Mann on fast track to success

MORE than 2,500 miles, 21 guest houses, 14 ferries and seven different venues. Sounds like an advert for a travel agent's world. Wrong - this was Nick Mann's season competing in the Southern Area Mountain Bike Championships.

Mann was the surprise of the 2003 NatWest Guernsey Island Games, winning an individual silver medal. But it marked just the latest stage in the rapid improvement of one the 'finds' of Guernsey cycling.

A relative newcomer to two wheels - he took up the sport in 2000 to lose a bit of weight - he has been improving year on year.

'Why cycling ? I've always liked bikes. I have no history in sport; I was a very fat couch potato,' he said.

'I had some knee trouble a few years ago and my doctor suggested a bit of light cycling to work would help strengthen them.

'The main reason, though, was my son, Michael, wanted a tag-along bike for his birthday in April 2000, so as I hadn't ridden a bike since school I thought I'd better get one and get some practice in.

'I bought one in January 2000 and went for a quiet spin by myself. I got talked into my first race in September 2000 in Sark. The rest, as they say, is history.'

It could have started much earlier, but as a very raw recruit, Mann's first competitive pedal strokes gave no indication as to his future success.

'I once did a time trial when I was about 14. I didn't know any of the rules, so I was slipstreaming other riders and getting shouted at for cheating, but I loved it. I probably would have joined the club, but crashed my bike a few weeks later and wrote it off, and that was that.'

It was during a winter training ride with Ann Bowditch that Mann's whole outlook on cycling changed from keeping him fit to becoming one of the island's top riders.

Bowditch wanted to test her coaching abilities and offered to train him. The opportunity was too good to miss and with Bowditch on board, the only way was up.

'We were out on a ride together at a point when I was keen to start training people and looking for a few guinea pigs,' said Bowditch.

'Suddenly I got more involved than I anticipated, but Nick is so good to train because he is always looking to move up to the next level.'

Bowditch added that he had a natural ability on two wheels that made her role so much easier.

'Nick is a very confident mountain bike handler; he was pretty skilful to begin with and already better than I was.

'And I am always prepared to help people who help themselves. Nick is one of those people: if he knows something will improve his riding, he will try it. He has a lot of trust in me as a coach.'

Mann played down his talent, saying he had nothing extra to anyone else.

'What I do have is the ability to suffer, a need to be faster and better, plus a top coach in Ann,' he said.

After a hard season's racing, Mann achieved his long-term goal of Island Games qualification. The build-up left nothing to chance, with carefully-monitored training and even his food being weighed.

This kind of meticulous attention to detail paid off, with a silver medal providing possibly the biggest shock of the Games.

Looking back, Mann recalled the widely-varying emotions of his Games experience.

'Sheer, undiluted terror in the run-up, which vanished as soon as I started to warm up for the crit., followed by disbelief as I crossed the line. I'm still in the disbelief phase, really,' he said.

With the 2005 Games firmly in his sights, Mann chose to compete in this year's Southern Area MTB Championships.

Completing the whole series with a top 10 in the fiercely-competitive masters' class was his goal, but it was soon apparent he could more than achieve this.

Mann had many high points to the season, but his favourite came when he was nowhere near his bike. He was sitting at his desk on a Monday morning after completing round five, looking up the previous day's action.

'I was checking the results on my PC when I found out I was lying in third place overall,' he said.

The season started badly, with an unfortunate run of punctures in round one, leaving him having to run most of the last lap with his bike.

This never-say-die attitude epitomises Mann; it is easy to understand how he has been so successful.

Early-season conditions were at best atrocious, especially round three at Erlestoke which had all the riders battling the elements in near-freezing conditions: the temperature was hovering around 3C.

Many riders pulled out and one, the unfortunately named Dean Frost, suffered from hypothermia and needed urgent post-race medical attention.

Frost was to become Mann's nemesis. The pair had many close battles as the season unfolded.

On one occasion, they were locked in a sprint for eighth place.

After sprinting the 200 yards to the line, the pair were so focused that they failed to notice, or slow down for, the first seven finishers, who were milling around just past the finish.

The result was mountain-bike skittles, as all nine riders crashed to the floor.

Consistency and finishing inside the top 10 on many occasions gave Mann a final position of fifth overall. Not bad considering 135 cyclists entered the masters' category.

Certainly he exceeded his own expectations, proving that Guernsey residence is no barrier to competing successfully in a UK series.

He will compete in the Southern Area Championships next season and of course a trip to Shetland awaits for a small matter of the Island Games. He has set himself a target of a top-three ranking in the Southern XC Series next year, plus an improvement on his Games results.

But Mann was quick to point out that he could not have reached his current level or be aiming even higher alone.

'Ann devotes a huge amount of her time to developing others and yet still manages to be right at the top of her game when it counts - that's amazing.

'She is the brains behind my racing; she writes my training programme, provides all manner of guidance, analyses my performances both in training and racing. All I have to do is check my schedule for the day, then get out there and pedal. I have the easy part, really.

'Ann does the science and I do the pedalling, but it's my wife, Carmel, who lets me out to train every day. Without her support, then it really wouldn't happen.'