Crosssports's Weblog

Howdy folks,

Kona week continues, and I hope you all appreciate the fact that I’m blowing off my chance to ride this morning to get this post up!

(Not kidding, either. Some serious adulting going on here today. Blecch.)

So, before I reconsider my priorities, on with the post…

It’s Wednesday, that means it’s…

Skills Day!

Rumor has it that it’s going to be wet back home in Seattle today, so we’re going to talk a little bit (and I do mean a little bit… I’m very much time crunched today!) about off cambers.

Specifically muddy off cambers.

First things first, tire pressure.

If it’s muddy, and you’re going to be riding some serious off camber sections, drop that pressure down. A lot. Probably more than you think is reasonable is about right.

It’s not unusual to see the top pros running in the neighborhood of one bar in their tires when the conditions are seriously slick, muddy, and off camber.

Yes, this means you’re going to need to ride tubulars. And you’re going to flat some of them. And probably roll some of them, at least until you really get your gluing down, and you’re going to need to re-glue every season when you’re running in this kind of pressure range. No getting away with last year’s glue job when you consistently start to run at or below 20 psi in your tires. (Trust me on this, I found it out the hard way.

So, tires? Low pressure. You need to experiment to see what works.

The one race I won last season (ugh…) I was running about 15 psi, and it absolutely made the difference. I wasn’t even close to being the strongest guy in the race, but I was able to get traction where other folks were…

Next?

Don’t be afraid to take your foot out.

Uphill foot out of the damn pedal, shift your weight to keep your body weight on the tires, and maximize contact patch.

What the hell am I talking about?

Even better?

Here’s how to nail, and how to fail.

Pay attention to how the third rider through attempts to transition his foot-out through the corner, and blows the weight transfer.

Remember, the whole idea here is to drive body weight through the tires into the slope. Leg comes out to facilitate that.

Yikes.

Out of time, gotta’ run.

More on this next Wednesday…

MH

Thanks for following my blog!

I’m not trying to get rich off this thing… or really even make any money from it at all.

It’d just make my life a fair bit easier if I didn’t lose money doing this.

Heck, allow me to rephrase that; I can’t keep doing this if I lose money on it.

So, hey… if you feel like you’ve gotten anything of value out of this blog, and you’d like to see it continue, please do me a favor – and yes, it’s a favor, and I will be truly thankful for it – and send a buck or two (or five, or whatever…) my way.

How do you do that?

Simply click on the graphic below, and PayPal will be glad to make it happen.

Thanks for the consideration!

~ by crosssports on October 11, 2017.

Posted in Cyclocross, skills, The Workout Of The Day