BU Cycling had a nice pre-Rutgers clinic today, focusing on what some of our new riders will be experiencing down in New Brunswick, NJ. It was the best clinic that I think we’ve held so far and it was clear that new members were quickly improving. We started the day with a nice leisurely warm-up ride out on the Green Line Velo Tuesday night route before detouring down some back (and I mean really back) roads to an industrial park near the Cambridge Reservoir that’s empty on the weekend.
Oh yeah, and everyone looked quite dashing in their fantastic new BU kits.
It ’twas a day of learning, so we decided to start off with a tutorial on how to change a flat. Thanks to Ben for providing the instruction and thanks to Griswold for getting the flat.
We continued to mosey our way over to the industrial park, finally heading through the secret passage to enter the park while still narrowly avoiding the secure parking lot of a to-be-unnamed US defense contractor. Once in the parking lot, Natan and Griswold organized some drills including clip-in start practices, slow races, and a few others while Ben and I scouted out two crit courses in another parking lot just down the road.
After considering multiple courses, taking into account different turns and the sand/gravel conditions, Ben and I settled on two specific courses. The first was Ben’s: short and simple but darn-tootin good for keeping an eye on riders and helping them to refine their lines.
The “race” was run like an Intro race – some of us more experienced riders would ride around with newer riders offering pointers and suggestions. The improvement in the new riders was very noticeable and happened surprising quickly. Their lines smoothed out quickly and they began to get a hold of sprinting out of corners soon after.
The team reconvened after some time on this course before embarking on my longer and more technical loop:
My course had two chicanes in it, allowing for the new guys to practice some more technical aspects of cornering, as such:
After Crit #2, it was time to practice the turnarounds for the Rutgers ITT. We’d started with holding the riders for the start so they could get comfortable with that potentially awkward first-time feeling. The riders would start off, get up to speed, and then practice the ever-so-narrow turnaround that Rutgers has to offer us. Natan demonstrates:
As I’ve said, it was a fantastic clinic, and I hope our riders will benefit from it at the first race of the season, which is less than a week away. Wow, one week…
To the start line we go.
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