Technical Climbing Blacksburg

Location

Blacksburg, Virginia

Group Size

6 people per guide

Duration

3 hours

Technical Climbing

Do you wish you could stay on your bike more when climbing up technical trails over roots and rocks? Do you see other riders make it look easy and wonder how to do it? This clinic will focus on the subtle body movements and strategies to tackle any obstacle on your climb. We’ll cover wheel lifts, strategic body position to maintain traction, and weight shifts and wheel lifts to encourage the bike over roots and rocks while going up-hill.

Cost: $44 per person. This clinic is sponsored and subsidized by the New River Land Trust, the Town of Blacksburg, and the New River Valley Bicycle Association to keep the cost less than a 1/3 of normal pricing. Consider signing up for a few clinics! 

Who should take this clinic:

• This clinic is for all level riders who want to learn or refine their technique for technical climbing.

• Newer riders will acquire the skills needed for intentional body position when climbing and how to execute wheel lifts and body shifts to stay on the bike over roots and rocks while climbing.

• More experienced riders will learn more intentional techniques to tackle obstacles while climbing and refine their timing and coordination for wheel lifts and body shifts when climbing gets complicated.

What to expect:

• We’ll start with an intro to listen to your previous experience and goals, then set expectations and a plan for the clinic.

• Then, we’ll break apart the individual skill elements to work on each separately. We’ll do this in an open grassy area with a slope near the Gateway Skills Park with our mobile obstacle course. Here, we’ll perfect wheel lifts and body shifts to coax the bike over obstacles when climbing.

• After we achieve some mastery with individual elements in the grass field, we’ll venture up the bottom of Gateway Trail to apply techniques on real features along the trail. We’ll spend a lot of time sessioning individual features to practice and strategize application of technique.

• We’ll be using both open areas and individual trail features for practice time. After some time working in open areas, we’ll head out to practice on trails!

• Our professional coaches will be able to provide a ton of individualized feedback and video analysis along the way to ensure precise improvement.