Holding your line
Holding your line
This is something you will hear a lot in the bunch, with riders calling ‘hold your line’ as you enter a fast or tight corner.
Basically, what this means is riding through a corner in a predictable fashion. In a road race, corners will be taken two, three or even four riders wide, so if everyone is to come out of the other side safely then all the riders need to ride smoothly through the corner, and not switching lines and moving into another rider’s path.
Typically when cornering we tend to follow the wide, apex, wide rule – start wide, hit the inside of the corner halfway through and then exit wide. This is all well and good when riding alone, but when you have other riders around you it’s important to take their position into account.
With that in mind, the rider on the inside needs to leave space on the exit of the corner for any riders outside of them. Likewise the rider on the outside coming into a corner needs to leave space at the apex for any riders on the inside of them.
When riding through a corner in a bunch don’t suddenly change the line you are taking through the corner, this will surprise other riders and might cause a crash. Try and ride through the corner as smoothly and predictably as possible giving space to other riders around you.
It may seem difficult to practice holding you line when riding solo in training – after all, you’re riding solo – so I’d recommend visualisation. Rather than taking what you’d normally consider the fastest route through the corner, imagine having a ride on the inside and a rider on the outside, and leaving space for them at the entrance, apex and exit of corner when out training. Build up your confidence and speed using this technique and you’ll be able to implement it come race day.