skills days

We'd been looking around for a great instructor to run some ad hoc skills days when Joseph Pauly approached us offering to do exactly that! He’s been riding MTB for about 10 years and holds the coveted French Bike Instructing Diploma "BEES Activites du Cyclisme". He’s also one of the coaches for the junior regional DH team, confirmation of his pretty sterling coaching abilities! Prior to his coaching career he spent 5 years as Assistant Manager in Veloland Grenoble honing his knowledge of bikes and bike set up. He races Regional MTB series and has raced the Alpe d'Huez Mega Avalanche 3 times. He has an Ms Isle, a lightweight Demo8 under construction and is about to get a new enduro bike. He describes himself as ‘a total DH geek and a bit of a rock&roll fan’.

We got him to come up with a few different half day skills sessions that could be put together to make up a day or two day session. He’s put together three different sessions to cover the main skills, but will tailor these to each individual group and what you want to do. The courses are tailored towards DH skills but relevant to XC riders wanting to improve their skills. It’s great fun to ride the DH courses and the skills learnt are useful on any descent, whether it’s been earned or not!

brake and carve

learn to deal with any kind of corner

After a quick warm up, Joseph will take you to Les Chavannes, and will evaluate the skill level of the riders on the way over.

Once there, he will start with some basic cornering positions, using the green DH track. He will then go through the specifics for each different type of corner (berms, flat, off camber, hairpin). Once you've learnt the basic technique, you'll see how to hit those corners faster and faster. And of course get plenty of practise and feedback!
 
Joseph will also look at setting your suspension depending on the kind of corner you're riding and offer advice and help with suspension and bike set up.

jumps and drops

being able to drop or jump small obstacles safely

After a quick warm up, Joseph will take the group to the Kona Jump Park, and will evaluate the skill level of the riders on the way over.
 
There he’ll start everyone off with drops, and see how to adapt your technique depending on the speed you carry (drop, squash, pre-jump).
 
You'll then move onto how to keep your balance on table tops or even doubles!
 
Joseph will also look at how different suspension settings can affect your jumping and offer advice and help with suspension and bike set up.

taming trail obstacles

being able to carry speed over trail obstacles

After a quick warm up, Joseph will take the group to the Gibannaz canyon and will evaluate the skill level of the riders on the way over.
 
There he’ll start with how to lift front & back wheels as an introduction to, or improvement of, wheelie and bunny hop technique. He’ll then demonstrate how to adapt those techniques to the different kind of obstacles you meet in the trail (ruts, branches, rocks, roots,...). And of course there'll be plenty of opportunity to try it out!
 
Joseph will also look at how to get the most of your full suspension bike over these obstacles.

Putting it all together

Here Joseph will help everyone bring all these skills together, possibly with a mini race. Or you can spend more time on some of the techniques already covered as they are all pretty big subjects, and half a day might be a bit short!
 
Joseph can offer some instant video correction on all of these sessions.