If you want to save time on the bike, be faster, be safer and be simply more efficient through the corners... check out the tips below.
Tips for better cornering on the bike in Triathlon:
1. Look where you are going!
It sounds incredibly simple, but the number of athletes who look at their front wheel, or behind them or at their drinks bottle is often astounding. The bike will, if handled properly, always go where you are looking. Looking forward is not only common sense (often lost in the red mist of a Triathlon) but it allows you the opportunity to look at the corner ahead. How sharp is the bend? Is it bumpy? Are there any potholes, Can I see the exit of the corner? Is there other cyclists or traffic?
2. Get down low!
Move your hands down onto the drops or off the Tri Bars for tighter corners because this is a much more stable riding position, lowering your centre of gravity and adding some weight to the front of your bike. Don't grip the bars too light. Bend your elbows. Relax the hands a fraction... always look where you are going...
3. Brake BEFORE the corner
Get all your braking done before the corner. Then release the brakes and allow the bike to roll around the corner. If you hold your brakes on the bike will want to go much wider and won't corner anywhere near as easily. Also in the wet the bike is likely to slip... and that you don't want!
4. Change gear BEFORE the corner
If you are looking where you are going, you should be able to decide which gear you want when you accelerate out of the corner... sort this before you go into the corner... look for the exit...
5. Entry - Apex - Exit
Enter the corner as wide as you can (be careful on the roads, stay on your side and avoid the ditch, verge), thus making the corner as straight as possible. This allows you to carry more speed through the corner. Try not to turn in too soon, as this will force you wider and probably have to slow down or run wide. Then aim for the apex, the inside of the corner, then accelerate towards the exit of the bend.
6. Inside crank UP push DOWN on the outside crank for stability
Obviously if it is a sweeping wide bend you can carry on pedalling through the corner. However, if the bend in the road is a little tighter bring the inside crank up so that when you go round the corner it doesn't bounce off the road and kick you into a crash. If its a left turn, the left crank should be up... a right turn and the right one should be up.
As you go through the corner push down slightly on the outside crank... this just helps with stability of the bike.
7. Don't steer the bike... LEAN the bike
Bikes are designed to roll in a straight line when upright.
To corner, you have to lean the bike into the corner... get low... look where you are going and lean. There is no better way to improve this skill than simply practice... each time you go through a corner brake a bit less or later, lean a bit more.
If it is wet though... slow down more... there is much less grip in the wet.
8. Practice
Ever heard of Sean Kelly... no... oh I really am that old! Anyway, professional cyclist ranked number 1 in the world in the 1980's... set up some cones on his driveway, practiced cornering regularly. You should too. Use a jersey on the floor, make up your own courses... race your mates against a stop watch. Not feeling confident... practice!
Paul is a Professional Triathlon Coach. Passionate about the sport of Triathlon. Paul empowers athletic achievements with quality individualised bespoke triathlon coaching.
Coach Paul is a British Triathlon Federation Level 3 Coach and a Triathlon Australia Performance Coach.
He is also an IRONMAN Certified Coach and a Level 2 Training Peaks Coach. F4L Triathlon Coaching offers triathletes and other endurance athletes a full coaching and training service that caters to all levels of triathletes. F4L offers professional triathlon and endurance coaching and the reliability triathletes and endurance athletes require. Each athlete is an individual, every athlete has different needs.
