(synthesizer music)
- Hey guys Zoe here in Squamish, British Columbia.
You may have heard of it.
Pretty awesome in the mountain bike scene.
So I've been mountain biking for about eight years now
and mostly in cross country.
I've done cross country in my
triathlon during off road triathlon.
I've represented Canada at
the off-road triathlon games back in 2017.
And there's been a pretty good buzz around town
with the Enduro scene.
It seems like a more severe skill set.
My weakness I would definitely say are drops
the jumps, anytime I'm getting kind of air off the bike.
I just start don't feel that I've got any,
anything to base it off,
I don't know how to feels so it's held me back a bit.
My end goal would be definitely to be riding smoother,
faster, and more confident
not hesitating as much and just having some style
and some speed through the trails would be awesome.
So I have this opportunity now to ride with some local pros
and hopefully get some skills and tips from them,
as will you guys.
Today I'm riding with Georgia.
- My name's Georgia Astle, I'm a mountain bike racer.
I've done a few world cups as well as EWS's.
We're gonna go up to 19th hole
and then we're gonna do a lap through,
check it out and then we're gonna stop
and look at some lines,
section a few features that might be tricky,
and you work on a skill until you get.
And then we'll do a race lap through after that.
Hey Zoe. - Oh, hey how's it going?
- Good, I'm Georgia. - Georgia, how's it going?
- Nice to meet you.
So I heard you wanted to work on your Enduro riding skills?
- Yup.
- Yeah, say have you ever ridden 19th before?
- No I haven't.
- Nope.
It's pretty loose, I think it'll be a good place to start,
we can see what you know, what you need to work on.
- Sounds awesome.
- Yeah, should we do a lap through?
- Let's do it.
- Okay, sick I'll follow ya.
(upbeat music)
- [Georgia] In the loose gravel.
A lot of Enduro races
have a full bike bark style trail,
hitting burms is super important.
Knowing how to jump and drop, it's really important.
I think you need to know,
how to look ahead of the trail and see what's coming,
so you know where to brake and
probably also just knowing where to put the hammer down.
So knowing where to pedal,
where you're gonna make up speed
from pedaling or pumping, maybe.
(Zoe laughing)
There's a few, there's like three or four drops,
like root drops in a row
and you carry way more speed through it than you need.
So, it's kind of matter of where to drop your speed
so you can hit the roots without sliding your back wheel.
And then what I found is I got offline
in that second one after two,
so as soon as you go off that you can pretty much-
- It's this one and you stay straight down.
- Yeah you can almost shut it down
and then really get to riders left of that big root.
Yeah slow it down.
- Yup.
- And then you can roll, because it's quicker to roll
- Yeah. - Through that
- Yeah.
- Then it is to go all the way around.
- Yeah, totally, yeah.
- Yeah so once you're here,
shut it down and then just aim riders left
of that root and just keep pointing it straight.
- Okay.
- Yeah. - [Zoe] I'm gonna do it.
(bike hitting trees)
I finally dipped the wrong way (laughing)
Dammit. (laughing)
(Zoe mumbling and breathing hard)
- Whoo, that was great!
You like, you were looking left and you made it.
Yeah, way better that time.
She hit this middle line.
Just was a little riders right of that big root
but still held it, and then made it through the center.
So, it was still faster than doing the ride around.
I think Zoe can learn how to brake,
feel slower entering something
and then carrying her speed in the exits.
How to use her braking points a little bit better.
Yeah Zoe! (bike rustling)
Nice and shut it down.
Yeah, all right!
Yeah girl!
- That was awesome! - Much better!
(laughing) - You nailed that.
- Yeah, had to slow her down. (laughing)
- [Georgia] Yeah sometimes slower is faster
- Totally, way smoother too.
- [Georgia] Yeah, way smoother.
That was awesome.
- It almost tried a little bit (laughing)
(high five) - Yeah - Nice
Felt pretty happy with that.
Lots of improvement already.
So, let's keep moving, see what else she can show me.
(upbeat music)
- Yeah Zoe.
Nice, hold it through.
(handle bars jostling)
Like a sandbox.
It's super loose right now,
so, I hit them a little slower than
maybe I would if there wasn't so much sand
and rock in the landing.
Looking really far ahead and noticing all the spots
that I want to be slowing down in.
But, what's going to be important is
you're gonna want to have your arms ready.
- [Zoe] Do you do a little pull?
- You don't really have to pull up.
What it's going to be is you're gonna have your arms bent
you're gonna take it and use your arms as suspension
but then bring it back, - Yup
- So then you can hit the second one.
- Right
- You wanna be more over top of your bars than you think.
- Right - You don't wanna
push the bike away from you.
It's like you're pushing down.
- [Zoe] Oh, okay. - Yeah.
Nice girl, look ahead.
(Zoe nervously laughing)
Yeah, you got it.
- [Together] Woo!
- Yeah Zoe! - Yeah
Yeah that was way better.
That was actually surprisingly smooth.
- [Georgia] It is
- I'm always waiting for like, Ga-Goosh.
- Right away I can tell that she's
glued to her bike, really tucked in.
So that is good as an XC racer, because you want to be
kind of all held together, but you need to open up
when you're hitting bigger features
that we are in doing an Enduro race.
So Zoe can work on her bike-body separation
and just getting confident,
kind of hitting bigger drops and
letting go of the brakes in different spots.
(exclamations)
- Go around that straight.
- Whoo
- Yeah
- Yeah that was sick Zoe.
You've already improved so much that run alone.
- Thank you. - I think the next step
is for you to go back up, do a timed run
and then we have a bench mark just to see
how much you can improve on you time,
like your race lap through it.
- That sounds awesome, yeah I'd like to
kind of have a comparison now that
I've got a few more skills and just
put them all together and see where I'm at.
Here we go. (gears whirring)
(upbeat music)
(bike rustling)
(crashing into gravel) Awesome.
Keep going.
Okay here (mumbling)
(upbeat music continues)
Okay, pedal, pedal!
Whoo!
Stop clock.
(bell dinging)
Hey guys just had a time run down.
It was pretty spicy.
Got some time in the air, that I was not expecting,
but made it through, got down to the bottom.
The tips that Georgia had given me were really awesome.
The line choices, the drops felt way better,
and up until those points, thought I had it pretty down.
Definitely some more things to work on.
Looking forward to what other skills
I can take on and learn.
But Georgia suggested now that we go to the bike store
and tune up the bike a little bit,
chassis, supsension, get the brakes dialed.
Stoked to see what she has to teach me there.
See you guys over there.
(upbeat music)
Hey Georgia.
(Georgia squeals and laughs)
- I just always bring a tool in my pocket.
You know, the more the merrier.
- Oh, I bent the brakes good.