Descents

[Graham1958]

A bit of background ...

I am a 51 year old male and have made a return to semi-serious cycling in the last five years. Four years ago I fell and broke my pelvis and three years ago, during stage 2 of the Tour of Wessex, I fell and broke my left neck of femur. The break was too bad too heal and I was subsequently underwent a total hip replacement. Before anyone is wondering, my resemblance to Floyd Landis ends there !!!

Now the problem ...

I have developed a phobia to descents. Not particularly steep descents either. I was on the Marlborough Downs on Saturday and reached the top of Hackpen Hill and quite simply froze. I was suddenly terrified of the descent. The hill is only 12% but, halfway down, having got that far on the brakes, I got off and walked a bit of the steepest section.

Has anyone else had similar problems ? Does anyone here know of anyone who has had similar problems ? I would be grateful for any advice.

 

[swampy1970]

I feel your pain... Although I actually felt the pain more in my shoulder many years ago as I tried to do an impression of a human wrecking ball in the side of the house next to the Drum and Monkey pub in Shropshire (the climb is known as The Drum and Monkey and is used in the old Hope Valley Road Race). I went down about, oh, 20 mph to fast in the conditions in order to catch up friends who had trained better than I during the winter, and discovered the joys of diesel, cowsh1t and rain on the ol' rims. It is a 45 to 50mph descent - in the dry... Billy all balls and no brains here tried it at that speed in the wet! One new specialized helmet, a month or two in a neck brace and some serious bruising later and I was back on the bike.

The only advice I can give is take it easy and don't tackle the steeper stuff that scares the sh1te out of you. Stick to the country lanes without steep hills but with some nice little rollers - 1 in 12 and less. Just go out and try and have some fun. You'll get there eventually... It just takes time.

There are times now where it's wet and muddy out and I'm by riding by myself and I'll find myself timming off a bit of speed, just a couple of mph here and there - but I'm married now and I since I've moved to the US from sunny England, there's beasties out here like mountain lions and vultures that may find me a tasty treat should I end up in a ravine over night after going a$s over *** at speed.

 

[Resistorlead]

I've got about 4 years on you and probably a lot more weight. The fact is, we're not teenagers anymore. A mild fall for a kid can be disastrous for us, as you seem to have discovered. You're scared for a reason- with age and accidents comes some common sense. The trick is to find the right amount of fear to keep you out of trouble, but not bring you to a standstill. I just started riding again after a rather long time and anything over about 30mph is too much. Heck when I was a kid I came down mountains in Vermont full tilt, no helmet and in the middle of the night. Never had a problem, but if you do something long enough...

My guess is the only cure is just slowly working up to where you want to be, and that has to be consistent with your risk tolerance. It's only normal for that to decrease with age and I don't expect mine to ever approach what it used to be.

Best,
CH

 

[alienator]

Age doesn't have so much to do with it as the nature of the crash: a big crash can leave a big impression on the psyche of even the youngest and bravest riders. As mentioned by someone else, you need to work your way back up to doing such descents, again, by doing easier, slower descents and regaining some confidence. Take it easy and have fun with it.

 

[quenya]

In march I went down on a technical, steep, off camber left turn. I was fine but since then I get so tense on a descent that it almost stopped me from training for a very important (to me) ride this month. But I trained and practiced all of the descents I'm going to do.

One thing that really helped me was going down 168 on the four lane and the drop from Tamarack to Shaver Lake. These are mildly steep grades with smooth surfaces and gentle curves. It is easy to go over 40 and sometimes 50 mph coasting down and the curves are so wide you never have to break. It really helped me gain confidence and now I'm much more relaxed on the technical stuff even if I'm still more cautious and conservative than my training partners.

 

[genedan]

Never crashed, but my fear of crashing has certainly hindered me. I've always lost time on descents and corners.

 

[alienator]

Never crashed, but my fear of crashing has certainly hindered me. I've always lost time on descents and corners.

Then you need to work on expanding your comfort zone. Perceived risk is almost always greater than actual risk.

 

[Old Biker]

I also know what it feels like to have a crash, although I have had many twice busting 5 ribs none would get near your mishap. I am now 70 and still racing and to be quite honest we don't have too many hills that I can get over 40 mph but my problem was just cornering fast.Although I race a lot of criteriums in the summer with fast corners, every now and then the old fear comes back and I find myself going out very wide.So, as others have said ride within your fear and try to improve slowly, I'm sure your confidence will return in time.

A bit of background ...

I am a 51 year old male and have made a return to semi-serious cycling in the last five years. Four years ago I fell and broke my pelvis and three years ago, during stage 2 of the Tour of Wessex, I fell and broke my left neck of femur. The break was too bad too heal and I was subsequently underwent a total hip replacement. Before anyone is wondering, my resemblance to Floyd Landis ends there !!!

Now the problem ...

I have developed a phobia to descents. Not particularly steep descents either. I was on the Marlborough Downs on Saturday and reached the top of Hackpen Hill and quite simply froze. I was suddenly terrified of the descent. The hill is only 12% but, halfway down, having got that far on the brakes, I got off and walked a bit of the steepest section.

Has anyone else had similar problems ? Does anyone here know of anyone who has had similar problems ? I would be grateful for any advice.