A line or b line?

Ferrals

Rode the area where I'm racing next weekend yesterday, and roughly followed parts of the course. The a-line / b-line splits have a decent time penalty for taking the easier option (as they should). One is difficult, the first few times I rode it I made it with just dabbing my foot, but I went over the handlebars on two attempts, first time just hopped over, the second time it was hurt enough to make me decide to call it a day. Probably equates to a 1/4 failure rate I can also feel a bit of a mental block developing for the drop.
Questions that's running through my mind now is, which route to take next weekend?
A big part of me is saying I won't be in touch with the leaders or even the pack anyway so taking the easier option is probably for the best rather than risking crashing and not finishing, the other part it saying that it might be the difference between finishing last or second last! I've also never taken a b-line before and it makes me feel like a pussy
Any thoughts on playing it safe v saving time? I guess it will depend on location of other riders when I get there.
Edit: looking at the preview vid there is a 10 second penalty between the two routes, but given that I can't ride the a-line well I guess it will actually be less for me. Still over 5 laps that's almost a minute difference which equal to one place at the end of the field.

cooldad

Accept your inner pussiness.

or MTFU.

Hope that helps.

robertpb

Only two things failing, man set-up or bike set-up.

rockmonkeysc

What sort of race is it?
If its a 3 minute downhill race then take the risk. If its a 12 hour endurance race then go safe.

Cqc

What is it that's tough about the a-line? if it's a drop, practice drops, if it's a rock garden practice those. You may not have time to improve your skills for the coming weekend, but in the long run you'll become a better rider and crash les, aand that will certainly improve your race results.

Ferrals

R.m., just a standard xc race, but judging on my ability yesterday, over the 5 laps I'll crash once which would probably negate the time advantage.
Cqc, it's a short little steep descent/drop, with a rollable 1-2ft vertical step 1/4 way down into a narrow wheel deep gully, with a 90deg turn halfway down. The tricky bit is that the soil is really sandy and loose so controlling speed is hard, rather than the drop itself. But I definately need to work on my drops, a lot of it is mental I reckon

rockmonkeysc

The problem is probably that you are trying to control your speed when staying off the brakes would be better.

The Rookie

Agreed, psychologically harder to do than it is to say of course!

In your case I think I'd take the b-line and only take the a-line if it offers a passing opportunity when your mind will be telling you to go faster. If you are braking that much your exit may well be slower, so while you are (your thumb calcs) 5 seconds faster on the a-line you may well be losing more time just after that....

Ferrals

Cheers both.
The video is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lJxbeTfIiY

the route split in question starts about 5.40 with the actual A line tricky bit at 5.58. It looks a lot easier on the video. RM I think you are right, but i couldnt make the turn going slowly and was having to dab with my right foot and manhandle the bike round. I was going over the bars when my front wheel was getting to the bottom of the vertical section and into soft sand, i think probably not breaking would make the difference.

Rookie, yeah I tink you are also right, I'm going to settle on going for the b-line unless theres a real chancee of an overtake, one less thing to think about on the day!!

edit. the other thing is at the back end of sport I've noticed a few people walking/running down much easier descents so if i am behind a few people the b-line might be faster to avoid a bottle neck.

The Rookie

Ferrals wrote:

i think probably not breaking would make the difference.

Not breaking is good, it hurts, but you may want to use the brakes!

WindyG

You really do need to be totally off the brakes for that.

Ferrals

Cheers, don't think I'll be happy doing that so am going to take the b-line- will have to practise those sorts of drops in a non race scenario first. Its way worse in real life too.
wish i hadn't stopped riding for so many years as I know as a 17 year old I'd have had no problems :-(

The Rookie

WindyG wrote:

You really do need to be totally off the brakes for that.

I've watched the video again and I agree, get the approach speed right at the lip and roll it, if you 'must' brake a light drag on the rear just to stabilise the bike maybe, front will be 'fatal'.

rockmonkeysc

Line it up, weight back, off the brakes and you will be fine. If its soft at the bottom then you need to really keep your weight off the front.

The Rookie

RockmonkeySC wrote:

If its soft at the bottom then you need to really keep your weight off the front.

Very much agree, and hence why the front brake is guaranteed to cause a problem, it would be better to be slower at the lip and not brake than come over the lip 'to fast' (either in absolute terms, or for your own confidence) and then brake, would be faster as well as your exit speed will be higher.

BloggingFit

I'd ride the quieter line. If a couple stack the A line in front of you then it's a bit of a hold up. I assume it's a straighter line into the course out of the A line rather than the right and then left turns on the B?

Personally I'd ride the A line, roll in weight back, trail a bit of rear brake to get the back end around if need be. Pretty much what has already been covered by the other comments.

Ferrals

yeah its a real straight line for the a line. to be honest having failed a couple of times last w/e I will probably just ride the b-line because if there's one thing definite to make my crash its uncertainty in my ability and I'm not sure I'll have time for practise in the morning of the race. cheers for the responses though

rockmonkeysc

Its worth learning to ride that sort of feature in the future. Its the sort of skill that comes in very useful.

WindyG

Another thing to add, when dropping down into anything like that keep your head up looking towards where you want to exit, try to avoid the natural tendency to look straight down the drop as you'll just end up looking at where you are going to fall and land.

Ferrals

Cheers all. Maybe I'll get a chance to have a crack on Saturday but otherwise it will be something to learn for the future!
The tricky bit is the corner which makes you feel like you have to brake.

The Rookie

So roll in slower to start with.....on that video his roll in speed is pretty low - he comes over the lip at 5kph and then according to the speedo his speed at one point is 1kph, but then he may have a sensor on the back wheel and you can see from the side on clip he is dragging the (stans) rear for stability (see suggestions above!).

dirkpitt74

I had a similar problem before my race last weekend.
Rode the course the weekend before a really struggled with one of drop offs.
Really steep with a right hand corner and a tree pretty much as soon as it levelled out.
Tried it 4 times and couldn't make the turn on any attempt and kept ending up in the bushes/ditch. Gave up and thought I'd just see how I felt on the day.
Race day I rolled up to it and went for it - looked past the corner/tree and covered the brakes and controlled decent with the front and made the turn. Did this on both laps and just ended up nailing it.

Just see how you are on the day and try not to over think it. I found looking past the corner really helped.

Good luck!

Ferrals

Ended up having a mild stomach bug Thursday and fri last week and two nights of insomnia fri and sat so just took the b-line as was too tired to trust myself on the a-line. Had a pretty awful race, awful start, no energy in legs. Still great fun.

rockmonkeysc

Sounds like racing excuses to me :-)
I've got a load more of them if you need them!

Ferrals

Yep pretty much!!

Ferrals

Looking at some photos of the event this morning it looks like a lot of people struggled with that a line:
https://www.facebook.com/AnthonyPeasePhotography/photos/ms.c.eJw9kgcKRCEMRG~_0pJf7X2x1TD6I8Jg4aYaYcSSbikXVL8CR1M3q~;TH0luEq6Lrx~;eJl46szvIj0cVLhvfPwuS6rD~;Pzo~;FL9cvSG2~_KeI7V8~;hn~_77350fLSdBFVkd9Er163Hivre~;1I9tPVuA9Tb4iv1yVw8yIZ1~_Wxzasz1~;Gvxzz9e2vrOFnqyf6qc~;vZLpM69d2~;c~_AH7fAz7beFvhljF~;b03n1QL0Uvox~_UqafLuxXc~;3fPmn2KcTITyzDN~;ieXKajnxPDpuCZr5Bjf0qrJ1jq43isn37rC578TNinz~;8TFtTvkcuMfLN~;OT~;zcvX4sWG~_bqs76j1D~;gO5uJuR.bps.a.624416480991378.1073741860.270959816337048/624417880991238/?type=1&theater
Some good otb pics from that section on the photographers page!

The Rookie

Hilarious, I especially like the guy in the KTM top launching himself at the cameraman, but te guy going OTB before even getting to the corner is amusing!

The tight corner seems to have gone off-camber since the earlier video with the outside wall of the rut worn away.... b-line looks the better choice!

WindyG

To be fair that looks a rough line in those conditions and don't blame you for taking the b line, some of the off's look pretty nasty.