Posts Tagged ‘XC Racing’

« Older Entries

XC Racing : Mountain Bike Skills

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

Technical Mountain Bike skills are simply an essential part of your armour.

By practising a range of mountain biking skills they soon become second nature. Simple skills like bunny hops, shifting weight on the bike and late braking can all be valuable tools, especially during XC racing. The ultimate goal is to have this range of skills available and be able to put them together without too much thought - ie they become second nature.

Importantly when these skills are rusty, performing them can be very deliberate which tends to result in more energy being used and often bad technique. During a race or longer ride it is easy for bike handling to get sloppy, at these times your skills are even more valuable.

Here are a few very simple and underated ways to improve mountain biking skills.

  • Out on normal weekly rides, purposefully try to challenge your handling skills, maybe taking slightly more difficult line or clean difficult sections
  • Practise staying off the brakes as much as possible for singletrack sections and braking late for corners
  • Bunny hop everywhere you go, up kerbs, over fallen branches or loose rocks
  • If you find yourself waiting for someone else's puncture or for stragglers to catch up, use this time to practise track stands or move weight around on the bike
  • If you neeed real improvement look for a local skills course

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Articles, Training | No Comments »

Southern XC Round 3 - Crow Hill, Ringwood

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

Including previous rounds at Wasing and Pippingford, the Southern XC courses have been up to a decent standard as always. Crow Hill near Ringwood, carved in for round 3 is a definite team favourite. This is partly due to the 15 minute drive for most of us and partly due to the familiar New Forest terrain where we train for most of the year.

Weather all set to be perfect, the course had been changed somewhat. The car park was in a completely different field to previous events, though many of the usual sections had been included. As always lots of flowing singletrack and not too much climbing, much more of a power course. The terrain is pretty rooty at Crow Hill with lots of New Forest red dusty soil which can sometimes feel like you’re going backwards.

(more…)

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Cross Country, Team UK-Biking | No Comments »

Southern XC Round 2 - Pippingford Race Report

Monday, May 24th, 2010

The first of a few races scheduled this year at Pippingford Estate, Round 2 of the Southern XC was eagerly awaited by many. Good memories of two visits here last year and what looked to be amazing weather as a bonus.

This time around it was amazing how much the course had changed again. The very exciting and fast downhill bermy section complete with a couple of jumps still remained. And as a result some long draggy climbs back up the hill again. The usual Southern XC crew had managed to run the course back into the arena, then back into the woods for more rapid descents and miles of singletrack.

As we arrived before lunch the heat of the midday sun kicked in, so we went straight off for a sweaty warm up lap. A quick chat with Pete Hall illustrated the sheer toughness of the course (though not his exact words!).

A couple of drop offs (but not as hairy as Wasing!), plenty of singletrack and what seemed like a longish lap. After that it was time to get out of the sun or overheat.

Watching the Vets and Grand Vets go round was ‘interesting’, even the top boys like Shep were really suffering. Mike and Garrett were clearly held up with mechanicals, though Garrett didn’t lose much time, Mike returned like a hero having fixed his puncture but ended up snapping his chain later anyway.

As I lined up for the final race of the day, the uphill grassy start off into a fast singletrack section a fast start was required. ‘Any time in the next 30 seconds, and we were off. After that it was simply a case of trying to keep good pace and respect the course and the heat.

After settling in and finding a nice pace all seemed to be going well, learning the sections of Pippingford and drinking like a fish. At the end of lap 2, an intermittent creaking sound became worse, followed by a snapped spoke. Then it all went a bit wrong. A race of two halves, I ended up losing lots of time and experiencing much pain but didn’t seem to lose too many places in the end. As usual once we get home the love of the sport soon returns.. Weird.

Lots of mixed opinions on the course, but overall very challenging and a proper XC course with plenty for everyone. Let’s see what comes up at the championships later in the year.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Cross Country | No Comments »

« Older Entries