One of the most overlooked things in cornering in a race is not scouting the course beforehand, and taking the corners at race speed. This is an important preparation step that every rider should take, either the day of, or if possible, the day before. If you’re performing corning drills, you should still approach it in the same way as a race. If you don’t have access to a low traffic area where you can practice, try a parking lot, and get some cones to set as the corners. (This is sometimes better than an actual course, as you can set up both right and left hand turns).

Once you have the course set, warm up a bit, and then start your practice. Like the descending drills above, you want to start at less that full-gas, and then keep adding speed as your comfort level increases. The main difference here is that you are much more in control of your speed, since you’re not leveraging gravity.

The drill goes something like this (and remember, you need to do this both right and left handed turns):

Drill # 1- Take the first five turns at a reasonable speed, staying in the drops. Shoot for the apex of the turn, and keep pedaling though the exit. Focus on holding a smooth line though the entire corner. Your gear should be such that you have to apply effort to the pedals, but your cadence should be higher the on the descents so you are not struggling out of the turn to keep your speed up. As with the above, really think about your form, applying downward “butt” pressure to the rear wheel. Don’t worry so much about the speed (although you need to keep your speed up to get the sensation of leaning the bike) as keeping good smooth form, and not bouncing on the pedals.

Drill # 2- Start to increase your speed into the turns, again, keeping your cadence high. As you increase your speed, you will be able to lean the bike over more, dropping your shoulder into the turn. Think about where the pressure is on your bars. Like you butt, you want to really be pushing the bike into the turn. This is where it starts to get tricky. You want to try and apply downward pressure to the bars, but you DON’T want to actually be steering the bike (you could wreck). As you exit the turn, ramp up your speed again (this is where the high cadence really comes in). You are still focusing on form over speed, but the two should be working together.

Drill #3- At this point, you should really feel comfortable leaning the bike over into the turns. This is also the point where you have to start thinking about pedal clearance. Clipping a pedal (or shoe) going though a turn at speed will scare the crap out of you at the least, and result in serious injury to you and others, or worse! How do you determine what’s safe? While I’d not recommend trial and error, you can get a good sense of what’s safe by watching more experienced racers or pros on TV. Variables such as crank arm length, pedal type, and type of corner all play a role. What you’ll often see, and what ultimately your goal would be, is to get a feeling for when you are leaning the farthest over (right at the apex). Pedal as far into the corner as possible, but as you go through the apex, you want to aim to have the outside crank down (inside leg up) and keep that position for as little time as possible. You’re only at that absolute lean for a few seconds, and that’s all you really need to be concerned with in terms of clipping your pedal.

Start the 3rd drill by working up some speed, and really focusing on form, and pedaling as deep into the turn as possible. Pay attention to your form, really pushing the bike into the ground, and then springing onto the pedals as you exit the turn. Your inside leg will be at the top of the pedal stroke, so it’s set and ready to crank that first revolution out of the turn. You should feel equally comfortable popping out of the turn with your right leg or left leg in the power position.

Mental Focus

I’m not one for sitting in a candle-lit room with world music playing, working on visualization techniques, but for some people, that works. Being mentally focused in a race, and in a corner though, is critical to high performance riding and racing. The faster you go, the tighter your mental focus should be. Being mentally focused does not mean, and should not mean, shutting out what’s around you, as that can be a serious detriment if you can’t react to changes. You should be focused on the task at hand, and on form and technique, all the while being aware of where other riders around you are. One of the best ways to get used to this, and develop this focus, is by practicing the above drills with other riders and racers. Local training crits, and group training rides are good opportunities to sharpen you focus and awareness.

This is the final part of a 3 part series by Steel City Endurance Associate Coach David Burke. Part I (Equipment) and Part 2 (Speed) can be found under the Training Articles link in the main menu.

David has over 10 years of mountain and road racing experience and is currently working his way back up the ranks racing for Pittsburgh Based RC-13. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it