the videos with Bob and the boys and it was all over, bar a few poster autographs and photos. Sitting in the tow truck on the way home, I reflected on the day and my initial overwhelming feeling of realizing I was a crapper rider than envisaged faded as I focused on the many positives from the day. Sometimes it is good to have a reality check and to focus on what you aren't so good at. The course focuses very strongly on core skills which are needed in challenging environments and this is the key to better riding. Like all good courses, you don't realise so much that you are getting better, if you did you may not strive to try so hard. Bob was excellent at making us realize that this was a start to working on our skills rather than a one-stop shop. Even the ride back to the centre had proven that I had already picked up some very simple but key points on cornering that had made me a little quicker. I think I expected the day to make me a better rider, which I guess was pretty silly as that doesn't happen overnight. I'm never gonna be an Atherton but I know that I can be better at the sport I love if I focus more on sessioning things I find difficult rather than simply avoiding them or struggling through them once a week. All credit to Dan and Gee who were excellent, patient and seemed genuinely pleased for you when you cracked something. Within about ten minutes of the morning you had almost forgotten how much of a big name they were as they messed around and joined in with the rest of us. Special thanks to Bob of oneplanet Adventure who is an excellent teacher of bike skills and was the glue that held the day together. The boys from Oneplanet Adventure also run other courses from the Llandegla trail head they operate and so if you can't afford the Atherton’s course then give there stuff a go. I'm certainly headed back sometime soon for the Jumps 'N' Drops course and the core skills course sound just right for people just getting to grips with more aggressive riding. Worth the money? Definitely. £180 is the cost of a cheap pair of forks or an average set of wheels. Will they make you go faster and commit to things on the trail? Not a chance! Can the Oneplanet Adventure guys and the Atherton's help you do this? They can make a pretty good dent in it in a day! Will you have any other chance to ride with world-class riders for over 7hrs who happen to be down to earth nice blokes? Unlikely! Is there a better burger than at the Café Llandegla Café? Not to my knowledge! The only downside? We didn't get to meet Rachel! For Coed Llangedla Information www.coedllandegla.com For One Planet Courses www.oneplanetadventure.com For Atherton Training Days www.athertonracing.co.uk/training_days/about.html