Learning Courses Advice

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Permalink Reply by Hamilton on October 26, 2009 at 10:27am

Ride it slowly, you may even want to walk some sections. There are always random rocks, roots, holes and ruts that throw off an otherwise good line. If you pre-ride the course somewhat quickly as part of your warm-up you'll probably miss some of these things. You also need to link your turns together. Don't just look at the fastest way to go through a single turn but look at how your line sets you up for the next turn, and the next, and pick the best combination.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Mayhew on October 26, 2009 at 4:38pm

Pre-ride for sure. I usually take 2 laps just to figure out where the course goes, and to mentally mark corners/portions I am unsure about. I'll then do another 2-3 laps looking for lines in specific places and just noodling the rest of the course. I'll then do another 2 or so laps to see how the course has changed and make sure the lines I want are still there. I also like to do 2-4 full effort starts off the line to the first corner to see how that handles at speed.

I don't know what level you race at but always plan for the line you want but also have a plan for the lines you may be forced to take on the first lap. You want to minimize surprises on the first lap so be prepared not to get the best line that first lap or two till traffic thins out.

Also, follow the guys you know are fast. There are a few guys "locally" I always make sure to get in a lap or two with to see what lines they are riding. Or just find a random fast guy and follow him for a lap.

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Permalink Reply by Booksy on October 26, 2009 at 9:31pm

I find that experience riding mountain bike trails/races at speed really helps. Every trail has so many turns and the conditions change so much that reading on the fly is essential.

For example, this last weekend I didn't have a chance to pre-ride at the USGP race but my ability to read terrain, look ahead and observe what other riders were doing allowed me to dial in the course pretty quickly. If I'd have had a chance to pre-ride I'm sure it would have helped immensely but I didn't feel it was really that much of a disadvantage and my bike was clean and my legs were fresh...

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