How to Descend a Hill on a Cyclocross Bike

Video Transcript

"MICKEY DENONCOURT: Riding a steep descent on a cyclocross bike can be one of the most terrifying things you do all season. There's so much--there are so many things that sort of keep this from being the optimal bikes for going downhill. You know, they got little tires. The front center which really determines stability is pretty minimal. And you don't really have a good way to get a good grip on the brake levers and have your body be in a position where you have the optimal center of mass. So the biggest thing that you want to do is you want to look ahead. You want to know where you're going. You want to make sure that you can brake in a straight line. You brake before you get to the stuff that's really challenging. But then your actual body position when you're descending, depending on the roughness of the descent, if it's a very rough you probably want to be on the drops just because you got good sort of a hook to stick your hand into because you want to make sure you have your break levers angled that you can reach them okay when you're in the drops. And then you want to make sure that you keep your body weight nice and centered, you know, head up as much as possible looking far ahead and then you need to move your weight back to make sure that you're nice and balanced."