 
I consider myself to be very much an amateur cyclist. Not in the serious amateur category, not even a regular weekend racer, just a slightly overweight and not particularly fast peddler. You may find it hard to believe then that I have also completed one of the toughest amateur races that cyclists can enter, the Étape, twice. This annual event follows the course of one of the stages of the Tour de France and more often than not takes in the towering peaks of the Alps or Pyrénées, some 200km of them.
My story is how I discovered the power of visualisation and used it to help conquer the mountains of this awesome event.
My first attempt at this race was in 2002. I got round it in one piece, largely helped by my older, far more experienced and fitter brother. It was very tough but our training went reasonably well. In my book it was a huge success - I made it to the end.
The training for that event took place in the UK, as part of team Balston (a formidable unit of myself and my brother), for the best part of 8 months. When I decided to enter the race the following year I had just moved to South Africa and in cycling terms I was on my own, team Balston was no more and it was now up to myself to provide the motivation, the training regime and forge the legs of iron that would carry me across the French plains and up the magnificent mountains of the Pyrénées.
One of my biggest problems as a sportsman is my mental attitude and considering I no longer had the positive vibes of my sibling flowing across the road to me I was a little bit worried about how I would do, especially considering that the course had just been announced;  197km of hot tarmac taking in three of the most grueling mountain peaks in the Pyrénées some of which had average gradients of around 10% with long stretches of over 15%. The longest climb was over 15km long and judging from my average climbing speed could last for anything up to two hours, the whole race I reckoned would probably take over nine. Was I crazy?
My first few months of training on the South Africa roads were a complete disaster. More time was spent eating crap food and watching even crapper TV than was spent grinding along the roads around Jo'burg. Things weren't looking good and the more time I spent not riding the worse my mental state became. I was very much in a mind set of 'can't do, won't do'and the race day was creeping ever closer.
The day it all changed was when I boldly downloaded the course profile and set it as my desktop wallpaper. Every time I sat down to do some work or check my emails, there it was. There was no hiding from it now. I studied the map long and hard taking in every bump, every incline and decline, memorised the names of the peaks and started to imagine what it would feel like to make it over each one.
Without even realising what I was doing now was entering the realms of sports psychology and one of its most effective areas - visualisation. I had heard vague stories about Tiger Woods having been introduced to sports psychology at a very young age and now without realizing it I was joining the great athletes of the world.
From the desktop wallpaper I took myself to my local spinning club and found that I could focus my mind for longer periods, imagining myself spinning merrily along the smooth French roads, or grinding my way up the mountains. Soon I was out on the roads, in the same zone, my times were getting better, my training routine even more consistent and the results in terms of times and average speed were pretty impressive.
I found that one of the best opportunities for visualisation were the times when I wasn't cycling. If I was stuck in traffic on the way home from work for example, I would imagine myself on my bike, calmly tapping away at the pedals, slowly but surely making my way up the mountain, the profile highlighted in my mind.
Having completed the Étape before I knew how fantastic the feelings of euphoria were that accompanied the conquering of each peak. Nothing beats the rush of joy as you suddenly see the road before you start to gently decline, the horizon lifts from a few feet of tarmac to a magnificent vista as glorious toy mountains fill the view. An hour or so of grinding away through some bizarre pain barriers all in the name of getting to the top, pain gives way, joy in all its splendor follows.
It was this feeling that I kept with me all the time during my training. In my mind as I conquered each mountain I let that euphoria come flooding back.
With the training now back on track I thought that I'd better do some research into this practice of visualisation to make sure I was doing things correctly and to see if there was anything I could improve upon.
Visualisation is also referred to as guided imagery. In sport an athlete will create a scene in their mind of how they want things to happen. They will create pictures or movies that recreate their best performances or an imagined desired outcome. These pictures can be more than just visual, they can also include kinesthethic (how the body will feel) and auditory (the roar of a cheering crowd perhaps).
Mark Elliot, a Performance Psychologist states that "visualisation helps to train the mind to know what to do in certain situations, giving it triggers so that it knows what to do automatically. It is through mental rehearsal of a particular event or skill that minds and bodies become trained to actually perform the skill imagined."
So it seemed like I was on the right track, but did it work for me?
Despite an improvement in my training regime I still didn't think my body was 100% ready to tackle this race. I had after all only cycled over 100km three or four times in the months leading up to it. What I did have though was a new mental readiness, a toughness that told me I could do it.
 I recall that each climb was hell. Many of my fellow cyclists chose to walk up the steepest sections, I however found myself in deep concentration, calmly repeating the tap tap motion of the pedals that I had been visualising for so long. I definately remember the feeling of an autopilot kicking in during the toughest stretches, my subconscious taking control when my body was screaming for it to end.
It was a huge effort but by the time I had reached the top of the last mountain the euphoria was far greater than anything that I had imagined. My whoops of delight filled the valley and I'm sure must have been heard in some Spanish villages on the other side of the Pyrénées.
What I hadn't prepared for though was the next 40km of steeply rolling hills that would take us to the finish line. The profile said it was all downhill! It didn't take long for the happiness to pass, my mind and body were exhausted and the last few km's were horrible. I did make it across the finish line, a little over my nine hour target.
Casting my mind back to that day I know that there is no way I would have finished the race if it hadn't been for all my mental preparation, my hours spent visualising climbing those mountains whilst spinning at the gym or sitting in my car.
The lesson I learnt though was to think about the whole race and not just the really hard parts. A few more hours training on the bike wouldn't have hurt either. Hindsight is very handy, visualisation even more so.
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