Riding the Long Race: What Mountain Biking Taught Me About Business

There’s a moment at the start line of every stage race. The nervous energy. The quiet calculations. The long road ahead that you know will test every bit of fitness, focus, and grit you’ve built.

That moment feels a lot like business.

I’ve learned that what gets you through a week-long mountain bike stage race is surprisingly similar to what gets you through the unpredictable ride of building and running a business.

Lesson 1: Pacing Matters

You can’t win a stage race on Day 1, but you can lose it.

Go out too hard, and you’ll pay for it every stage after. Business is the same. Growth isn’t a sprint. Burning out in the first year or chasing every opportunity without discipline, these almost guarantee trouble later. Success comes from knowing when to push and when to conserve.

Always with the long race in mind.

Lesson 2: Fuel Properly

On the bike, energy management is everything. Miss your nutrition window, and you can ride straight into a wall (aka bonking) you can’t climb out of.

In business, our “fuel” is time, energy, and mental focus. Owners who neglect recovery, skip planning, or waste energy on the wrong things (or too many things) eventually hit the same wall. Staying sharp means fueling wisely with the right priorities, the right focus, and enough rest to keep going.

Lesson 3: Teamwork Counts

I’ve never met anyone who finished a stage race completely on their own. Behind every rider are mechanics, riding buddies, volunteers, coaches and family.

Business is no different. No one scales alone. Staff, partners, mentors, clients — they’re the crew that gets you through the rough days and makes the good days even better. The sooner we build the right team, the farther we can go.

Lesson 4: Resilience Through Setbacks

Flats happen. Crashes happen. Bad weather rolls in whether you’re ready or not.

Stage races teach you that resilience isn’t about avoiding problems; it’s about responding to them with calmness and creativity. In business, downturns, lost clients, or unexpected disruptions are the same kind of tests. The question isn’t “will something go wrong?” It’s “how will we respond when it does?”

A Personal Moment

This year’s BC Bike Race was my best week on a bike yet — but not because everything went smoothly.

On Day 1, I flatted. A 20-minute delay on what should have been a 40-minute stage. Frustrating. Later I learned the flat wasn’t bad luck. It was because my carbon rim had cracked. No fixing that. But I had prepared. I had brought a backup bike.

I adjusted, went back to my plan: steady pace, play to my strengths, make progress. And it worked. As the week went on, I was riding stronger and stronger, performing better each day.

Then came the final stage. I was excited to capture my best result ever. That’s when I broke a spoke. Frustration hit again. I tried to make up for it by pushing harder but that only dug the hole deeper. So I paused. Reset. Got back to my plan.

Then another spoke broke on the same wheel.

Just like in business, it’s not what we wish things were like — it’s what they are actually like. I had to make decisions based on reality, not on how I wanted the day to go. I dialled back the speed and focussed on riding smoothly. Otherwise, I’d likely be walking my bike to the finish line.

Closing Reflection

Both rides and businesses are marathons with moments of sprint. The keys are the same: pace yourself, fuel wisely, build the right team, and stay resilient when things go wrong.

Those who do that don’t just finish. They finish stronger.

What’s your equivalent of pacing, fueling, teamwork, and resilience in your business?