Friday 15 April 2011

It's not about the bike Gary






Gary is a very accomplished road cyclist and races mtb. He wanted to develop his off road skills to gain time in races so I set about it with this in mind.
During the skills check I discovered footwork, looking and body position faults and also that he pulled the bike too. I set about correcting his set up and also the missing skills before we moved onto drops.
Gary was worried about the suitability of his carbon hardtail but this soon ended as he was sailing off the drops and landing perfectly and commenting on how it feels so smooth.
We then moved onto the trail and Gary commented on the tight looking corners but soon he was flying round them.
As his looking and footwork became easier i then worked on his body positioning too.
We worked on bermed, switchback, off camber and flat corners. Rock gardens, drops, steps and pumping.




We worked methodically down the trail, linking each section to the last. I worked hard with him on linking drops into corners and removing his braking in corners.
We then rode the trail end to end and with each run Gary got faster and smoother too.
The final run was a peach so we stopped riding the trail and moved onto jumping. To Gary's surprise the technique was actually a lot easier than he thought and soon he was up in the air and landing on the transition. The smile on his face was a picture.


Gary then used his mental skill set and applied it to ride the gap jump side too!
Awesome session Gary and I look forward to our on going connection.

1 comment:

  1. So Gary - do you think you will be faster on your road bike now?

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