Below is a photo from Velonews.com today.  It shows a USA Cycling coaching drill that teaches contact, in theory, I guess, for criterium racing.  Maybe this is one of the reasons that criterium racing is becoming a contact sport. I’m not saying that a good bike rider doesn’t sometimes get into contact situations.   But maybe USA Cycling should be teaching juniors  how to avoid contact first.

Skills on and off the bike
King and his fellow USA Cycling coaches Steve Campo and Michael Heitz impart both on and off the bike knowledge designed to take racers to the next level, be that domestically or in Europe. “We work on techniques and skills they wouldn’t normally get to practice” said King. Specific skills include negotiating race caravans, taking feeds from team cars and bike handling techniques which are practiced in parking lots and on grass fields.

Fifteen year old T.J. Isenhart finds them useful. “I usually race with the (category) three’s and I’ve been able to use a lot of the bike handling skills they teach us here. It has definitely helped me in the crits.”