Originally Posted by
Aero Sapien
As far as cornering goes, I feel like sometimes I nail it and do a perfect job holding my line and zipping through a corner. Other times, I seem to veer straight off and never fully corner. It's like I have a very shallow apex (the angle of my turn would be like 150 degrees). Not quite sure, I tend to believe I am leaning myself/the bike but I don't actually corner; I just end up going across the yellow line and veering into oncoming traffic.
Carpediem, I read your blog; I've done a few organized road races so I am fairly comfortable riding in the middle of a tight pack. However, you suggest in one of your posts that sitting up is better than braking, etc. I'm a fairly short and thin rider, so I don't catch as much wind at all sitting up, especially if there is someone in front of me catching it all. Would you recommend feathering the brakes in that case?
Sorry missed this.
Feathering brakes is fine - I do it all the time. But if you can coast, poke yourself out in the wind a bit, you'll slow down dramatically, even if you're not "big". One of the tricks to becoming better at drafting is to avoid using brakes for feathering. Start balancing "air braking" and actual braking.
If you're not hitting apexes, you may be looking at the wrong place, i.e. down. Look forward, push with the inside hand to initiate turn, and you should see an improvement in your cornering.
I recently had a very rude surprise. With a new frame and new aero wheels, I found out that I tend to drift wide in turns. I learned this the hard way, at a major crit - I almost hit the curb with 2 turns to go, sitting 2nd wheel, at Somerville. I've since realized that the wheels don't let me corner really hard naturally. I'm going to work on it, so I'm in your position now. Therefore the lessons have come back to me
