Patrick John McCrann | Athlete. Author. Coach.

Every year I hold one or two beginner cycling clinics. These aren’t massive, sold out events…they tend to be neat little affairs with 8-10 folks each. I don’t really make money on them, but they are just so much fun to do. I love connecting with people and, in the course of two hours, doing my best to transform how they ride. In fact, my clinics used to be four hours, but I cut them down to challenge myself to identify and communicate the critical elements of cycling in as short a time as possible. The following is a slightly more in-depth version of the agenda I use, with a brief explanation where necessary. I really hope this is helpful to you. If you like it, please consider passing it along.

Before you ask, yes, this is relevant for triathletes even though I don’t mention aerohelmets or disc wheels. At the end of the day, you are still riding a bike!

Part One: Understanding You + The Bike
Everyone has a relationship with their bike. Some people give their bikes names, others think they bike is out to get them…wherever you fall on this spectrum, you understand that your bike is more than just a frame with some wheels hanging off it.

1. Respect Your Ride — The majority of bike issues are a direct result of poor maintenance and bike supervision. If you want to make the most of your bike time, then you need to make sure that your bike is ready to support you in that regard. Take 5′ after a ride to clean it. Take 20 minutes a month to give your bike a good looking over to see how well everything is functioning, to identify red flags, etc.

2. You Operate It / It Does What You Tell It To — Bikes don’t do things. People who ride bikes do things…and some of those people blame their bikes. A huge part of becoming a better rider is coming to terms with the fact that you are 100% in control of everything on the bike.

3. Five Points of Contact / Three Matter / One Does The Most — You touch the bike in five specific points: Two hands. Two feet. One bottom. You can drop either the feet or the hands at any given point in time. But you really need your butt. Sure, it comes off the saddle when you stand and pedal, but the other 99% of the time it’s hard at work…helping you steer, corner, brake, etc. Don’t underestimate the value of…your butt. Seriously. t

Part Two: The Three A’s To Riding Well: Anticipate, Act, Adjust
One critical skill the experienced cyclist has at her disposal is the ability to anticipate what will happen. After countless hours and miles on the road, she knows how do deal with a car door, a sudden stop, that darting dog, and much more. The ability to anticipate what’s doing to happen is critical.  Since you are on two wheels travelling at a good speed, your reaction time is minimal, if not instinctive.  Do your best to keep tabs on what’s going on around you and don’t get lost in managing the minutiae of operating your bike.

I am not talking rocket science here. Remember that 10 years ago if I told you that you would need to drive to work everyday while talking on the phone, checking email and drinking coffee…with the radio on…in rush hour…you would have told me that I was crazy. Not so today.

If you can anticipate a problem, you can have 2-3 potential courses of action. If you have to act then, you choose an option and adjust your current actions. Here’s a real world example of the Three A’s:

Here are some practical examples of anticipation that have served me well:

• If you see a hole or obstacle you need to get around, start riding a straight line to the outside of the obstacle. Avoid last minute swerving, as that is dangerous and can freak out the other drivers/riders around you.
• If you can’t see more than 100-150 feet ahead of you when riding or cornering, then you need to sit up and have your hands on the brakes just in case.
• Check over your shoulder for cars before making any turns or adjustments.
• Watching front wheels of cars near to me, as they’ll reveal the first sign of a turn.

Part Three: Your Four Core Skills
As you get started on a road bike, there are a few key skills that you need to have in order to be able to ride safely. Here they are in no particular order:

• Starting: It’s critical to learn how to get up to speed from a dead stop. The first order of business is making sure that you are in the proper gear…this is done as you decelerate into the stop. Part two, then, is to lift your clipped-in foot up such that the cranks are parallel to the ground. Getting started then is as simple as standing on that foot. Without sitting down, you can then clip in your other foot, making sure to use your body weight to get the cleat in. Then you can resume pedaling as you sit down.
• Unclipping: Once you have decided to actually stop, your next order of business is making sure you can un-clip a foot. Stop pedaling, and stand up out of your seat. With one foot down, you can then un-clip the other as you coast to a stop. All that’s left to do is then gently place the un-clipped cleat down on the ground.
• Stopping: 99% of the the time, stopping is as simple as applying even pressure to both brakes, then standing and unclipping as outlined above. For the other 1%, when you need to stop quickly, get your pedals parallel to the ground, your weight to the back of (or behind) your seat, and apply pressure predominantly to the rear brake.
• Shifting: You have two goals with your shifting. First, to maintain a continuous pressure/rhythm on the pedals as you encounter different terrain. Your second goal? Don’t screw up #1. Seriously, however, shifting is pretty straightforward. In keeping with the “Three A’s”, you want to anticipate times when you’ll need to shift and do so quickly. There are two relatively important things to think about when shifting.

1. 1. Shifting the front derailleur can mean a drastic change in cadence given the size differential in the chain rings. To minimize this issue, we use the Rule of Two. Before you go small to big front ring, you should shift 2-3 gears easier in the back then hit the front derailleur. This will allow you to maintain a manageable cadence and will ensure a smoother shift as the chain will not be at an extreme. The opposite is also true; when shifting from big to small front rings, move 2-3 gears harder on the back then hit the front derailleur.
   2. Standing when riding is a powerful tool to help gain speed, crest a difficult hill or simply stretch out your back, etc. Done poorly, however, and the only thing you get for your standing is…being tired from standing. Once again using the Rule of Two, I recommend that you shift two gears harder than the one you are in now…in the body of the climb…then stand. Once done, sit down and shift only one gear easier…allowing you to gain a gear on the hill (when possible).

Part Four: Riding On The Road
A large part of being a quality cyclist means becoming comfortable with riding on the roads. Wide roads, narrow roads, fast roads, hilly roads, highway roads, wet roads, dark roads, etc. The list of potential skills here could take years to compile, so here are the basics you need to know.

• Know Your Route: It sounds simple, but it’s true. If you know where you are going, you move with purpose and clarity on the road. When you are lost or in a new place, you have to spend a ton of time getting oriented and too much time reading maps, cue sheets, etc. Do yourself a favor and plan ahead.
• Follow Basic Traffic Signs: When riding your bike you are considered another vehicle on the road, a vehicle that’s governed by the very same rules that cars are. Stop means…stop. Yellow means slow down.  Caution, speed limit, yield to pedestrians…all these rules are in full effect. To not follow them seems innocent enough. In reality, disobeying traffic signs and signals puts you at odds with the cars you are trying to ride with. They are expecting one things and you are doing another…not cool (or safe) when this happens at 20+ miles per hour.
• Ride Confidently: More on this later in body language, but suffice to say that if you act like you know what you are doing, you’ll ride like you know what you are doing, which means others (riders/cars) give you respect and room to breathe. Show weakness and they’ll be all over you in a second. Try something new or ride outside of your comfort zone and you could be in trouble. You musy ride with deliberate movements. If you want to go left, go there. When you are travelling at 20+ miles per hour, there’s no time to do the left/right/left/right dance you do in the hallway at work with your coworkers.

Part Five: Communication
While most of your verbal interactions with motorists might be of the four-letter variety, we can’t ignore our motorized counterparts completely. Assuming that everyone behind the wheel is texting, drinking coffee, and shuffling an iPod, here’s how you can do your part to ride safely:

• Simple Directions: When using hand signals, it’s very important to point where you plan to go so the cars in your vicinity can make an educated (and safe) decision on how to respond. Going left? Sit up and point left. Going right? Sit up and point right. Nothing irks me more than seeing cyclists use poor signals and / or no signals at all and sending the cars around them into a total frenzy.
• Body Language: Remembering that visual signals travel further–and faster!–than sound, know that even simple body language is an effective tool. If you are totally aero and hammering, no one is expecting you to stop. If you are hanging your head and flopping all over the place, folks can’t tell what you are up to. If you are going to make a big change, do everyone a favor and sit up tall…movement like that catches the eye and let’s me know that you are about to do something. Other great body language tools are nodding your head, waving others on, or asking them to stop.
• Using Your Voice: As a last resort, you can use your voice to make others aware. From a traffic perspective, I really only use my voice to yell “bike” when someone in a parked car is opening a door or someone is backing out of a driveway. That’s it. From a group riding perspective, vocal commands/warnings are critical as technically only one other person can see you.

Stay tuned for the second half of this post, when I cover the basic skills and drills I use at my clinics.

Thanks!

Coach Patrick