I was reading the 2/3/11 edition of RBR newsletter, and came across an article dealing with "fear of descending". A few months back I was up GMR with Mr Beanz and a few friends of his, and on the descent, one of them had a hard time coming back down. The unusual part was, they were the fastest one up to the shack on the uphill part of the ride that day. But the downhill just put the fear of falling into them. So my question is, at what speed, do you start to exercise caution on your descents? I know there are always conditions to consider, familiarity of the road, conditions of the pavement, weather and traffic, but how about just a general speed?
For myself, I know GMR fairly well and ride it a lot solo midweek. That always makes me a little slower, knowing if anything were to happen it might be awhile before seeing anyone,but when I was up there a lot with Beanz, if I could stay up with him on the descent, which wasn't often, I had my eyes open wider than usual. I will have to check my Garmin stats to see just how fast up there I was, but how about you people? This is aimed mostly at the non-racers out there.
