Secrets of Speed with Alec Briggs
Crit racer Alec Briggs has long pushed the limits of what’s possible on a road bike. Here, the TEKKERZ team founder gives us his eight secrets of speed.
Speed is adrenaline.
It’s that moment where your adrenaline gets triggered. Where one part of your brain tells you to slow down, but the other half tells you to go quicker. It’s the ‘Will I? Won’t I?’ of making a corner, or slipping a gap.
Speed is relative.
That balance of ‘fast enough’ versus ‘too fast’ is a buzz. It’s a particular kind of dopamine, a feeling that I chase often. But it doesn’t matter if it’s a corner or a straight line, going 30 kph or 120 kph, you can always find that feeling of: ‘ah man, I’m going fast right now!’
Speed is to be respected.
You have to acknowledge fear on a bike when it comes to speed. If you ignore it, you’re taking it for granted and it will bite you on the arse. The perfect formula is being scared of the limit and respecting it, but not being afraid of pushing it to the farthest millimetre.
Speed is calculated.
It’s not a risk. It’s a calculated mindset that allows you to go further than risking it all. There’s always that small element of ‘can I push it that far?’. That’s the beauty of it: you’re never sure the calculations are quite right.
Speed is finding the limit.
I can be leaning into a corner, feel the tyres start to slip… ‘ah that’s the limit’, and I readjust. I almost like that happening – it doesn’t make me retreat, it makes me want to stay right there. You have to prod and prod and prod, and the moment it goes over the limit, you catch it.
Speed is a cocktail.
I see cycling as a game of chess. It’s not just being the fastest over the line. It’s a cocktail of racecraft, efficiency, power and strength, with finesse and technical ability. All those things together achieve optimal speed.
Speed is a dream.
My speed dream is coming round a corner into a finishing straight that plants me with 150 metres to the line. I throw it into the corner perfectly, take the apex, lean the tyres out… Maybe I’ll slide it a little but then float out to the corner and get my head down for the line. I’m recklessly in control, floating across the limit, back and forth. That’s what takes you to the win.
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