How to go Through Closed Corners: Cyclocross Racing

Video Transcript

"MICKEY DENONCOURT: One type of corner that you might see more often you might like on a cross course is a decreasing radius corner, a corner where the angle of the exit is a lot sharper than the angle that you go into it. So a corner like this, you can't just go into fully pin. If you do, you'd end up going through the tape because you have to end up braking at the last minute. Cross bikes don't really like skidding and sliding around. They like to--like a nice, smooth arc through the trail. So this is the sort of thing where you can't really ride through a rest room. You can't try to pass through them or stuff like that because they tend to be narrow. There's only one good line or arc through them, and you really need to exaggerate your weight shift and make sure you do all your breaking in a straight line. So as I ride through this corner over here a couple of times, I'm increasing quickly. You'll see how I have to really slow down in a straight line before I get to the corner and arc through it instead of trying to like skid through it or something. So let me start off by just sliding through the same open corner I've been showing you before, which compared to the corner I'm about to ride through it's a real piece of cake. So in this corner, I'm kind of counter steer a little bit to open it up and go across it and I really--you really saw me moving my body back and forth to get my angle--angulation good. So now, I'm going to go through it quicker, and I'm going to have to do a lot more breaking in a straight line to really get around it without going through the tape. You can hear my breaks chattering and stuff like that. So I'll try to do it one more kind of smoother, quicker lap through there. And sometimes through those decreasing radius corners you stick a foot out to change your center of gravity around, it's going to help you make it through there without having to brake like it feels like your bike is getting pulled to the outside of the corner. Sticking a foot out the way you want to go, it's going to help you arc through there the other way."