Drinking at race speed
Drinking at race speed
Even if your first race is the shortest of criteriums, it will likely still be long enough that you will need to take a drink, which immediately provides a distraction from what’s going on in front and around you.
Being able to reach down, pick out your bottle, take a drink and replace it without looking down is crucial to ensure you can still react to anything happening in the bunch, don’t deviate off line and don’t lose position.
My advice is to first practice this when out riding alone. I recommend grabbing your bottle with the hand that isn’t used to operate the front brake as this means you still have control of your bike while taking a drink.
Practice reaching down and removing the bottle without having to look down to locate it. Your grip on the bottle is especially important as you need to hold it in a way that allows you to remove, drink from and replace the bottle without changing your grip.
To find this grip, firstly have a look at how you hold the bottle when drinking, as this is the position you need to be grasping the bottle in when removing it from the cage. Practice this until you are at the point where you can do it without any real thought and without looking down.
Remember to practice taking a bottle from both bottle cages and not just the one on your downtube.