Beat the heat
Summer rides have a sweet spot. It’s called early morning. Miss it, and you’re no longer riding. You’re cooking… or, more accurately, being cooked. So, beat the sun at its own game. Go out before it shows its face.
If you’re out for a proper mountain ride, aim to finish your climbs before the thermometer hits 30°C. After that, the sun stops being an atmospheric feature and becomes a direct threat. If the thermometer goes above 37°C, which is coincidentally your body temperature, you’ve crossed into the danger zone. Do yourself a favour and find a shaded hut, a café with functioning AC or at least a nice, thick tree. Don’t poke your nose out again until the air stops feeling like soup. The mountain isn’t going anywhere.
Of course, sometimes you’ll need to get home, even when the road feels like a skillet. That’s fine. Just forget about pushing. No KOMs. No personal records. Just cruise like you’re trying not to disturb the photosynthesis. On that note, stay in the shade whenever possible, take breaks often, especially if you start to feel dizzy, and ride as if you’re allergic to effort. The only performance metric you should care about in this weather is survival rates.
No epics
Summer is not the time for 50-kilometre suffer-fests with three summit selfies and a mechanical in the middle of nowhere. Keep the big adventure rides for spring or autumn when the sun doesn’t try to deep-fry your spinal cord.
When the heat’s brutal, shorter is smarter. Stick to rides that cap around three or four hours, and don’t get clever with remote trail systems unless you’re 100% sure you can bail out if things go sideways. Heatstroke in the middle of a backcountry loop isn’t character-building, and I guarantee if it doesn’t kill you, it won’t make you stronger. If you’re climbing, do it early. That steep fire road you usually chew through in the shade turns into a convection oven by midday. And no, finishing the loop just to say you did isn’t heroic. It’s how you end up dry-heaving on a rock with zero bars of signal and a single bar of brain function.
Trail rides don’t need to be epic to be worth it. They just need to end with your drivetrain intact and your brain still online.
Trees are your AC
Trees are Nature’s original air conditioning. No electricity, no carbon guilt, just a few billion insects that had the exact same idea as you. But hey, considering the alternative, waving around like a madman is preferable to actually having your brain cooked.
If you’re riding through dense forest, you’ve already won. Shade matters more than you think. Even at lower altitudes, riding under a canopy can drop the trail temperature by several degrees. That’s not just the air, but the ground itself. Less sun means less heat bouncing off rocks, ground, and your face. Pick routes that stay wooded during the hottest part of the day. Singletrack through the trees isn’t just cooler, it’s also better for pacing. You’re less exposed, less dehydrated, and more likely to make it back without feeling like you’ve been spit-roasted.
Open terrain might look tempting on the map, but unless you’re an actual snake, skip as much of the sun as possible. Forests give you the chance to ride all day long without feeling like you’re participating in Burning Man… as the burning man.
Being high is cool for once
Getting high is usually a bad life choice. Unless you’re on a mountain bike and trying not to cook from the inside out. The higher you climb, the cooler the air gets. It’s basic physics. So if you’re planning a ride during a heatwave, head uphill. Trails above 1,500 metres often offer a noticeable temperature drop, and, if you’re lucky, a breeze that doesn’t feel like it came from a hairdryer.
Just remember, altitude only helps if you actually get there before the flamethrower is on. So, as we already mentioned, start early and climb while the weather is still kind of cool.
Once you’re up there, enjoy the air, but don’t get cocky. High sun exposure at altitude can still roast you, and there’s not always shade to bail under. Bring sunscreen. A lot of it. And maybe stop to appreciate the irony that, for once, chasing elevation actually saves your ride instead of breaking your legs.
Spike your water
At a certain temperature, your body stops functioning like a well-oiled machine and starts behaving more like a broken lawn sprinkler. Fluids pour out in all directions, salt leaks through your pores, and somewhere around hour two, your brain starts running on power-saving mode.
This is where electrolytes come in. Think of them as internal trail maintenance. Without them, everything gets crunchy, squeaky, and eventually collapses. So don’t just drink water. Spike it. Throw in a tablet every two or three bottles, depending on how much the sun hates you that day. Ignore the flavour, if you can call this taste of dead squirrel sweat a flavour. It’s not meant for you to enjoy. It’s for your muscles, heart, and brain to function like they still care if you’ll make it.
If you decide to be reckless and simply drink more water, it will eventually stop quenching your thirst once your body has depleted all essential minerals. By that point, you’re in pre-cramp territory, and it’s in your best interest to leave it as fast as you can. If you choose to be carefree and rely on plain water, you’ll eventually hit the point where it no longer quenches your thirst. That’s your body waving the electrolyte white flag. At that point, you’re in pre-cramp territory, and you’ll want to wrap things up before your legs start tying themselves in knots.
Electrolytes aren’t fancy. They’re functional. And they’re the difference between finishing your ride… or finishing off your calves.
Ride calmly or ride the ambulance
At some point in the heat, your body stops being dramatic and starts making actual exit plans. That moment usually comes right after the hallucinations begin and just before your legs stage a full-blown mutiny. This is not “pushing through”. This is your internal system begging for mercy. Mercy you should seriously consider.
In proper heat, riding hard is less about determination and more about reckless optimism. If your vision’s blurry, your legs feel like they’re running an independent software update or your thoughts are melting into alphabet soup, it’s time to stop. Not later. Not at the next tree. Now. Heatstroke is no joke, and it will have serious consequences. So, listen to your body, or you will listen to the rhythmic chant of the ambulance sirens.
However, the point is not getting to this point, and that’s easier than you think. Just ride calmly. No sprints, no Tadejing climbs, no trying to set personal records along the way. Just a chill ride. You’re not earning extra watts by blacking out. You’re just offering your body up to the sun like a sacrificial snack. Riding in the heat is all about finishing in one piece and without brain damage. That should be a tough enough goal for you.
You don’t get extra points for boiling
We all love a good ride. But there’s a fine line between dedication and slow, sweaty self-destruction. Summer doesn’t care how good your fitness is. It just wants to see if you’ll voluntarily roast yourself on a fire road because your pride said, “just one more loop”.
Record heat isn’t a challenge. It’s a warning. And if you treat it like a training opportunity, don’t act surprised when your ride ends with you lying under a bush, bargaining with the pretty birds circling above to send help.
So, ride smart, ride early, ride shady, and keep the paramedics away from the mountains.
