Brad Brown:         Welcome back onto this edition of the Ask Coach Parry Cycling podcast and we’ve got a technical skills question today, Devlin, we had one a couple of days ago with regards to riding switchbacks, this one is quite interesting and I think it actually follows on from that because there’s lots of these at the Old Mutual joBerg2c as well, water and bridges, water bridges. From a technical point of view, how should you ride those things? They psyche people out, it’s quite a mental thing to wrap your head around.

Devlin Eyden:      I think that’s exactly it. I think more than anything else, it is a mental thing and you’ll get a lot of riders, it’s happened to me before as well, where you tend to talk yourself out of it before you’ve even gotten to that section. Until you actually ride it, and it’s actually a lot easier than you might think.

From a technical point of view, it is important to maintain speed. You want to give, especially when you start talking water bridges and a bridge that might actually move slightly on the water, is you want to give a gap to the rider ahead of you.

You don’t want to be too close to that rider, purely in case that rider stops and you’ve actually got nowhere to go and you can’t get around them. It’s important to give a gap to the rider ahead of you, maintain a consistent speed and be confident in what you’re doing as well. Trust your skill, you’re more than capable of doing it and those bridges aren’t made to necessarily throw you off.

It is key to look up ahead of you as well, so a good 10-15m ahead of where you are riding, just in terms of anticipating particular bends in the bridge so that you know what is coming and try your best not to lose momentum.

It is key to make sure that you have got the appropriate gear selection in entering the bridge, make sure you’re not spinning too much, but also you’re not in a heavy gear that you’re now trying to change gears on the bridge and lose that momentum. Other than that, it’s more a case of, enjoying it, don’t over-stress and actually take in the experience of getting to ride one of these bridges.

BB:         And the truth of the matter is, no one has ever dissolved when they’ve gone for a swim, so it’s not the end of the world if you do end up in the drink, but just mark it off to experience.

Devlin, thank you very much, once again, for your time here on the podcast, we look forward to catching up again soon.

Don’t forget, if you have any questions, head over to coachparry.com, that’s where you can get your question submitted, we look forward to answering it next time out here on the podcast.

Until then, from the two of us, it’s cheers.