MORE THAN A FEELING: HOW EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE CAN MAKE YOU A FASTER, HAPPIER RIDER

Sometimes in cycling, heart overrules head and gets us into trouble. Psychologist Dr Josephine Perry explores how to reset the balance between thoughts and feelings.

- Dr Josephine Perry & David Bradford

Looking back on his preparation for breaking the world record for cycling across Europe, in 2018, one memory particularly stands out to Leigh Timmis. The 40-year-old recalls a member of his team telling him: "You can be the fastest cyclist in the world on the start line but it doesn't mean anything unless you have the mind to get you to the finish line." Timmis took this to heart and used his head to ensure his training embraced the emotional demands of the record attempt. It worked. By focusing on his emotional intelligence, the Derbyshire rider smashed the previous record by eight days, crossing the entire continent from Portugal to the Russian city of Ufa in just 16 days 10 hours.

Emotions are instinctive responses that function like signals, often directing our attention to whatever our threat system senses is most important at that time. Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to notice and understand our emotions and how to express them. This involves an exploration of the causes and consequences of our feelings, which can help us to regulate emotions so that they help rather than harm us. In short, EI is your capability to recognise emotion-related problems through self-awareness by solving or mitigating them using coping strategies.

El has been found to improve performance in all areas of life, including medicine, business and sport. This is because pleasant emotions (e.g. happiness, excitement) and unpleasant ones (e.g. anxiety, anger or frustration) can have a powerful impact on performance. Your speed, confidence and resilience on the bike are not solely determined by your physical fitness - an important component is how you feel about your riding on any given day.