Biking Techniques (Part 29)

Type III Corner

The Type III corner is -- taken in isolation -- the least important. Speed into or out of it is of very little significance.

That does not mean, however, that the line through a Type III is not important -- far from it. Any sequence of Type III corners must end with a Type I before the next straight, and so it's vital to take a line through the Type III that sets you up correctly for the all-important Type I. You might in fact put together a whole sequence of Type III's, all of which have the sole purpose of setting you up for the single Type I at the end.

A Type III (or sequence of Type III's) will always start with a Type II, which connects it to the previous straight. Again, the line through the Type III should be chosen to allow the goals of the Type II corner to be achieved as well.

Working out the line through a Type III corner can't be considered in isolation. It depends completely on the corners around it. So to find the line through the Type III, we do the following sequence:

Fill in the line through the Type I corner.

Fill in the line through the Type II corner.

Connect them smoothly with a line through the Type III (or multiple Type III's).

The South Course at VIR is unusual in that there is a textbook Type III corner, part of the complex called the Spiral. We'll use that as our example.

Remember that the line through the Type I is much more important than anything else. So we start by filling in the line through the Type I, extending it back through the Type III to give us the best approach. Then we fill in the ideal line through the Type II. The chances are that those two lines won't join up:



At this point we go back to the rule that a Type I takes priority over everything else. That includes the Type II corner that starts this sequence. So we modify the line of the Type II to link it up to our best line for that Type I. We still want to go deep into that turn, but it's much more important that we come out of it on the left to set up for the Type I.



But don't fix this line in your head yet... the actual Spiral at VIR has an added complication of dropping about thirty feet down, and we have to take that into account too.

From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation