This week, I’m joined by Fabien Barel. I grew up watching Fabien race, so when I got the chance to sit down with him at the Les Gets World Cup, I was super excited. We sat down after hours in the Canyon pits, and chatted about a more philosophical approach to racing and life in general. We hear Fabien’s thoughts on the importance of passion, how he tries to instil that in the Canyon team, and we touch on his 5 pillars of riding. I love the way Fabien thinks about things, and we were a little short of time… so a part 2 will follow in the near future.

This episode of the podcast is supported by Precision Hydration. Hydration is an often overlooked element of performance, not just in racing, but in riding and life in general. We all sweat at different rates, and lose different amounts of sodium in that sweat, so it’s not a ‘one size fits all’ fix. Precision Hydration realise that, and are here to help you optimise your personal hydration. Head to PrecisionHydration.com to complete the questionnaire and get your own hydration plan specific to your needs. As a Downtime listener, you get 20% off your entire order by using the code DOWNTIME at the checkout.

This episode of the podcast is supported by Komoot, a route planning and navigation app that’s actually designed to work for Mountain Biking, and they have a totally FREE offer for you! With Komoot you can create routes on your phone or your computer, and take them offline so you don’t even need a phone signal. Komoot does the hard work so you can enjoy your ride. As a Downtime listener, Komoot are offering you a free regional map bundle of your choice, all you need to do is head to komoot.com/g or click here and use the code DOWNTIME. The offer is open until the end of August 2019, so give it a go.

You can follow Fabien on Instagram @fabienbarel

You can find the Wikipedia page for Sophrology here

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Photo – Boris Beyer