This weekend we held our third gravel skills camp in DuPont State Forest. We welcomed former gravel skills campers and a few new faces.
We spent over 11 hours, spread over two days, discussing, demonstrating and applying important bike handling skills for riding off road.
On Saturday, we met at Fawn Lake parking lot and discussed PSI and puncture repair kits. We then rode out to the airstrip and spent the next two hours discussing and working on specific skills (ex. cornering, descending, stopping, heavy feet/light hands). We took a break for lunch and ate in the parking lot and around 1pm we headed out on our adventure ride through Dupont forest and around Cascade Lakes. It was a beautiful day with warm temperatures in the upper 60s.
On Sunday we met at Tuxedo park in Zirconia, NC. We started off with a refresher of skills around the lake and then headed out on an 8-mile road ride before hitting the gravel into Dupont. We had a 4 mile steady gravel climb and then did a loop around Fawn Lake. We worked on making a sharp u-turn on rocky gravel at high speed. We then descended down the gravel climb and road back to the park.
Some of us went to Flat Rock Bakery after camp and enjoyed some delicious food.
We were so impressed by the campers and we are excited to hear what adventures they have planned with their new and improved skills.
We've been putting on training camps for the past 11 years and after over 25 group triathlon camps, we have realized how many athletes lack basic bike handling skills. And I can attest as I was one of those athletes! I was one of the many triathletes who were indoor fit with poor bike handling skills.
You spent countless hours on the indoor bike trainer (or on familiar roads) and your power is where you want it to be but because you lack basic bike handling skills, you constantly perform below your bike fitness abilities on race day.