Join us for a half-day mountain bike skills class in Minturn, Colorado with certified coaches.

COVID-19 POLICY: Sacred Cycle is apprised of the recommended CDC and county guidelines on an ongoing basis. All Sacred Cycle staff, coaches, volunteers, and participants will adhere to the health guidelines and recommendations. Staying connected to maintain our exercise routines for body wellness and social connection to avoid isolation for mental health allows us to heal our community through the pandemic. As we receive new guidelines from our counties we will adjust with safety precautions in place.

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Skills Clinic Recap:

BODY POSITION & BALANCE

NEUTRAL AND READY (ATTACK) POSITION

• Arms wide and out – creates stability and balance (when in attack wider stance)
• Knees out – cowgirl stance (group 2 named it this)
• Head up
• Level Pedals
• Chest forward over the stem (attack and climbing position)
• Be loose! – relaxed arms and legs
• Allow the bike to move underneath you. This will give you the ability to approach any obstacle
• One finger brake

LATERAL MOVEMENT

• Windshield wiper arms
• Be loose and keep body quiet while elbows do the work
• Push that handle bar out
• Keep low center mass
• Being able to move your hips around the cockpit of the bike will maximize balance and control and improve your flow on the trial especially in cornering
• Practice non dominant foot in front. You are not always going to be ready to attack a technical section with your dominant foot forward
• Always be Smiling

SHIFTING & BRAKING

SHIFTING

• Practice shifting your bike before heading out on the trail. Do your gears all work? Get familiar with which way to shift your bike to make pedaling easier and harder
• If you have more than one ring in the front, watch that you don’t cross your chain
• When shifting, practice “soft shifting.” Keep pedaling but lay off pedal pressure when making the shift to avoid chain damage/breakage
• When approaching a hill, look forward to anticipate a gear change. Try to keep a consistent pedaling cadence through your ride. This may mean shifting up or down depending on terrain

BRAKING

• Look ahead
• Attack/Ready Position
• Shift your weight back when going downhill
• Right is Rear; Left is Front
• 50% front; 50% back pressure
• Feather/slowly apply pressure to your brakes to slow the bike
• Hard brake will not send you over the handlebars if you’re in the correct body position!
• When cornering downhill: brake before the corner; feather to maintain the same speed into the corner; release the brakes as you come out of the corner

CORNERING

• “Slow is Smooth and Smooth is Fast”
• Enter the turn as WIDE (outside) as you can. The path the bike takes will resemble a “Question Mark” ???
• Always be “Tipping” the bike rather than “Turning/Steering” the handlebars
• “Get Hips Low” to create more traction between the tires (side knobs) and the ground
• Eyes – Look through the corner toward the exit while maintaining upright head position
• Arms – Keep elbows up and bent. Do a “Dab” to tip the bike
• Feet – Drive all weight down and through the outside foot. Create a platform/point of leverage against which the bike can tip
• Feather both brakes before entering the corner
• Release front brake at entrance to corner – allows front wheel to keep rolling and maintaining traction
• Release rear brake at apex of corner – allows bike to accelerate
• Feel the bike “slingshot” out of the exit and onto the trail or into the next corner

TRAIL SCANNING & APPROACHING OBSTACLES

• Look up!
• Where you look is where you will go
• Allows you to shift, brake, position yourself up for the obstacle
• Allows you to be more proactive than reactive
• Square your body up to the obstacle. Once you are square look to your exit
• Don’t let the obstacle draw all of your attention
• Speed is your friend

RIDING UP & DOWN TRAIL FEATURES (ROCKS, ROOTS, RUTS)

• Remember to use the mountain bike as it’s designed. The tires, shocks and arms hinged at the elbows all combine to allow us to easily absorb trail obstacles so we can ride up, over and through with SUCCESS!
• Think of riding “through” features smoothly and cleanly. No need to intentionally lift the front wheel off the ground except in the most extreme of riding conditions
• MOMENTUM is your friend!
• Shift into slightly harder gear when approaching a feature
• Pedal with determination to gain speed
• Just before feature, allow for level pedals to avoid a pedal strike
• Ride up and over or down and through features
• When climbing features, think about engaging core, lowering chest toward the bar like a push-up and driving through the pedals. PLANK FOR SUCCESS!!
• The EYES have it. Keep eyes up and scanning ahead on the trail. No need to look down at front wheel as we need to anticipate what’s next
• Subtle fore/aft movements will win the day. Excessive movements will often cause a loss of traction on either the front or rear wheel
• When CLIMBING a feature, move weight slightly forward to maintain pressure on the front wheel so it doesn’t lift off the ground
• When DESCENDING a feature, move weight slightly back and allow the arms to push the bike slightly ahead to avoid going OTB (over the bars)

HAVE FUN!!!

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