Train ’em up
August 26, 2017 § 11 Comments
Last Sunday we were fortunate to have Brian McCulloch and Joy Duerksen-McCulloch come to the South Bay and put on a riding clinic. Brian just finished the Tour of Utah and earlier in the year raced the Tour of Taiwan. Joy is a long-time pro racer on the SoCal and national circuit. They run Big Wheel Coaching in Redlands, and are absolute professionals in the realm of coaching and teaching.
The clinic was in two phases. First we practiced various techniques for riding in a paceline. Later we simulated bike-to-bike contact on a grass surface at a local park. The clinics were geared to beginning-intermediate level road riders, but there was excellent instruction and practice that proved useful no matter what your riding level. The bumping and rear-wheel contact exercises created numerous breakthroughs for almost every participant.
Does your club offer training clinics? I belong to Big Orange Cycling, and in addition to the Cycling Savvy classes that we offer free of charge to members throughout the year, we also offer skills clinics that focus on various aspects of riding. We draw on the expertise of our members and we also hire private coaching for these clinics. The next clinic will feature Methods to Winning on September 30, a racing clinic put on by Rahsaan Bahati and Charon Smith.
If your club doesn’t offer ongoing education and skills training, please consider doing so. It helps new members get comfortable with the rules of road riding, improves intra-club communication, attracts new members when the clinics are open to the public as ours are, and it is perfectly in line with the mandates of most 501(c)3 organizations. Most crucially, it educates riders about how to become safer riders.
PS: Don’t forget the Wanky’s. As if you could.
Cycling in the South Bay 
Don’t miss that next clinic! Let us know if you need a reminder.
Right!
Nice!
Thanks for sponsoring this Seth, very generous and considerate. It was nice to meet both Joy and Brian.
As you can imagine the wheel tapping exercise had me a little on edge but Steve Utter did a great job coaching me along.
Glad you liked it!
Good stuff Wanker. I would also submit that the best way to improve bike handling skills is to mountain bike. Hard to imagine that anyone who has only rode on the road could be a truly great bike handler.
MTB will make you better …
I am sure it can help, but after 100,000 miles on the road, some track, lots of race situations in big fields I think many of us can handle fine. I have ridden with MTB riders who can jump over things i can’t, skid the rear wheel around and other things but they get spooked when a car comes with in 3 feet of them at 50 mph. Many can’t ride in a pack and rub elbows and hips since they mostly ride alone single track or down hill. Broad strokes you are painting senna 65.
Riding off road adds a few extra tools to the toolbox. The number one is focus and concentration. For me, anyway …
“Methods of Winning”? Pretty f’ing simple – Talent, Commitment and a Relentless drive to get better every day. Us leaky prostate profamateurs not racing for money might be better served by a lecture on Perspective? I write as I watch the movie Senna.
Simply stated, anyway.