- The race season is over
so it's a perfect time to have a bit of fun
and learn some new skills,
and what better way to do that than with cyclocross.
Well a cyclocross race might be a little bit daunting
but there is still a lot that we can gain
for our road riding skills for triathlon
with a few cyclocross specific exercises,
and I'm delighted to say that today
I am being spoiled because Jeremy Powers from GCN
is going to to be joining us.
He is four times US National cyclocross champion,
and he's going to be sharing a few of his tips
that will cross over
to help us become better cyclists for triathlon.
(upbeat music)
Whilst I'm waiting for Jeremy,
I thought I better get ready,
and you're probably wondering
what I'm doing with a road bike.
Well, this is the great thing about these skills.
You can actually practice them
on whatever bike you have.
I just made a few alterations.
I know Jeremy's going to hate this,
the fact that I'm on a road bike,
and the fact that my poor Kenyan air road
has actually got flat pedals on
and I'm wearing trainers.
So this is just so I can practice my mounting
and my dismounting.
And I might even need to lower
my saddle a little bit for that,
but it just proves that we can learn
these skills without needing any specialist equipment.
(beep)
- (laughs) It's so ridiculous.
Why can I not,
I don't want you filming it.
Just trying to get a little bit
of practice in because Jeremy's not here yet
and I don't think he quite realizes
what he's dealing with.
So, I'm trying to remember how
to get off my bike.
Don't tell anyone.
Okay I think I've got that.
(sighs) Maybe I can get away without showing him.
(upbeat techno music)
Cool I think he's on his way,
hey!
- (laughs) hey!
- You found us. - How's it Going?
- Good. - Nice to see you.
Yeah we do the hand shakes. - Okay
- On that side of the ocean.
- Well awesome,
thanks for joining us Jeremy,
and don't laugh yes I am on a Aeroad bike
and I've got trainers
but I'm glad to see you've come prepared.
- Yeah we're prepared,
we're going to
we're going to get you in the zone
we're going to get you doing some good cyclocross stuff.
- Awesome, well I think we
are going to start with mounting
and dismounting 'cause obviously,
in triathlon we need
to get on our bikes in T1
and off our bikes in T2.
It is only twice in the race,
but I know you guys do it a lot more often
but if you could give us some tips on that
and get me started that would be brilliant.
- It would be of my pleasure.
(upbeat music)
- Right, Jeremy we're going to practice getting on
and off and I gathered getting off
is easier than on
So can you start with the very basic tips
of how to get off our bikes smoothly.
- Yeah very simply,
in cyclocross we always think about being
in best gear for the next obstacle
that we're going to come in to.
So, that may or may not be really really important
for our traveling,
but as you come in,
hands on the shifters,
and then you want to make sure
that you just
take your put foot around the back
of the saddle,
and then you've got three points of contact
and that is the left hand on the left shifter,
the right hand about three quarters
of the way back from the top tube,
and then I like to put my
kind of my hip bone right on the saddle
so that I'm in
a nice stable position so that I'm
and that
for cyclocross that means that I'm able
to be able to get the bike right away from me
as I get off.
But I think for you,
it would be really good to just have
that, that stability
and being, coming into something,
and then being able to get off
and run with the bike.
- Perfect okay,
that looks - you going to try getting off?
- I will try getting off.
I have to excuse my slow getting on first (laughs).
Okay so, hands together,
leg comes over the back,
and then just scoot from there - now right hand on
the top tube
- Okay.
I think we've got that one.
(upbeat music)
- So obviously you guys in cyclocross
are getting on and off all the time.
We've just got to get on the once
and we're on a smooth surface,
so we don't have to worry about mud and things.
But what can you teach us when it comes
to mounting our bikes easily?
- Yeah, so momentum is the thing
that we talk about all the time
in cyclocross,
and you don't want to lose it right?
You want to continue to carry,
you want to get off, get the bike away from you,
run with it really fastly, put it back down,
and then keep going forward with
that forward momentum.
So one thing that we always do before we remount,
is give a little count in your head .
One, two, three,
because the last thing you want to do
is run so fast and have the bike be bouncing
or doing something like that.
You want to make sure that when you hop on the bike,
that you hit the inside of your hamstring.
You don't want to hit your groin,
that's not fun for anyone (laughs).
So I think definitely hitting
that inside of your leg,
and then knowing kind of
where your, where your petal
is by giving just a quick glance down,
but then picking your head right back up,
because you never want to be looking down
when you're trying to remount.
- You make that look so easy.
So let's imagine your teaching a triathlete,
such as myself,
who doesn't find that quite so easy,
are there any points to break it down
how do we start to,
- Yeah
- learn the actual flying mount
as we call it.
- Okay so,
very simply,
you can simply just take your hand
from here,
'cause that's were it would be,
put your hand on your right shifter,
and then just
literally just walk your leg up.
And get comfortable hitting here
and you may have a little bit of a black and blue mark,
it'll be a little sore the next day from trying this
and practicing this,
but really just doing this motion,
of kind of opening up your hips,
and then being able to
being able to get on top of the saddle there
and hitting that.
Then you find your pedal,
and you kind of slide over.
- Just looks so easy (both laugh)
okay, I mean I don't know how long we've got today,
I'll give it a go,
but if not we'll just go with
the demo from the expert.
Right, so I'm just,
literally walk along and
- Yeah!
- I was set to put my wrong pedal down. (laughs)
- Yeah that's right though.
- (inaudible) okay from here,
- Hands on top tube but you remember momentum.
- (beep) We'll do like a little conga line here.
Okay so we're walking with the bike,
we've got out hand here,
hand to the hoods,
now we just simply step on
and push with out left foot when we go up.
Push, there you go, yep.
And you're in too big of a gear,
so put it up into a nice, easy gear,
and then it will make
the transition back on a little smoother.
Okay one more time, ready?
Yep just walking and then right in
the inside of the leg,
keep walking, walk more, yep, walk, walk, walk.
Now step onto it with the hamstring.
Push off, keep going, yes!
- (cheers) yeah!
- (upbeat music)
- Alright, one thing as triathics we don't have
in common with you guys,
is we like to have our space.
Especially in (inaudible) triathlon,
we're used to having our box,
and if anyone come within our 12 meter box
it can get a little bit nerve racking.
So if you want to go out a ride
in the winter and ride with other people,
you obviously need to start getting used
to riding closer together.
What tips, Jeremy, have you got for,
obviously it's cyclocross,
you guys are touching all the time,
for tips for us triathletes
to get better at riding close together?
- You just have to do
it with other people.
You have to be,
you have to get out there and do some group rides,
even if they're really slow,
just get comfortable with people being around you.
But we also do one drill
that I think will be really helpful for you guys,
and if you're willing,
I'd like to show it to you.
- Well I guess I have to be willing.
You've made the effort to come
and join us, so I'm willing.
- Alright well then let's do this.
Alright so Heather,
so this is what we like to do.
Is just kind of stat to do a little circle here.
And then ride close to me,
and I'll ride close to you,
and sometimes you just
yeah you just get comfortable being next to Someone,
and you're only going like two miles per hour.
So, lean towards me a little bit.
- Okay. - Yeah you can actually,
yeah so you actually bump a little bit
- I feel like this is some kind of,
you know like survival of the strongest (laughs)
- No it's really gentle.
But the thing is,
if you fall over on the grass,
going two miles per hour,
there's a very low level of,
a very low chance of getting injured
or something like that.
So this is a quick little drill
that you could do with a good friend,
or a mate, as you say here in the UK.
(Heather laughing) And get some good skills down.
- Okay yeah I'm feeling,
I'm definitely getting used to
this close proximity,
this is unusual for triathlon,
(Jeremy laughing) for sure.
But I think this is a great tip.
- Okay well welcome to cyclocross.
- Thanks.
(beep)
- [Jeremy] I think it'll be good for your video.
- You're going to push me over!
- No no, fall over here right?
You're just touching a little bit.
(laughs) So yeah,
so you just do this.
(upbeat music)
- Obviously you guys have tremendous bike handling skills,
as cross riders.
In triathlon, we don't tend to work
that much on it,
because we're normally on smooth (inaudible),
but we occasionally hit patches
of water, or gravel,
or you might even want to go do an Exeter.
So what tips can you give us
to improve our handling skills,
rather than just slamming on your breaks
when you see something that's
that's a little underwater.
- Yeah so,
you know I think in triathlon it's very important
to be compact and to be in one little spot,
and to be as arrow dynamic as possible.
But in cyclocross, that
kind of throw that out the window.
Although arrow dynamic's probably slightly important,
not at all in compared to what you guys do.
So the thing that we like to do,
is we like to try to get a low center of gravity,
as much as possible.
Sometimes that means being in your drops,
and if not being on your hood's,
but being as wide and kind of as low as possible,
and being able to kind of move around on the bike.
So where does that come into place?
Well the last thing that you want to be doing is,
being all in one place,
if you think about,
like being on a
a thin piece of ice,
well that, then we'd go straight through.
But if you're nice and wide,
well that's what they tell you to do
if you're on thin ice, get nice and wide.
Because that gives you more dex,
it allows you to move your
body weight around,
and be able to kind of shift.
So, get your weight back. One tip,
push the bike out in front of you,
and then get your arms out wide
and kind of get a nice wide stance
and the other thing,
use the rear break.
Using too much front break,
in cyclocross, sometimes mean you go over the bars.
So if you're coming into an obstacle like this,
like a muddy section or a big puddle,
the thing that you don't want to be doing
is being really tight and narrow like this.
You want to get your weight back,
you want to push the bike out in front of you,
you want to get your arms out,
you want to be in a nice aggressive position,
with a low center of gravity,
and then the lat thing you want to do
is you want to pick your head up and look up.
You don't want to be looking right down there
because, your bike will track
where your eyes are and having your head up,
points you in the right direction.
And that's going to bring us to cornering
which is coming up next.
(upbeat music)
- Well a certain aspect of bike handling
is obviously cornering which you just alluded
to at the end there Jeremy,
and obviously it's important whether you're
on road, or off road.
What's key drills and pointers have you got
when it comes to being able to corner well.
- Yeah I like to make sure,
again that I've got my head up,
that I'm looking through a turn.
Anything that I'm going into,
I don't want to be looking down there,
I want to have my head up,
I want to be looking at where I'm going to be going.
The other thing, is that aggressive stance position.
I want to make sure that I'm low,
low center of gravity,
and then I want to use my knee
and I want to make sure that I'm leaning the bike.
I never want to turn the front tire,
that's how you lose that
that contact patch with the ground,
is if you turn.
You want to make sure that you learn how
to lean with the bike,
and kind of use your body weight to,
I guess counter steer a little bit,
like you're just kind of pushing the bike
and you're like this and you're going away here.
So, we also like to say that we used
the entire corse meaning,
you start from the furthest end,
and then you make a long arch though,
you never want to be doing a sharp turn.
Especially in cyclocross,
because that's how you lose traction
and you end up on the ground.
- Great, okay well I think you can go and show us.
I mean I've had a little go before you arrived
of going around some cones,
but I think you can do it better job at demoing.
(upbeat music)
- So this is our turn.
All the things that we talked about.
Making sure that you get your weight back,
making sure that you get in a nice low,
low stance, aggressive position,
and then when I look at this turn,
the thing that I think about,
is you don't want to come into a turn
and then be all on the breaks right here in
the center make a big turn with your front tire
and then have to sprint out.
What you really want to do is make sure
that you come in as far as you can,
lean that bike,
and make a nice long corner.
We say tape to tape in cyclocross,
meaning your on one side of the tape,
and then you come out on the other side
of the tape and it's the furthest two points
that you want to use,
because that's going to have the freshest grass.
So what you actually want to do,
is use the entire corse.
Instead of having to scrub speed,
on this type of turn you're able
to just lean the bike a little bit,
but use the entire corse.
Verses going straight to the inside of the pin,
having to scrub a ton of speed,
and then sprint out of it,
it's a lot safer,
keeps the tires on the ground,
and it'll give you a much better,
flow and momentum to be able
to keep your speed through a turn.
So hopefully you guys learned some skills here
and we'll see you at the cross races coming up,
because,
well this is a nice time of the year
for you guys.
- It is, exactly. It's a great time to practice new skills,
which I think I've learned a few today,
and work on that fitness.
So what's not to like.
Well give us a thumbs up,
like if you've enjoyed it
and had as much fun as I have today.
Hit the globe to subscribe,
and if you want to get more confident on the bike,
well we've got a GTN video for you on
that just down here.
- And if you want to get a little bit more
into cyclocross then check out some
of our how-to videos from GCN,
you can check those out right here.