Cycling Skills

Hey Folks,
This weekend we have a couple of great rides planned out for everyone. On Saturday, we are going to be doing a skills-focused ride and on Sunday we will have a group ride with our generous sponsor Dan Byrne.

Saturday will be the first of a few skills rides this fall. We really can't stress to everyone how important these skills are. I still work on these skills while riding or quickly after a ride even though I have had a lot of racing and riding under my belt. These skills are important for winning races, riding in the pack, and avoiding crashes. In a sport of high speeds and many unexpected variables, crashes are inevitable. Everyone experiences a crash or two, but hopefully these skills will help you master your bike handling skills so you can avoid the majority of sketchy situations. Trust me, you don't want to be the racer in the peloton that everyone is worried about...Alex has some first hand experiences with these types of people.

But anyways, don't be scared about crashing. I didn't mean to get you all worried. These skills are actually really fun to work on and they really do help! If you are exposed to these situations in a practice setting, you will be a pro in the peloton when you have to deal with them!

Things that we will be covering during these skills sessions are:
1. Bumping- so you won't freak out when this accidently happens in the pack
2- Bike handling- picking up bottles off the ground, crazy-cyclocross dismount balancing acts, bike limbo
3- Looking back safely in the pack
4- Braking- getting use to skidding and stopping fast
5- Cornering- learn to do it with more speed, safety, and skill
6- Pacelining
7- Descending- safely, aerodynamically, and quickly
8- Sprinting- you all want to win races right??
9- TT starts, TT turn arounds- great race situation exposure

Come out and have some fun and improve your skills. You will see the progress when you ride and race!

On Sunday, we are lucky enough to ride with the generous Mr. Daniel Byrne. He is the man who graciously funds our team, supplies us with aero helmets, tents and more!! Come out for a great group ride around some our favorite training roads. We will cover a new route this week!

Here is what you need to know:

Saturday. Skills. 2pm. Campus Center.
Sunday. Group Ride. Mr. Byrne. 1pm. Campus Center.

Hopefully we will see you all there!

-Taylor

ps: here are a couple of great cycling videos showing off bike skills (Tufts Cycling does not encourage the use of either of these techniques in races---they are not optimal):
Cav's Bunny Hop http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEu7ib6NKkY
Lance's Cyclocross Experience (poor Beloki)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr89ku-K2WU