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MTB
Are MTB downhill pros superhuman?
Getting injuries are an inevitable part of riding downhill mountain biking at the top level. Bouncing back from injury is about hard work and timing as Myriam Nicole and Tahnée Seagrave know too well.
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The 2019 Mercedes-Benz UCI Downhill World Cup season has seen a number of notable absences due to injury, not least those of Myriam Nicole and Tahnée Seagrave, two of the sport’s brightest talents.
But, last week at the World Championships in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada, both riders made astonishing comebacks when they shared the top two steps of the podium in both riders’ first race back from severe injuries – six broken and dislocated bones in the foot for Nicole and a shoulder AC tear and ligament damage for Seagrave, each of which had needed surgeries and extensive rehabilitation.
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Women's DH comebacks
After missing the 2019 race season following injury, Tahnée Seagrave and Myriam Nicole return to racing.
What is it that allows top athletes like Nicole and Seagrave to bounce back in relatively short periods of time? Are they superhuman? Or simply very determined hard workers? We spoke to several people who know the answer: Seagrave's coach, Chris Kilmurray (injury recovery specialist) and Darren Roberts (High Performance Manager for Red Bull UK)and the newly-crowned world champion herself, Myriam Nicole.
Superhuman or not?
Roberts works with many of the world’s biggest names in action sports and he is unequivocal in his response: “Athletes are not superhuman, they are very human and just as fallible. What looks like superhuman achievement is the result of not just weeks or months of hard work, but years. It’s their ability to do the ordinary things extraordinarily well throughout their career that sets them apart.”
Seagrave suffered her shoulder injury at the Fort William World Cup in June
© Bartek Wolinski/Red Bull Content Pool
Training to crash
In some ways, the recovery period for a top athlete begins before the injury even happens. That is to say, athletes and their trainers work to limit or prevent injury in every possible way through training regimes.
The potential for injury in downhill racing is vast, and “awkward or large impacts after an off-the-bike or off-track excursion often lead to blunt trauma or injuries to the extremities and joints,” as Kilmurray explains. He says that, while training schedules are focused on the demands and needs of any individual athlete, injury prevention is usually “seamlessly embedded” into their work.
Chris Kilmurray with Seagrave
© Bartek Wolinski/Red Bull Content Pool
There are certain areas of the body that are more prone to damage and ways to limit the likelihood of injury during a crash, Kilmurray says.
“Shoulders and ankles are the most common injury site, but no part of the body is safe. Gym-based training that focuses on strength, mobility and control through a range of motion is the starting point. Gaining extra muscle mass and reducing fat mass can help prevent injuries, but when it comes to the joints, it's the full spectrum of strength – and control of that strength – developed over many years that allows riders like Nicole and Seagrave to avoid injury or bounce back after a big one.”
The recovery
However, no matter the amount of work an athlete puts into minimising the risk of injury, at some point they're going to crash while searching for the limits of their sport. Sometimes they brush themselves off and battle on – Loïc Bruni’s brutal Fort William qualifying crash didn’t stop him salvaging a top-10 result in the finals – but occasionally, unfortunately, they are going to need time off.
In the case of Nicole and Seagrave, both upturned their lives in the pursuit of speedy recoveries. Nicole spent four focused months in rehab, with five consecutive weeks living at a specialised centre for injury recovery.
Seagrave spent three days per week with Roberts at his specialist facility, which is set up to ensure athletes enjoy their time there and don’t lose any of their passion for sport. Training, physiotherapy and determination in a positive environment helped Seagrave to find, maintain and even aim to improve on her pre-injury form.
Roberts describes the process of recovery: “It’s important that [the athlete] continues to train as normally as possible; every part of them that isn’t injured can be worked. This obviously takes some sideways thinking, but [at the facility] we’re lucky to be in a huge place with lots of toys to keep them working hard. It’s also vital that, if they have coaches or trainers they work with, that we all work together. We call it ‘athlete first.’”
During Seagrave’s stint working with Roberts, he explains, he would work closely with her personal trainer to ensure a thorough all-round weekly regime: “Chris Kilmurray [Seagrave's coach] would send me her normal training programme for the week, and I would make some adjustments to substitute a few things before going through it with Chris to make sure we’re all happy.”
Tailoring the training and rehab is key, Roberts explains: “The specific rehabilitation of an injury fits in with [the athlete’s] overall strength and conditioning programme and I usually incorporate it as linking moves within the programme.”
Seagrave back in action at the Worlds in Mont-Sainte-Anne
© Nathan Hughes
Keeping it fun it also vital. “I can also be pretty ruthless with some of the physio exercises and if there is too much waving elastic bands around, I’ll ditch it. I call this process of incorporating the specific rehabilitation into the athlete’s training as ‘hiding the broccoli on the plate’. By seamlessly fitting it into a training programme, the work gets done more efficiently, by virtue of the fact it actually gets done!”
Down time away from the races can be an opportunity to come back even stronger than before. Roberts says “it’s also an opportunity for the athlete to address any gaps that have shown themselves physically in the season so far and come back stronger.”
Mental state
No matter how much hard work an athlete puts into their recovery and regardless of the dedication of the team around them, getting back to competition can only come when the time is right.
Even if they're back at full fitness, the mental effects of time off from their sport and away from their community can be the biggest and final hurdle of recovery. Myriam Nicole knows this better than most, having suffered a number of serious injuries during her career, yet she has been able to remain focused and truly bounce back.
The moment of truth for Nicole as she prepares to go on a run in Canada
© Nathan Hughes
The World Championships in Mont-Sainte-Anne was not only Nicole’s first race back from this particular recovery, but it was also her first on the world circuit in 2019 and, staggeringly, considering the months she spent rehabilitating, her career-best Worlds.
Nicole explains that the process of getting back to speed relies on building up mental strength and confidence
“If you [are in a good physical state] you can get back on your bike and then start working on [the mental aspect]. But you have to welcome the fact that you are not 100 percent. When you get on your bike you are not mentally ready. There's no [defined] point where you feel ready mentally. I'd say it's a physical decision and that you get back on your bike – if you want to, not if you have to – and then you start building your confidence again.”
This cannot happen overnight. She details the riding time before her gold medal result: “I feel like there's a minimum of about 100 runs to get your confidence back because it’s impossible to get that confidence straight away as soon as you're on your bike. You need to ride many different kinds of track.”
Remaining motivated during lengthy recovery periods isn’t easy, even for the best riders in the world. But Nicole’s 2019 story was thankfully capped with a fairytale comeback, not through chance, but graft.
“The feeling [of being world champion] is really unreal. How many times did I ask myself [during the recovery], why are you doing this and why did you only take four days of rest after the first surgery?
Nicole positive outlook helped her get over the ups and downs of rehab
© Bartek Wolinski/Red Bull Content Pool
"Why? Because you see your body is deteriorating, you're on crutches, you can’t use your whole body. You used to train twice a day and then you cannot do everything you used to do. So, I was like, 'why do you do this'? And then the coaches said, 'well, if you do nothing then when you come back it will be worse.'”
But Nicole’s positive mental attitude even in the toughest of times helped her to keep going: “That feeling now [of having won the world championships] is just crazy – it was worth it. But it wasn’t easy. The worst was not being home, but [the recovery centre] was in a beautiful place, so I could still take one day of sure rest every week, that was good. I feel awesome now. I think I am still focused on the [last World Cup], but I will enjoy it more after that.”
Nicole's hard work was rewarded at Mont-Sainte-Anne
© Nathan Hughes
After all the hard work, the pain, surgery and time away from home, eventually that unceasing drive that first pushed athletes like Nicole or Seagrave to the top of their sport puts them back in the game at the highest level.
To return to Roberts’ original assessment of an athlete, “it’s their ability to do the ordinary things extraordinarily well throughout their career that sets them apart” – the same applies to their recovery from injury, superhuman or not.
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