NEVER GET SICK

Well, nearly anyway. Here’s how to minimise your time off the bike and beat pathogens

So what are pathogens, something to do with the Ancient Greeks?

Nope, pathogens are just viral and bacterial infections, the things that make us sick and keep us off our bikes.

Sounds like we want to avoid those then?

Not really, no. Frequent contact with those nasties comes from being outside in the wilds – getting sprayed with mud, hugging trees, drinking from your muddy water bottle and so on – and actually boosts your body’s ability to fight them off. That makes mountain biking the perfect antidote to the increasingly sterile lives most people live.

So we need to rub as much dirt into our orifices as possible then?

No, there are limits, and doing that would be disgusting and also potentially overwhelm your immune system. There are two ways your body fights off infections, the first is called the Innate Immune Response (IIR) and it starts with your skin – it keeps out pathogens and it’s backed up by chemical barriers like mucus and tears, which keep those pathogens out of gaps in the skin. Don’t try and force dirt through then by rubbing your eyes or touching your face, you’ll absorb enough just by riding your bike in it all.

I’m full of holes though, surely loads of dirt will get through?

Definitely, and that’s where the IIR has another trick up its sleeve – natural killer cells, neutrophils, macrophages and dendritic cells take over, destroying infected cells that are compromised by pathogens.