While
tough climbs up mountain roads have their rewards, fast, technical descents on
a road bike have heart-pounding thrills aplenty. Now, this type of descent on a
road bike isn’t anywhere near the technical riding of say, a Red Bull mountain
bike descent championship. There aren’t death falls abysses on either side of
the four-inch wide desert rock and dirt trail. On a road bike those falls are a
potential sometimes on one side of a relatively wide asphalt road. A roadie doesn’t
have any big gap jumps like pro MBers, do, catching enough air to do a style
kick out or a 360 to rack up more points.
No,
the biggest challenge to descents on a road bike can be boiled down to a couple
things. Assuming your bike is in working order with good brakes and tires, you
have to keep from going so fast that you lose control. And that can happen when
you’re flying into a sharp turn or a switchback, and you have to take the line
that will see you safely out of the turn. If you’re going too fast, that can be
a big problem. And that’s plenty of challenge right there, really, just riding
at an optimum, but still safe, speed. Because it means that as a rider, even
though you want to push beyond your former limitations, beyond where you have
gone before, there’s something to keep in mind, for self-preservation’s sake. Clint
Eastwood’s Dirty Harry bad-ass cop character once made this pith observation
onscreen many moons ago:
“A
man’s got to know his limitations.”
Yes,
it’s true. You can push your limits, it’s good to do. But you still have to
know your ultimate limitations as a matter of survival.
If
you keep your bike from going too fast on a descent, you allow yourself more
time to take a safe line through curves. So going too fast can lead to a crash
and maybe a free-fall through crisp mountain air onto a pile of jagged rocks
somewhere along the cliff supporting the road.
At
the same time, there’s often an urge to push your descent speed envelope a
little, to see for yourself just how long you want to let the bike go all out.
And
that’s where your nerve butts up against your self-preservation instincts. I’ve
got a nearby hill that I do practice climbs on, usually five repeated climbs.
The descent is steep at the top, does a couple of wide curves onto a straight
pitch, then dips into a hard right at the end. I worked on going as fast as I
could on these descents, but I had to work on building up my nerve a little
bit. My goal was to pedal down the whole thing in my highest gear, even on the
last steep tight curve, where cars sometimes pop up going the other way and
squirrels sometimes decide to run across the road right in front of your tire.
And sometimes a car is stopped at the park entrance checkpoint right as you
come out of that last curve, and that requires deft but firm braking and a
quickly figured path around the car. That has happened a few times. When it’s
happened I’ve followed pre-planned escape routes to take while easing onto the
brakes.
Practicing
these descents, I worked on relaxing on the fastest part on the last steep
turn. That’s where many times I’d lose my nerve and slightly brake, in case I’d
come up on a stopped car.
But
after checking that no cars had gone down the road in front of me, I forced
myself to pedal through to the end. When I did that, it was a little victory of
blasting through a window of fear, and it felt pretty good. So I did that until
it was routine. Then I worked on just letting the bike go through the turn as
fast as it wanted to, without pedaling. That also built up some more descending
confidence.
And
once you’ve ridden a descent a few times, you can’t help but ride it faster and
more efficiently, because you get to know all its features. And each time you
can test your nerve at appropriate sections with a bit more confidence.
But
of course, descents are dangerous. If you fall, it’s going to be nasty. That’s
something that lurks in the back of my mind when I’m pushing for speed on a
downhill run. So I ride to feel within my zone of estimated safety, and each time,
let my confidence, or not, dictate the speed and lines I take on curves.
Sometimes
an accident can leave a rider unwilling to descend at high speed ever again. A
riding buddy’s friend, whom I haven’t met, had a front tire blowout while on a
high-speed descent. He managed to steer the bike across the road to a driveway
that had a short up-pitch. He braked gingerly so as not to lose his balance
with the blown out tire, and managed to bring it to a stop right at the closed
garage door at the top of the driveway. While he didn’t have a cardiac arrest, the
experience scared him down to the marrow. With that fresh in his mind, this
rider has become unwilling at least for now to ride a fast descent. He was
haunted by the close call. Who knows if he’ll get over it.
But
that’s the thing. Fast descents are risky. You can have a blowout on a tire,
then lose control at high speed and fall. You can hit a chuckhole in the road
at high speed and get thrown off the bike. There are many more bad scenarios
possible. But the point is, risk is part of the cycling and descending is part
of the package. At the same time, there is a huge reward after descending a
technical road at speeds pushing the edge of your bike handling abilities. It’s
maybe not as big a thrill as what a pro mountain biker feels after mastering
one of those nasty competitive stunt filled rides. But it’s still pretty
satisfying. To me, a challenging but fast descent beats even the craziest amusement
park rollercoaster ride I’ve ever been on. And that’s just one of the many reasons
riders like to ride.
Till
next time, remember to always strap on a helmet before getting on the bike. And
then, it’s up to you to keep the rubber side down at all costs. Ride safe, have fun.
-- Mark Eric Larson
Mark Eric Larson has written two books of essays, "The NERVE...of Some People's Kids," and "Don't Force it, Get a Bigger Hammer. To read, visit:
http://www.scribd.com/Mark%20Eric%20Larson/shelf
His blog of personal essays is at: http://marksmuzings.blogspot.com/
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