The Ontopolitics of Mountain Bike Trail Building: Addressing Issues of Access and Conflict in the More-than Human English Countryside

In recent years there have been calls for scholars working within sport and physical culture to recognise the (increasing) confluence of nature and culture. Situated within an emerging body of new materialist research, such accounts have shown how various activities are polluted by, fused to, and assembled with non-human entities. However, more work is needed on the political possibilities afforded by non-human agency, and by extension, the implications that such flat ontological arrangements might raise for the management and governance of physical culture. Building on research conducted with mountain bike trail builders, this article seeks to explore what it means to know, to be, and to govern a human subject in the Anthropocene. Specifically, I draw on James Ash’s (2019) post-phenomenological theory of space and David Chandler’s (2018) notion of onto-political hacking to show how the playful, contingent, and transformative practices of the mountain bike assemblage confront the linear and calculated governance of the English countryside. In doing so, mountain bike trails are positioned as objects of hope that allow for a collective re-imagining of political democracy in a more-than-human landscape.

Planificación dietético-nutricional para una prueba de mountain bike de XCO: estudio de caso (Nutritional planning for an XCO mountain bike event: Case study)

El cross country es una modalidad del ciclismo de mountain bike (MTB), cuyas competiciones se caracterizan por dar un determinado número de vueltas a un circuito con una distancia desde 6-9km hasta 40-200km. En estos eventos, es importante planificar una estrategia dietético-nutricional para mitigar la aparición de resultados adversos relacionados con la nutrición. El objetivo de este estudio fue realizar la planificación dietético-nutricional de un ciclista de MTB que disputa una competición de cross country. El ciclista es un varón de 27 años (VO2max=74.46 ml•kg-1•min-1; PAM=420W; altura=1.81m; peso=78.6kg; % masa grasa=9.47, sumatorio de pliegues=61.9mm) con 3 años de experiencia en el entrenamiento y competición de pruebas MTB a nivel regional. La intervención tuvo lugar en el gabinete Alinua de la Universidad de Alicante, cuya finalidad fue mejorar la composición corporal y elaborar una programación dietético-nutricional para disputar una carrera de MTB el 23-2-2020 en la provincia de Alicante. La intervención incluía las recomendaciones para deportistas de resistencia y se dividió en un periodo de preparación, periodo de 3 semanas previas a la carrera y periodo competitivo. El participante realizó satisfactoriamente la prueba, se adhirió a la planificación, y no manifestó ningún problema. Para un ciclista, afrontar un evento de estas características con éxito requiere de un asesoramiento teórico-práctico y una programación dietético-nutricional de manera individualizada que trate de contribuir nutricionalmente antes, durante y después de la práctica del ejercicio, así como aminorar la posible aparición de contratiempos que puedan poner en riesgo el rendimiento y la salud. Abstract. Cross Country is a modality of mountain bike cycling (MTB), whose competitions are characterized by giving a certain number of laps to a circuit with a distance from 6-9km to 40-200km. In these events, it is important to plan a dietetic-nutritional strategy to mitigate the appearance of nutrition-related adverse outcomes. The purpose of the study was to plan the dietetic-nutritional planning of a MTB cyclist who competes in a Cross Country competition. The cyclist is a 27-year-old male (VO2max=74.46 ml•kg-1•min-1; MAP=420W; height=1.81m; weight=78.6kg; % fat mass=9.47; sum of 8 skinfolds=61.9mm) with 3 years of experience in training and competing in MTB events at a regional level. The intervention took place in the Alinua cabinet of the University of Alicante, whose purpose was to improve the body composition and to elaborate a dietetic-nutritional program to dispute a MTB race on 23-2-2020 in the province of Alicante. The intervention included the recommendations for endurance athletes and was divided into a preparation period, a period of 3 weeks before the race and a competitive period. Finally, the participant successfully completed the race according to the planning and did not manifest any problems. For a cyclist, facing an event of these characteristics successfully requires theoretical-practical advice and dietary-nutritional programming in an individualized way that tries to contribute at a nutritional level before, during and after physical exercise, as well as to reduce the possible appearance of setbacks that may jeopardize performance and health.

Romance N Prep N constructions in visual word recognition

N Prep N constructions such as Sp. bicicleta de montaña ‘mountain bike’ are very productive and frequent in Romance languages. They commonly have been classified as syntagmatic compounds that show no orthographic union and exhibit an internal structure that resembles free syntactic structures, such as Sp. libro para niños ‘book for children’. There is no consensus on how to best distinguish lexical from syntactic N Prep N constructions. The present paper presents an explorative eye-tracking study on N Prep N constructions, varying both lexical type (lexical vs. syntactic) and preposition across three languages, French, Spanish and Portuguese. The task of the eye-tracking study was a reading aloud paradigm of the constructions in sentence context. Constructions were fixated on less when more frequent, independent of lexical status. There was also modest evidence that a higher construction frequency afforded shorter total fixation durations, but only for lower deciles of the response distribution. The (construction-initial) head noun also received fewer fixations as construction frequency increased, and also when the head noun was more frequent. The second fixation durations on the head noun also revealed an effect of lexical status, with syntactic constructions receiving shorter fixations at the 5th and 7th deciles. The probability of a fixation on the preposition decreased with preposition frequency, but first fixations on the preposition increased with preposition frequency. The prepositions of Portuguese, the language with the richest inventory of prepositions, received more fixations than the prepositions of French and Spanish. The observed pattern of results is consistent with models of lexical processing in which reading is guided by knowledge of both higher-level constructions and knowledge of key constituents such as the head noun and the preposition.

Menggali Potensi Wisata Alam Untuk Kegiatan Sport Tourism Di Kabupaten Sleman Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta

Abstrak - Dalam dunia pariwisata banyak sekali jenis-jenis wisata salah satunya Sport Tourism atau wisata olah raga. Kabupaten Sleman salah satu contoh mempunyai potensi wisata alam yang dapat dipetakan untuk wisata olah raga atau sport tourism. Pada masa pandemi covid-19 dan pembatasan sosial terdapat kecenderungan masyarakat memanfaatkan waktu untuk berolahraga dengan tujuan meningkatkan imun, seperti jalan sehat, lari ataupun bersepeda ke spot-spot wisata yang tersebar diwilayah Yogyakarta. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk menggali potensi wisata di Kabupaten Sleman sudah menyediakan fasilitas Sport Tourism. Dalam penelitian yang bersifat deskriptif kualitatif ini, peneliti mengangkat potensi wisata alam di Kabupaten Sleman yang memiliki wahana sport tourism. Hasilnya didapatkan data bahwa disisi utara terdapat lereng gunung Merapi tepatnya di bukit Klangon yang telah dikembangkan wisata olahraga berupa Mountain Bike untuk ajang kejuaraan lokal maupun tingkat nasional. Destinasi dikawasan wisata candi prambanan juga banyak digunakan untuk event nasional dan internasioanal sebagai wisata olah raga seperti marathon, road bike, jalan sehat, sepeda santai dan yoga. Disisi barat pada aliran sungai Progo yang mengalir di wilayah Kabupaten Sleman sudah dimanfaatkan juga untuk sport tourism olah raga arung jeram dan pada aliran sungai Opak di obyek wisata Lava Bantal Berbah Sleman juga digunakan untuk wisata river tubing dan sepeda santai. Kawasan lain yang tidak kalah menarik dalam mengembangkan sport tourism adalah perbukitan yang ada kecamatan Prambanan Sleman. Kawasan ini berada disisi timur Yogyakarta yang memiliki banyak destinasi wisata baik alam maupun sejarah seperti Candi Boko, Tebing Breksi dan Spot Riyadi. Kawasan wisata ini masih dapat dikembangkan lagi untuk kegiatan wisata olahraga yang menarik wisatawan baik nasional maupun internsional, seperti sport lari lintas alam, marathon, mountain bike, sepeda santai dan jalan santai dengan menjelajahi rute perbukitan yang melewati obyek wisata tersebut. Kata Kunci : Potensi, Wisata Alam, Sport Tourism Abstract – In the world of tourism, there are many types of tourism, one of which is sport tourism. One example of Sleman Regency has the potential for natural tourism that can be mapped for sports tourism or sport tourism. During the COVID-19 pandemic and social restrictions, there is a tendency for people to use their time to exercise with the aim of increasing their immunity, such as healthy walks, running or cycling to tourist spots spread across the Yogyakarta area. The purpose of this research is to explore the tourism potential in Sleman Regency which has provided Sport Tourism facilities. In this qualitative descriptive study, the researcher raised the potential of natural tourism in Sleman Regency which has a sport tourism vehicle. The results obtained data that on the north side there is a slope of Mount Merapi, precisely on the Klangon hill, which has developed sports tourism in the form of Mountain Bikes for local and national championship events. Destinations in the Prambanan temple area are also widely used for national and international events as sports tourism such as marathons, road bikes, healthy walks, relaxing bicycles and yoga. On the west side, the Progo river that flows in the Sleman Regency area has also been used for sport tourism, white water rafting and the Opak river at the Lava Pillow Berbah tourism object, Sleman is also used for river tubing and relaxing bicycles. Another area that is no less interesting in developing sport tourism is the hills in the Prambanan sub-district of Sleman. This area is located on the east side of Yogyakarta which has many natural and historical tourist destinations such as Boko Temple, Breksi Cliff and Riyadi Spot. This tourist area can still be developed again for sports tourism activities that attract both national and international tourists, such as cross-country running sports, marathons, mountain bikes, leisurely bicycles and leisurely walks by exploring hilly routes that pass through these attractions.Keyword : Potential, Nature Tourism, Sport Tourism

Comparison of Aerobic Capacity Changes as a Result of a Polarized or Block Training Program among Trained Mountain Bike Cyclists

This study compared the effectiveness of a block training program and a polarized training program in developing aerobic capacity in twenty trained mountain bike cyclists. The cyclists were divided into two groups: the block training program group (BT) and the polarized training program group (PT). The experiment lasted 8 weeks. During the experiment, the BT group alternated between 17-day blocks consisting of dominant low-intensity training (LIT) and 11-day blocks consisting of sprint interval training (SIT), and high-intensity interval training (HIIT), while the PT group performed SIT, HIIT, and LIT simultaneously. Before and after the experiment, the cyclists performed incremental tests during which maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max), maximal aerobic power (Pmax), power achieved at the first ventilatory threshold (PVT1), and at the second ventilatory threshold (PVT2) were measured. VO2max increased in BT group (from 3.75 ± 0.67 to 4.00 ± 0.75 L∙min−1) and PT group (from 3.66 ± 0.73 to 4.20 ± 0.89 L∙min−1). In addition, Pmax, PVT1, and PVT2 increased in both groups to a similar extent. In conclusion, the polarized training program was more effective in developing the VO2max compared to the block program. In terms of developing other parameters characterizing the cyclists’ aerobic capacity, the block and polarized program induced similar results.

The Effect of Backplate Design for Mountain Bike Backpacks on Thermoregulation Mechanisms

Using infrared thermography, we assess how a new backpack design for mountain bikers can contribute to their thermoregulation process and perceived comfort during a cycling activity in a controlled environment. We gathered qualitative and quantitative data of heat concentration areas on skin temperature and thermal comfort perception by comparing two types of backpacks: a conventional backpack and a novel backpack design. Our results show that a guaranteeing airflow due to distance between the user’s back and the backpack with a rigid backplate and an arc radius morphology improves heat dissipation and thermal comfort for mountain bikers.