How To Descend Safely | Ridesmart
Ridesmart is a series in partnership with British Cycling aimed at Sportive riders.
Follow these tips for faster, safer descending whether riding solo or in a group.
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Because you’ll typically be riding at faster speeds when descending, it’s important to keep scanning ahead for corners, potholes and other obstacles. This will allow you to pick the fastest and safest line. Getting low on the bike with your hands on the drops and covering the brakes will help you go faster in a straight line and give you a lower centre of gravity and more grip when coming into corners.
If you’re descending in a group, it’s likely that you’ll have riders descending faster or slower than you. Be consistent with the direction of your overtaking manoeuvre. Typically pass on the right if you drive on the left, and vice versa if you drive on the right hand side of the road in your country.
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How many times will you upload tips on the same things?
Last one to the bottom buys the beers on our group rides. You’ll get fast
quick in our group lol.
There wasn’t any mention of how to take a corner or curve at downhill
speed. Don’t forget to use the opposite leg from the curve. For example,
right leg at 6:00 position when taking a left hand curve to ensure a better
center of gravity.
+Global Cycling Network, why is the descending @ 00:50 bad ??
So obviously, in countries that drive/ride on the RIGHT side of the road,
its slow traffic on the right pass on the left correct? Thinking from an
American perspective since were always on the RIGHT side of things.
You should’ve added:
– adjust the reach of brake levers – saves you from cramping badly on long
Alpine descents
– don’t use brakes excessively – you’ll end up with blown tire or with no
braking power due to heat build-up
… and we’ll keep that pro tuck for familiar slopes in good conditions
(don’t try it on Mortirolo)
You should flip the video over for the right-side-of-the-road crowd. Good
grief even 11 seconds into the video it looks like you advocate cutting a
corner on the wrong side of the road! LOL
box hill, should have knocked on my door and i would have come out for a
ride with you
Perhaps this is too obvious to include in the video, but the first part of
safe and fast descending is to know the road. If I do a sportive I recce
the route slowly, taking into account speed bumps, bad surfaces, and so on.
You can either ride or drive the route depending on what is easiest. EG for
the 180k Etape du tour in 2010 I drove the course a few days before the
race. It really helped to give me confidence on the long fast descents.
Nice bit of ‘Box Hill’ action =)
Once again you missed the most important part of descending safety! Stay on
the correct side of the road! Just because your wheels are on the correct
side doesn’t mean your body is when you’re leaning over. Oh and stick tot
he speed limit!
Forgot to add over confidence can be your undoing!