Intelligent Action

01/12/2025

Feedback from our online course, Mastering Cues for Riding Well Under Pressure.

It's been a while since I pumped the course, but what lovely feedback from someone who recently finished it to do that for me! (Thank you!! 💚)

The self-paced course includes bite-sized video lessons, practical activities for next time you're out riding, a curated selection of bonus videos to keep building your bike-handing skills alongside your mental skills, a 1:1 live lesson, and is designed to equip you with strategies that keep on giving way beyond the time spent doing the course itself. 🚵🧠

Find out more via the link or DM me if you have any questions about whether the course, an online coaching session, or something else entirely will support you with your goals on the bike!

https://learn.intelligentaction.cc/course/mind-skills-for-mountain-bikers-mastering-cues-for-riding-well-under-pressure

01/12/2025

Next newsletter is going out tomorrow! Join the list today if you're not on it already and get this one too!
https://blog.intelligentaction.cc/newsletter-sign-up

Want to feel more flow, more often? 🚵💫

I wrote a magazine-length article on this last week for the Intelligent Action newsletter crew. (👋👋) It's a good one, full of research-backed insights and practical strategies you can use straight away.

I've set it as the magical, automated first email you get if you join The Cognitive Advantage newsletter community too!

https://blog.intelligentaction.cc/newsletter-sign-up

Happy reading, happy riding and happy times enjoying more flow on the bike just because you can. 🤩 (And it's finally sunny in Newcastle! Soooooo stoked about that!)

Photo: Kath Bicknell

19/11/2025

"After we finished our ride, Strava let me know that I’d beaten my previous time on this trail by a whopping 30 seconds. I didn’t ride faster by buying a new bike, changing my tires, or reminding myself of each small thing I needed to do to ride the trail with more speed. I rode faster by unintentionally focusing on a profoundly feminine cue. One overarching thought helped to coordinate a whole series of actions in a different-to-normal way: line choice, torso movement, the rider ahead, protecting the girls, smoothness at all costs."

This Bike Body Mind article for Australian Mountain Bike Magazine has been republished online. The original title was "How imagining the unimaginable makes you ride faster." This one seems more internetty. I hope you enjoy the read!

From Natasha Bradley’s topless run to trail visualisation — how one wild idea helped unlock smoother, faster riding on the bike.

19/11/2025

Oh to jump in a teleport and listen to this talk on risk by Rachel Atherton! Sharing this post here in case it prompts some useful ways of thinking about risk and behind-the-scenes preparation for you!

13/11/2025

Scotland’s Women in the Bike Industry Summit 2025 set such a high standard for cycling communities in other countries to follow, and was so uniquely Scottish at the same time. 🚵‍♀️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

I loved stepping up to the challenge of running an online session on what my own research in cognitive science, performance studies and anthropology can offer in terms of practical takeaways and empowering, personal insights for women working in cycling. Especially around thinking and focus, supporting ourselves and others, and what this means for resilience and leadership.

Thanks to all for the overwhelmingly wonderful feedback. To give someone chills, in a good way, and to prompt ongoing conversations and reflection, via an online presentation 16,819km away is pretty special feedback indeed!

I’ve loved following the reels, comments and photos from this event across all social channels and connecting with some of you to learn more about what’s happening in the UK. I recommend anyone else interested, or wondering how to achieve something similar but different elsewhere, do the same!

Big congrats and admiration to DMBinS for hosting this summit for two years now, to South of Scotland Enterprise for supporting it, to Aoife Glass for all your work MCing and behind the scenes, and to many others who make events like this all that they are. Keep up the amazing work!

Photos by Chris Anderson 🙌🏻🙌🏻 and a couple of screenshots from me!

Find out more via https://dmbins.com/blog/women-in-the-bike-industry-summit-the-programme/

06/11/2025

If you’re interested in a 1:1 online coaching session, times are available on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, but capped to 10 spots/week.

❇️ Step away from the trails and work through strategies to apply for more flow and faster progress next time you’re on the trails.

❇️ Discover insights from riding and skill research to that expand your resilience and professional toolkit.

❇️ Feeling overwhelmed or burned out? Book in for some neurotype-affirming strategies that help you understand what’s depleting your energy and how to better support it - in the short term and the longer term.

❇️ Also, some people just feel the benefit of talking with someone and hearing their own responses to parts of a conversation without having to give as much as they do in a social context. I can promise you an empathetic ear, connection through a love of bikes (the answers to so many questions can be found through what’s learned by riding a bike), and will keep your goals in mind as we chat so you get some useful strategies out of the conversation as well.

Find more info and the booking page on the website. Reach out if you have any questions. ☺️

04/11/2025

Race shots, a podium and more good memories from Superflow!

Really enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere, trail chats, meeting new friends, catching up with long time friends and riding up and down the hill 10 times after the Summit!

I like how stretching this race over two days means more people get to ride and there’s less trail congestion. But I so would have loved to ride with you both and Jennifer Andersson! Well done on some awesome racing!

Thanks crew for the action shots and the super fun day out. I made a small edit to the podium photo after falling asleep with happiness at 3pm on the Sunday and accidentally missing the ceremony! 🙃

04/11/2025

Looking forward to this on Friday! It’s done me the world of good to meet and hear from other women working in cycling at every stage of my own career in this industry. Excited to share some insights and mental strategies for biking, working in biking and resilience. 💚

03/11/2025

Back from Sea Otter Australia and the Sea Otter Australia Summit and wow, what an incredible, motivating, conversation-starting, ideas-growing, bike-enabling experience!

If you missed it, check out these photos from Rotorua’s Rachel Hadfield who has captured the feeling of the summit so well. Slight bias in this selection toward how much I loved sharing some of my own work through Intelligent Action on cognition, flow and the need for progressive trail networks as well as the Brainy Biking and Women’s Health and the Outdoors panel! (Some less good iPhone photos from me in this mix of slides I loved by presenters I also loved!)

I’m still on such a high I want to tag every person who ever rode a bike (and tag them extra if they were at the Summit) but if I limit myself to three it would be to say:

Big thanks to Juliane Wisata for seeing the value of the perspectives I bring early on and starting a conversation with me about being part of this event. I loved being able to riff off your presentation on design philosophy of the Mogo trails and what that creates at a social and community level. Keep it up!

Thanks also to Joe Mullan ACEcD for organising the Summit and for all your work in bringing so many incredible people into one room with so much to say, share and connect about. People kept commenting that they loved how the vibe was collaborative rather than pitchy, what genuine-feeling experience to create.

And Matt Miller - that *other* MTB PhD (although I think the idea is trendier now)! So nice to finally meet you after all these years following your work too. I hope we get to catch up and ride bikes somehwere someday and can geek out on more interesting facts, ideas and experiences that the research+bike life has created.

28/10/2025

- my take!

Big big respect to everyone involved in putting together such a fabulous festival of all things bikes.



Every rider
Every exhibitor
Every presenter
Every volunteer
Everyone who was part of the entire extended crew.

Pumped. Happy. Exhausted. Inspired. Can’t wait for next year already!

27/10/2025

Hello Scotland Bike Loving Lady Crew! REALLY excited to meet you live and online in a couple of weeks! (Love your work in bringing so many people together DMBinS)

To people from everywhere else, check out this program for a two-day event upskilling and empowering women working in the bike industry and see if it inspires you with some fab ideas to host something in and for your own community, even at a much smaller scale! 💚

🇦🇺 Online Presentation from Down Under! 🌏

We’re thrilled to announce that Dr Kath Bicknell — founder of Intelligent Action — will be joining the Women in the Bike Industry event, on 7/8 November in Innerleithen, live from Australia!

🧠 Topic: How Cognitive Science (And Being Hooked On Bikes) Can Help You Think, Work, and Lead Better

Kath brings a unique blend of science, sport, and storytelling — combining over 16 years of experience as a cycling journalist and academic with a deep passion for how our minds and bodies perform under pressure.

Through Intelligent Action, she translates cutting-edge research from cognitive science, performance studies, and anthropology into practical, empowering strategies that help individuals and teams unlock their potential — both on and off the bike.

In this insightful online session, Kath will explore how women across the bike industry can use science-backed tools to develop focus, confidence, and resilience — and ride, think, and lead with purpose. 💪✨

📅 Don’t miss this inspiring talk from one of Australia’s leading thinkers in sport and performance!

👉 Presenter: Dr Kath Bicknell
👉 Organisation: Intelligent Action
👉 Format: Online Presentation (Live from Australia)

Tickets priced at £25 for the 2 day event, including lunches, are still available.

Check out the full programme, do not miss this event! 🤩

Scottish Cycling South of Scotland Enterprise
https://dmbins.com/blog/women-in-the-bike-industry-summit-the-programme/