Let’s talk about cornering.  I offer this because 1) I just raced a very technical crit – the North Boulder Criterium, and 2) a good friend of mine, who has recently started racing, just asked me for specific advice for taking high speed corners in the hopes of doing well in his local crit. 

What you should be thinking when cornering: Keep your momentum and Don’t crash.  

These two concepts are at odds with each other because as it gets dicey you tend to get on the brakes, which saps into the mv equation.  Couple things to think about: if the corner is being taken fast and everyone is lined out single file, the only things you need to watch out for are 1) overlapping and touching the wheel in front of you, and 2) going into a barricade, a hale bay, or a slew of spectators.  For #1, just don’t be caught on the wrong side of a tire ala Schumaker in this year’s TdF.  As for #2, the barricades, you will often find yourself between the rider in front of you (and somewhat to the side of you) because the draft (wind) is taking you there.  For this, you just need to learn how to taper the momentum and braking so that you fall back into the draft with little or no effort.

As for corners that are not single filed out, try not to be in the middle because here you have few options – all you can do is follow the lines and hope no one around you goes down.  If they do, you’re going down as well.  

Try and stay either on the inside or the outside.  The inside is the safest place because the only person who is going to take you down is you yourself.  This is because when you crash in a corner your momentum takes you to the outside.  There is the possibility that you’ll get bit by the domino effect, but your odds are best on the inside.  The trouble with the inside is that it’s the slowest.  On some corners the difference in speed between the inside and outside is not that great so it’s not a big deal.

Taking the outside line is often the line that is fastest, but the problem with the outside is that if anyone goes down on the inside, you’re likely to get caught in the resulting pile up.  I tend to ride the outside because I don’t like the slow down and speed up effect going-on on the inside.  As I ride the outside, I’m always aware of my “outs”.  That is, if there is a crash, where can I go.  Sometimes, there is nowhere to go and I’m at the will of the crash, but most times you can simply go bail on the turn and go straight with breaks slammed.  If there are barriers, I look for a spot that is less painful, like the spot without the 100 year elm behind it.  

The best advice I ever received about cornering was from Paul McCormack, a former teammate of mine.  He said, “just go through the corners first every time, and that way if you crash, at least you know it was your own fault.”  This reminds of this one time in band camp, when I was in Belgium, racing a Belgian kermesse, thinking I was a super-cornerer coming from the US crit scene.  It was raining, the road was wet and gritty, and the pace around the corners was agonizingly slow.  ”Why so slow, you silly Belgian bike racers?  Out of my way, I’ll show you how we do it back in the good ole USA.”  To the front I went, into the corner.  BAM. Down.  Skidding. Ouch. Continue to skid. Off the road. Into the ditch. The ditch has water – brown water. Cold.  

Cow crap, water, and bike tire rubber do not mix.  Lesson learned.

A couple small tips: I’ve found that it helps to have your weight either centered over the bike or a tad forward.  This seems to work because you want the weight on the front wheel so that it doesn’t lose grip.

Another small tip: don’t panic when you hear (or see) the guy in front of you hit his pedal on the pavement. This happens often and quite frankly, this one just has to be learned.  

Small tip #3: Related to the one above, know your pedal clearance height.  You can pedal around a lot of corners if you have a good feel for when you pedal will and will not hit.  Also, you can tilt your bike toward the outside of the curve as you pedal to get a little more clearance.

As for the North Boulder Crit, there were two big crashes, both very close to me.  One was the guy directly behind me.  Not sure what happened, but I know that we were all cooking. My tires lost grip for a split sec and re-stuck a meter later as I straightened out – just as if I were a NASCAR car.  Apparently, not so lucky behind me.  The second crash happened to the guy to my right as we were going over the bumpy entrance to the alley.  Saw him go, but couldn’t see the impact.  Sounded bad.

I rode toward the front as often as I could and this is the best advice for taking corners.  The further forward you ride, the fewer people there are to take you out…

As for my buddies race, that’s next week…