Corner Concerns – Corner better in your next Crit or Road Race!
Cornering can be a crucial time saver or consumer. Here are some ideas on how to outperform your competition in the corners and keep the rubber side down.
Yes, I know what you’re thinking: “Jared you have had two bad crashes in the last few weeks, why listen to you?” …but to my defense, only one crash was on a corner and they were both on sketchy MTB trail; plus think of all that I have learned from my mistakes!
Here we go:
1. If you need to brake, brake before the turn, not in it.
Braking in a turn stands your bike up will cause you to lose your line and corner slower.
2. Start the turn wide, hit the apex of the corner very narrow and finish wide.
This will make the actual line you take through the corner much straighter and a straighter line is a faster line.
3. You should be leaning with your bike not your body.
You want your weight going down into road not out an angle – your body stays more upright. You want to use gravity to give you more traction. …think physics and force vectors.
4. Keep your pedals at 3 O’clock and 9 O’clock while taking corners hard and fast.
This will allow you to balance on your bike and rise off of your saddle if the corner is bumpy instead of getting jarred off the road or line. You can also lean your bike over better while keeping your weight focused straight down to give better traction on the road.
5. Yeah, keeping your butt in the saddle with inside pedal high, knee out, while weighting the outside pedal usually works for fast cornering …in a ‘perfect world.’
…but we all know that not every corner is a ‘perfect world’ and absorbing the bumps is better than letting the bumps bounce you off line or off your bike!
6. Start pedaling as soon as you feel your bike rise out of the corner.
Getting back up to speed as fast as possible is the key to fast time trialing or racing in general.
7. A quick stand acceleration is also a very good tactic when coming out of a corner.
Just try to avoid being to ballistic and expending to much energy.
8. Look through the corner at where you want to end up, not at the corner itself.
We tend to follow our eyes; so if you are looking at the something else besides where you want to end up, your bike will tend to go there and that could be very bad if you are looking off the edge of a cliff.
9. Approaching every corner like it is an opportunity to make up time on your opponents.
Have a game plan for every corner and be confident that your body will perform!
10. Know your company!
If you are in a Time Trial overtaking a rider in a corner, make sure you have a feel for how they are handling their bike long before the corner or just wait until after. When in a road race or crit always look for shaky and risky riders so you don’t end up in their mess.
11. Know your limits on pedaling through your corner.
Know exactly how far you can lean your bike over before clipping a pedal and remember to stop pedaling before you get there! …I know common sense, but we all know someone who has clipped a pedal and it is not pretty!
12. Look past the riders in front of you.
Don’t expect the rider in front of you to keep you safe. They could miss something or take a bad line and end up becoming an obstacle themselves. Your best defense is a pre-emptive offense!
13. If anybody else has some cornering tricks, please let us know; as I am not the expert rather just a student sharing what I have learned!
Thanks in advance!
14. Cornering fast is fun!
Stay safe!
Looking where you want to go is great advice and a powerful effect. It is so powerful that even when riding no handed in a straight line, you can just look where you want to go, and you probably will.
Great post, great advice. This is one area, especially in crits, where you can burn so much energy trying to get back lost ground time after time after time (been there, done that!).
Great article, not braking in the turns and looking at where you are going to exit are key to good cornering. I also find that finding a rhythm and not panicking about moving up makes life easier as well. I feel it is better to make a concerted effort to move up when the opportunity presents itself rather than wasting a lot of matches trying to move up one and two people on each straight; this typically just makes one aggravated as that annoying guy who is always next to you continues to be right next to you!