What does it take to win the world's biggest ultra bikepacking races? Alex McCormack knows. Despite having only taken up the sport properly two years ago and, at 26, being one of its younger proponents, he is already sitting among the top branches of the ultra-riding tree, having won Morocco's 1,300km Atlas Mountain Race in February.
What it takes, he says, is focus – though his impressive FTP of 380 watts won't hurt either.
"Once I start a task, I don't really lose focus," the young Brit said. "I'm able to stay in the moment until the job's done. So I think, sort of attritionally, I can just keep my head in the game for however long that requires, without losing focus or losing interest. It's a pretty big bonus in the long distance scene."
He was speaking to Cycling Weekly's Going Long podcast, out now wherever you get your podcasts.
As well as chatting about his exploits in the Atlas Mountain Race and his plans for this year (they're big), McCormack offers up some great tips for first time ultra riders, talks about pacing, the thorny question of gravel bikes vs mountain bikes, 2am omelettes, and much more.
He also spoke about how he trained largely indoors for this year's ultra-distance campaign – something that seems counter-intuitive but that seems to be working a treat for McCormack.
He cottoned on to the idea that he might be quite a useful bike racer after winning his first long-distance race – the Exposure 24/12 off-road event. McCormack won the 12-hour event and was crowned 12-hour mountain bike champion. There was no looking back.
A mechanical engineer by trade, McCormack was an elite-level dinghy sailor before he became a bike racer. But as a regular rider with elite cycling buddies, he had plenty of miles in his legs and the odd hill-climb even before he made his first foray into ultra racing.
"Even though my racing career is pretty short, I think I've been training for it for quite a long time," he quips.
To hear the full conversation with Alex McCormack and to discover the other podcasts in the series, click on the player above or check out the Going Long podcast here.
