Spring is now in full swing here in Australia and the first of the crits signify the start of it. Crit season also means getting accustomed to some high paced, tight cornering again.
Good cornering technique can save a LOT of energy and put you in the proper winning position in the final straight. Knowing how to corner properly can also give you what we call “free speed“. Many people have difficulty cornering so here are a few simple tips to help you along the way.
- Always look where you want to go and don’t fixate on the wheel in front of you. Never look where you do not want to go. It’s a sure way of heading in that direction.
- Anticipate the speed for the corner and brake before the corner if necessary. DO NOT brake while in the turn.
- Approach the corner wide, cut to the apex , and finish wide. The apex is straightest line through a corner and allows you to maintain the highest amount of speed. A common mistake is cutting to the apex of the turn too early. Approaching the corner wide also gives you more options when exiting the corner in case something unexpected happens.
- Quickly scope out the 2 or 3 riders ahead of you who have already entered the corner. Note if they are pedaling safely through it and judge whether you should do the same. If it happens that your inside pedal hits the pavement, don’t panic and don’t over-correct. Over compensation is how most crashes happen.
- Put all your weight onto the outside pedal if you stop pedaling. This pedal outside pedal should be facing down towards the road. Lift your weight off your saddle slightly to get that weight on the outside foot, get over the front of the bike (see photo below), and roll up behind and into the slipstream of the rider in front. It’s amazing how much speed you can keep and energy you can save by ducking right under the wind.
- If you are not pedaling through the corner and need to coast through (as in #5), once you have passed the apex of the corner begin to pedal again as soon as possible and accelerate out of the corner.
Random Cornering Tips
Concertina Effect
When riding in large groups such as criterium racing you’ll experience what’s called the concertina or accordion effect. This happens when the front riders slow down to enter a corner which compresses the pack together. The last rider in the bunch has to slow down the most. By the time the front riders are accelerating out of the corner the riders at the back are still slowing. This means the riders at the back have a lot of catching up to do and have to go faster than the riders at the front in order to catch up again. The further back you are, the more this surging effect is propagated towards the rear of the bunch.
The trick to avoiding this constant surging is to find your position at the front quarter of the bunch. You don’t want to be at the front doing all the work but you want to be close enough to the front so you can carry your speed through the corners and respond to any attacks or surges. This also enables you to read the race and see what’s going on up front.
Coming Underneath
This is an etiquette and safety thing. What “coming underneath” means is when someone passes everyone on the inside of the corner while going through. This is a mistake on two counts:
1) You could get cut off very easily by the rest of the group apexing the corner and you won’t get through. Your exit line will be over before it’s begun.
2) If you do manage to come underneath the through the inside of the corner you will disrupt the pack’s fast moving line since you will most likely swing wide through the corner. You’ll have the riders say a few colorful words to you at the end of the race. Hard to explain but hopefully you get the picture. Do it once and let the guys you just “chopped” politely explain it to you.
Countersteering
You may not realize that you intuitively countersteer every time you enter a corner. However, once you are aware of this concept it’s much easier to control and perfect.
To initiate countersteering, momentarily turn away from the direction you’re turning. This increases the lean of the bicycle into the turn. This method allows for greater steering control and makes it easy to affect a change in direction during the turn.
If you have 5 minutes, the following video does a great job explaining countersteering.
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Hi Wade
I notice in the photos that many of the riders have their hands on the drop of the handlebar. What is the best spot for the hands and why?
Cheers
It’s definitely a matter of preference. When I’m relaxed and not too stressed I like to be on the hoods. When the pace is on and I’m concentrating I get down into the drops. Being down down in the drops also allows you to be lower and lets you get under the wind. As I said in point #5, you can save a massive amount of energy by reducing your drag by getting down low. This isn’t practical for a long period of time though as it’s not the most comfortable position and you can’t generate as much power while pedaling. It’s ideal for coasting through corners though.
Hope this helps.
I’d say the drops is the best place to be when you’re cornering hard. It not only lowers your centre of gravity it puts more weight over your front wheel, which aids in front wheel tracking and traction.
Great post CT, it should have been mandatory reading for all the guys in the crit race on Sunday, few blokes changing lines mid cornering, it really sent a panic through the pack. Luckily everyone finished unscathed, which is more than I can say for B Grade, I hope those who fell will live to race another day.
Good post once again.
I estimate your post rating (similar to some sort of Nintendo Super Mario Super Extra Wizard Health) is currently at 8012^awesome.
Is that you on the white Look? You look a bit gaunt, this can’t be helpful for the ToB. I recommend stocking up energy stores over the prevailing months by heavy consumption of Krispy Kremes. Ignore lycra tightening and jeers from roadside of “The Muffin Man!” in squeaky gingerbread man voice. It is a necessary by-product of the power storage you are facilitating.
Please advise progress.
Tim
Haaiieeeee.
Most honourable Mr Wallace, must confess admiration for your continued honourable posts which contain a wealth of information and tips on how to instigate large amounts of race-time ninja derring-do.
We here at Race Dojo in High Japanese Alps watch quietly and with anticipation for daily update.
This latest tip most helpful for us in first crit season as first road winter race season very successful and though we here at High Dojo think crits are cheating for flat land Cavendish riding, we think very good to develop high turn of speed.
We write Haiku for you as thank you:
On his Look rides Wade
Stealthily dodging magpies
And giving us tips.
Sincerely with respect
High Ninja Dojo
Hahaha nice one!
Yes, that’s me on the while LOOK. I’ve been getting in trouble for poaching other people’s photos (even though I almost always quote their source). Therefore you’ll be seeing mor team O2 pics on here.
And thanks for the Haiku. That’s a first. I’m honored. ;-)
Sir, you are most welcome for the Haiku. We will construct more.
However, the comment about bike seemingly relate to other poster, not us, though name similarity can cause un-ninja-like confusion – most understandable for normal person.
Different poster – same name. Very non-suspicious coincidence.
Haieee!
Raced my second crit on the weekend, wish I had of considered the consortina effect. Started towards the back, pushed hard to stay on through all the corners, blew up about 22 mins in, got dropped…..
Not the sprint finish to victory I was hoping for!!
Conor
Keep at it Conor! You’ll probably find the pace will settle down a bit in the next couple of weeks as downgraders find their way back into their true grade and the more you race the less likely you are to get blown out the back. Thanks to CT and Crowie, I kept chanting “if you’re not going forwards, you’re going backwards” to myself which reminded me to keep circulating in the first 10 or so riders. Negates the concertina effect and reduces your chances of getting caught up in a crash too!
Chin up Conor, all of us did it tough to begin with.
My first two races I was dropped and lapped in D grade.
By the end of the season I was a marked rider in B grade.
Keep racing, you’ll improve very quickly as you keep at it.
Treasure it, because when you get to A grade the opportunities are all the more difficult to come by.
Keep at it!
Wade,
just something to add to point 1 about looking that I learnt through motor bike and mountain bike riding when looking at/through the corner it is very important to turn your head in that direction, this will apply the right amount of pressure onto your handle bars ensuring a faster and more accurate entry and exit of the corner. It’s also going to allow you to generate a littlte bit more cornering speed.
Another good cornering technique, depending on the type of course and field size, is “tail-gunning”. I only learned about using this effectively earlier this year during some large crit races in the US. Basically, you have to be one of the very last people to hit the corner and you go into it about several bike lengths behind. When you come out of the corner, you are back in contact and have not lost any speed nor have done any breaking. This can be the best place to be for most of the race before you start moving up. But this is only good on non-technical courses and ones that are wide-open. What are your thoughts about this?
Another issue that is becoming increasingly prevalent is the issue of touching/prodding people with your hands, sometimes it even happens in corners and this would disrupt the “normal” flow of the peloton movement and thus potentially cause crashes. Do you experience this in Australia?
Noting your second point;
Maybe to many for the riders have been waiting the ’87 Roubaix with Moser pushing riders along out of his path?
‘Coming underneath’ also known in the Canberra crit scene as a ‘dog move’, not cool at all and will often see you end up in the grass/dirt.
Good video attachment Wade, most people would be countersteering without even knowing it at high speeds around the corners of the summer crit season.
Another point I would like to make for ALL grade riders out there this summer would be to follow the wheel ahead of you through the corner. And by this I mean, if you are midfield resting/recovering or just enjoy the ride, follow the wheel in front of you through the turn. Don’t change the your enterline as this will effect the angle you will hit the apex and your exit line. Why does this matter? If you exit the corner at a different angle or line from the wheel in front of you, you will have to chase back on to the pace line and this is wasted energy. Multiply this by four corners around glenvale and it a hell of alot of extra effort you are putting in for the hour crit.
I understand that at different times through out the race you will be making passing manovures and this would not aplly. But if you’re just sitting in, make things easy on yourself and the others behind you!
Cornering on the inside.
Whilst not advocating it, I wouldn’t completley rule it out.
Ooooooohhh. I know what your all thinking. My point being sometimesif the space is there and you can maintain your line without crossing across a front wheel of a fellow rider on the exit, you should use the space.
Many riders protect the outside as they tire because they know thats where the attacks will come from but on some of the open courses the inside run is as good as the outside when the lin is protecting the outside gutter out of the turn.
Usual it is the slowing rider that will get vocal because he is losing ground.
I’ll emphisis this comes with experianceand you must be able to have a clear line and establish your position early a bit like car racing, get your bars up past the hip of the outside rider and hold the line of the group.
Thanks for the countersteering info.
In my first season of racing, this all helps so ta!
One thing, despite my inexperience, that I will note, is attacking on corners.
I’ve had very good results attacking on incline corners. I am light, and more suited to hills, but having said that, I think an outside line and an attack is a handy cornering tip (just to balance the crit-focus a bit).
Much like Contador.
http://www.shredquest.com/collat/france09/ar_S17/aaipindex-S17/Images/53.jpg
I find it to be especially true on steeper switchbacks and corners as I can pop out of the group and attack on the outside, sometimes even on the steeper grade inside
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