How to: Start, Pass, Jump.

Get The Snap:

• In this gate-start sequence, notice how the hips of the rider closest to you are slamming into the bars as the gate drops... This gets his weight moving AND prevents the front end of the bike from looping, since he is applying pedal power at the same time.
  
• When you first setup (ready for the starter commands: "rider ready, set em up, watch the lights), keep you body-weight over the seat, wrists lined up straight (not dropped), arms only slightly bent, and forward crankarm between level and 1 to 2 clicks up.
  
• Even though his initial first pedal wasn't as good (a few inches less) as the Powerlite jerseyed rider's snap, his second and third pedals are better. Good follow-through pedal strokes get you out front! Do NOT pop-out good out-of-the-gate on the first pedal and waste it by stalling, ...you'll lose.
  
• Practice timing your hip movement/pedal power with different parts of the start command until you get a snap WITHOUT pushing the gate (it just slows ya down like a stall).
  
• Remember: Timing, Hip-snap, Follow-through, Win. Go now, grasshopper and shred.

Pass in a Turn:

• In the first frame of this passing sequence, the first place racer (dark jersey)has entered the turn towards the inside.
  
• Entering the inside forces the first racer up towards the middle-top of the berm (the banking) as he gets halfway around the berm.
  
• The second place BMXer (white jersey) sees the line (route through the turn) that the first BMXer has taken, and knows that "probably" the guy is gonna drift high on the berm, sooooo the second racer enters the turn a little more to the middle of the track.
  
• Entering the turn in the middle allows the second place racer the option of drifting a little high early in the turn, so he can dive down to the middle at good speed and get a boost from the incline of the berm.
  
• As the second rider pulls to the inside of the turn (and the first rider while they both exit the turn), he is at a slightly faster speed (while the first rider is trying to get back up to full speed), and once he gets a little ahead from this pass, he can move back tho the left to block the line of the formerly first (now second) racer.
• You can vary the lines you take depending on what the riders ahead of you are doing, and depending on where riders behind are. Don't open a hole to let someone behind you get by while you are focused on your passing technique!!! There's a lot to think about in turns while setting up your lines.
• Remember: Wait for right moment (opportunity) to pass, forcing a pass can leave you with no momentum or worse! Don't leave a hole to get passed by the rider(s) behind you, keep your speed up during the pass, and use the berm like a starting hill as you pedal by, Block the "line" after it's yours!

2 good ways (and 1 bad one) to Jump Long Doubles:

• In this animated GIF image, you can see 3 riders with colored dots so you can follow them individually.
• The rider closest to us, with the red dot above him, does the pull-up jump style of getting over this obstacle quickly. He stays low by letting the bike "suck up" into him so his body weight stays fairly low making a straighter line over the jump instead of arcing high and thereby slower.
• The racer with the yellow dot is doing a Speed Roll or a Manual of the double. This type of double jump is easier to speed roll/manual since is slightly filled in between the peaks.
• By letting the front wheel get some loft and crouching over the first peak, the racer can force the front wheel to stay elevated when he straightens his legs as the rear wheel starts down the back of the first peak. Basically riding it in a "wheelie"(manual) from the back of the first peak/jump to the second peak/jump. then when the front wheel clears the second peak, you can drop the front end down the second backside and start the crouching again to suck up the bike over the second peak. This keeps the bike from lifting off the peak and allows you to straighten your legs and begin pedalling down the second backside and actually get a boost!
• The third rider , with the green dot, does it the slowest and most cautious method.
• He may use a brake tap even, as well as become dead weight and clunk onto the middle of the jump, then slightly clunk onto the second frontside. These subtle impacts and passive method of riding really slows ya down. try style 1 or 2, but not 3 (this one).

This page under construction!
I'll have more animated GIFs showing how to do other race stuff!
More coming soon... in 1999.

c-ya on the gate,
Pickle.