Alison Gannett: Dial in Your Cycling Skills

April 16th, 2014 • BY Erinn Morgan

Do you have a cycling nemesis? Mine is riding across slanted rocks. Okay, well, riding across slanted rocks and drops bigger than two-and-a-half feet plus fields of baby-head rocks. With good reason, I think—I once tore my left ACL attempting to ride through a massive field of baby-head rocks (i.e. rocks the size of a baby’s head) at Northstar-at-Tahoe. Today, I get off my bike and walk through those. But, I’ve often wondered if a skills camp or a coach could exorcise my fears and help me progress to the next level with my mountain biking.

So, I checked in with pro skier, mountain bike coach, farmer, and eco warrior extraordinaire Alison Gannett to learn more about some tips that might help me—and anyone looking to hone their cycling skills—relinquish fear and move my biking to a new level.

Each year, Alison teams up with champion rider Janae Pritchett to offer many types of KEEN Rippin Chix women’s bike camps, including MTB Skills Camps, MTB Singletrack Camps, MTB Downhill Camps, and even Co-ed Camps. Next week, April 24-27th, they’ll share their knowledge via women’s camps held at the Fruita Fat Tire Festival. In the meantime, here’s what Alison tells us about honing skills, reducing fear, and upping the fun factor on the bike—even if you’re a neophyte:

The 3 most important (intermediate rider) skills to improve upon to increase the fun factor on the mountain bike?  
    1. Look ahead
    2. Keep pedaling
    3. Good equipment/bike
    4. Shift with left hand

How can we specifically improve upon/practice each of these 3 skills?
    1. Put a stick, 4×4, or piece of lumber in your driveway or yard. Practice riding to it, over it, and past it all while looking at a very specific object, like a first floor window on your house, mailbox, etc. The underside of you chin should always be parallel with the road/trail/ground, and should not tip down for even a second to look at that object/rock/bridge/log, etc. Another way to think about it is that someone is always pulling down on your pony tail when things get scary. After many repetitions it makes riding much easier, not only due to physical positioning, but also your mind is looking at the happy stuff ahead. I call it “OH SHIT, REFOCUS.” How far you look ahead depends upon the trail—maybe 10 feet on a steep uphill, and 40-50 feet ahead going downhill.

    2. When you get scared of something, try to not defeat yourself before you get there and stop pedaling when it gets tough. Also try to slide forward on your seat and barely off the seat (1″ or so). Pick a curb to ride up and over. Practice number one (above) first, making sure you are always perpendicular to the curb (and any object you are riding over). Once that is easy, practice riding over it while pedaling. If that is easy, try harder curbs. Try to keep pedaling through the object. You might have to add a slight pause in your pedaling just as you are going over the object.

    3. Even if you don’t want to buy a new bike, demo a well-fitted full-suspension bike, such as one of the new women’s bicycles from Santa Cruz’s Juliana Bicycles line. Practice harder objects with the good bike and then go back with your new-found confidence to your old bike (or not…ha!). Why not make riding easier?

    4. Try to focus on shifting with you left hand as the main focus. If you have three front chain rings, try to always be in the middle ring unless you are in a steep uphill or downhill. If you have two front chain rings, try to have your default always be the bigger ring. Your left hand should be your focus, always being in default and knowing how to quickly drop into your granny gear WELL IN ADVANCE of the next hill (as now you are looking ahead due to number oneabove).

Okay, so I’m a runner or hiker and I’ve never mountain biked before but I’d like to try it. How can I (safely) get started or try it out?
Take a women’s clinic such as my KEEN Rippin Chix. My beginner skills camp is really inexpensive ($75) and you will learn ten years of skills and prevent bad habits from forming, or your money is refunded. Don’t learn from your boyfriend like I did—the only advice I got was “just go for it” or “if you don’t come back bloody is wasn’t a good ride.”

Is it better to learn in a women’s-only environment?
Women generally learn better when they are presented with a program that includes baby steps to build skills and confidence on friendly terrain. My skills camps are taught in a grassy park, which takes away the fear of obstacles and drop offs that you find in a trail setting. To learn log piles, we start riding over a tiny flat 2×4, and then progressively add more and more to the pile while practicing looking ahead, proper gear shifting and “pedal, pedal, pedal.” Suddenly, you are then riding over a log pile that you would never in your entire life even considered trying.

Alison, what is the one skill you personally work on the most for your own riding?
Looking ahead. I work on “Oh shit, refocus!” on every moment of every ride.

Favorite in-your-hydration-pack MTBing energy snack?
I love my Osprey hydration packs, not only because I helped the design team fix all the things we hated about carrying gear and water, but because it is sexy, girly, and practical. I am using a sugar-free Paleo diet to cure my brain cancer, so I am now eating EPIC bars (favorite today is grass-fed Bison/Bacon/Cranberry) and Gather bars (favorite today is grain-free pumpkin/sunflower/hemp). YUM! I also eat lots of real food from my farm.

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