Check you can comfortably reach the brakes

This one you really need to check before you start riding. Of course, it’s vital to be able to reach your brakes whenever you’re on the bike – but, beyond being able to slow down, there’s also an added benefit when descending.

As soon as you tense up when descending, your bike will want to stand up and go straight on. This, of course, is less than ideal when a sweeping bend is approaching.

One way to ensure you say relaxed on the bike when descending is to make sure you can reach your brakes comfortably. People often forget that nowadays there is reach adjustment on just about all major groupsets. This means you can adjust the gap between your handlebars and the brake levers.

You should adjust to make sure that when you’re riding in the drops and on the hoods, you can easily wrap at least your index and middle fingers around the brake lever.

Brake before the corners, not during

Every time you brake, your bike doesn’t want to do anything other than stand up straight and go straight on. Again, this is perfectly fine in the setup for a corner, but not during the corner.

You should aim to enter the corner at the pace you can safely go around it. That means doing all of your braking as you approach, then once you pass the entry point into the corner you need to release the brakes so as not to upset the bike.

If you brake as you turn through the corner you are asking for trouble – not only will it disrupt your line through the corner, but it will truly test the grip of your tyres, which are being asked to both corner and try and slow you down at the same time. Braking hard through a corner is a sure-fire way to increase the risk of crashing.

Use your body as an air brake

Not all braking has to come from your brakes, either. Your body can be used as an air-brake in conjunction with your brakes.

To do this then you can raise your torso upwards so that your back is no longer straight and the wind is now hitting your chest. This will help you slow down, but without having to move your hands out of the drops.

Press on the outside pedal to get extra grip in the corners

When you are going around a corner you should have your outside pedal at 6 o’clock and your inside pedal at 12 o’clock.

In addition, you should aim to place your weight on the outside pedal (the one in the 6 o’clock position) and lean into a corner. This is essentially pushing the bike in to the tarmac and giving you more grip.

Don’t forget to practice descending

While you might go on a ride to chase Strava KOMs or do intervals on climbs, when was the last time you went out with the goal of improving your descending?

If you really want to improve any skill, the trick is to practice it over and over. The same applies to descending. Pick routes with technical descents or even go out and repeat a certain descent over and over – this way you’ll quickly learn how your bike handles and the best way to take on particular corners.

A steady training ride is the perfect chance to practice descending: pick a route with lots of downhill sections (inevitably this means you’ll be doing some climbing, too) and put the skills we’ve run through into practice.

Relax

Finally, and most importantly, just relax. A huge part of descending well is the mental battle, and if you are holding the bars in a death grip then you are not going to be flowing down a descent.

Of course relaxing is always easier said than done so the key is to build your confidence. Again, this comes down to practice and taking the time to analyse what you are doing well, and what you can improve on.

Each time you take on a descent, try and relax a little bit more until you are flowing nicely from top to bottom. As you improve as a descender, you will start to feel more at one with the bike. Descending is one of the greatest rewards in cycling – it’s way we slog our way up climbs – and being able to descend well will add a whole new layer of joy to your riding.