This week Colin is really excited to announce a pretty special, and timely, guest to the Mountain Bikes Apart Podcast: none other than Kerry MacPhee, one of Scotland’s excellent Commonwealth Games mountain biking team.
 
Kerry started out as a triathlete, racing a fair bit in that discipline in past years. She added mountain biking to her tri training, though, and soon discovered she had a real knack for it. That, along with the fact that Mountain bike is, of course, far more exciting than skinny wheels and plodding along on foot, led her to mountain bike racing, and now to the commonwealth games.
 
In the interview Kerry talks about what it’s like to be part of her national team at such a big event, along with what training and prep she’s gone through to get there. It was great to get an insight into what it’s like to be an athlete at that level – something Colins thinks we’ve all dreamed about at some point!
 
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Mountain Biking Race Tips
 
Later in the Interview Kerry and Colin discuss mountain bike racing in general, and her tips on getting into racing in the first place. Her advice is really encouraging so if you’re dawdling about entering your first race, have a listen and get motivated. There are even a few training tips sprinkled in there to help you out.
 
They also discussed the Scottish Cross Country series a few times – that’s a great set of races to get started in as they offer a big range of levels, from total beginners and up.
 
Mountain Bike Coaching
 
On the subject of training, Kerry and Colin discussed the fact that it’s often a great idea to get a bit of coaching every now and again throughout your biking life, as you hit skill plateaus. They mentioned Chris Ball and his company, Dirtschool, who are pretty well known as a great option for that in Scotland, having coached many a young DH racer in their time. They’ve even got Ruaridh Cunningham and Rab Wardell on their team, previous downhill and a cross country champions respectively.
 
Where to Watch Kerry at the Commonwealth Games
 
Colin is pretty excited to watch the Commonwealth Games mountain biking now, as you might be able to tell! You can see it too on Tuesday the 29th July. Kerry is racing in the women’s race at 11.31 alongside Lee Craigie and Jessica Robert for team Scotland. Then the men race at 14.00, and the Team Scotland guys to look out for are Grant Ferguson, Kenta Gallagher and Gareth Montgomerie.
 
If you want to show Kerry your support then give her a cheer on Twitter at@KerryMacPhee.
 
The race is going on at Cathkin Braes, so if you want to follow in their footsteps, post commonwealth games, then you can find the trails here: Cathkin Braes.