How Do I Choose the Best Racing Line When Cycling Through a Series of Corners?

Question

I'm currently working on my descent and working on how to take the optimum racing lines while turning. What would be the best plan for a set of corners?

Answer 1

Often, finding the fastest racing line through a corner includes a trade off or compromise with the next corner. Think of things like the turning angle of each corner, the cross slope of the road or the obstacles present in the surroundings. Practice linking curved turns in a corkscrew formation and adjust your turning angle in accordance with the sight lines and the road. You have to keep in mind that the majority of the cases the fastest line would not be the same if you were not part of a group.

Comments

because accelerating is so much harder on a bike than with a motored vehicle, you most often tend to sacrifice distance for the highest exit speeds. i learned this through fixed gear racing, where even braking cost you energy ...

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Decreasing radius turns have caught me off guard a few times. Knowing your descent is pivotal before pushing any descent. Until then, lower the risk and break early and take the best line you can see. You can always start pedaling if you ended up playing it too safe. Banking in smoothly is another big lesson to learn. Smooth is fast.

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All the techniqe stuff is easy. The hard part is to know where the limit is, how fast you can enter the turn,  without exceeding it.

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Rule 1, go as wide as you can (within road and traffic limits) until you see the exit. This gives best visibility and fastest exit speed. Poor riders always pull in too early.

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When I learned to ride a motorbike I was taught the moniker “outside-inside-outside” to keep track of where you need to be in the turn. It still helps me.

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Good content.  It highlights the next-level skills that must be mastered to take a corner as fast as possible.  Some notes:

Visual skills: cornering is often presented as a physical skill, but it's more a visual skill as well as one of judgement.  As you've highlighted, a whole pile of sensory inputs must be taken into account.  Apart from decreasing the arc, and hence, radial acceleration, a wider arc affords a better sight-line deeper into the turn.

Traction circle: this is often discussed in motor sports, but not in cycling.  The traction circle, which you did not name but displayed in your content, is the maximum tractive force in any one direction.  Forward acceleration is almost never maxed out as a humans never produces enough power to break traction on clean dry pavement, backward acceleration can almost always be exceeded by hard braking (i.e.  skid), and maximum lateral acceleration is what the fast rider tries to approach at the apex.  It doesn't not take much convincing to show the fastest way around a corner in an ideal situation is one where the rider is on the edge of the traction circle at any point in the turn.  The approach into the turn is fast and hard on the brakes with most braking on the front, and as the rider leans deeper into the turn, braking is progressively lessened and balanced to transition into  radial acceleration, then after the apex, the rider completes the arc and pounds hard on the pedals as soon the the bike is upright enough.  This takes a lot of practice, which leads me to ...

Practice: there's no real shortcut to learning this.  You can't learn where the limits are until you go over the limit.  This limit is precipitous, and usually results in a crash.  Ouch.  Actually, there is one shortcut: learn from someone who has already learned it the hard way.  By following a skilled rider, a follow rider can learn positioning and lean angles faster than trying to sneak up on it from solo trial and error.

"Counter-steer": you gave the impression that this means steering into the turn, but it's actually the opposite.  A cyclist imperceptibly steers away from the apex to initiate a lean into the turn, which then causes the bike to start the turn.   However, this term is really just another word for balance for single track vehicles: you never hear  terms like "counter-skate" or "counter-ski" even though it's the same phenomenon.  Micro "counter-steering" is done continuously while riding a straight line.

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A better analogy is GP motorbike racing, as opposed to F1 car racing. Although general cornering principles hold for both, 2-wheel vehicles need different skills than 4-wheels.

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My advice is to be careful with the brakes… try to brake before the turn, and not to brake hard while turning or even entering a turn… especially if you’re carrying some speed.

Also, you can sometimes predict the road conditions! An example would be, If you’re passing by a section that has dirt ledges, there can be dirt on the road (especially if it rained)

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Gilbert's problem was that there was a right hand bend before the tight left so his position coming out of the righthander put him  in exactly the wrong position for the lefthander.

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If you want to learn the racing line go play some driving games.  You can usually even get it to show you the racing line for braking and position all from the safety of your home.

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i use my garmin 1030 to show me how tights are the turns.

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riding for 30+ years and not figuring out what line to take through a corner on your own? I really don't mean any offense but how many times per year did you go for a ride within those 3 decades? what's explained in the content really is the most 101 basic stuff that everyone should have down after 10-20 rides, especially if they are done on the same route. I was looking for an explanation on bodyposition in corners (leaning, counterleaning, neutral) and what benefits and drawbacks these different styles of riding would get you. would be nice to know if you can offer additional info or learned something about that topic from these "skill coaches". did I miss something in the content or is the thumbnail just misleading?

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Instead of, or in addition to, why not observe MotoGP for their body position on the bike? Lots of leaning the bike but staying over top of the centre of gravity of the bike.

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Look at motoGP and countersteering.   It will help you increase your lean with practice.

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But Pidcock does something eles that allows him to descend with extra speed: watch his upper body. He leans the other direction to reduce the pressure/physical force on the tire.

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Well presented, however, a few flaws in the science.
I suggest researching “early apex” as that is the safest and usually fastest line selection outside of a purpose built racetrack as it delivers the exit closer to the inside of the turn, leaving more options.
Keep in mind that the apex is in the line, not the corner, so you move it where you need it. The confusing bit comes from multi apex terminology- a double apex turn can often only have a single  apex in the line, but it sums the situation best so that is the term.
And just to point an obvious piece of the gilbert vid, the motorcycle was actually on the correct line, at the apex, when  you stopped motion.
Source: former motorcycle roadracer, car racer, shifter cart racer, cyclist.
Again, well presented! (but follow up with one explaining late apex)