need help with turning

[Eden]

definitely don't brake sharply - that can send you over your handlebars or cause someone behind you to crash - if you need to bleed some speed soft pedal a little or lightly feather your brakes, but really try to stay off the brakes completely if you can. Of course always watch what is going on in front of you and if they brake you may have little choice!

You want your inside foot up so that you do not clip a pedal on the ground and to stablize the bike - put pressure on the outside foot and inside hand. In a crit you hands should always be in your drops. This prevents anyone catching their handlbars on yours if there is any jostling and makes you more stable especially through the corners. You want to lean the bike, but keep your shoulders level. For very sharp corners you can get out of the saddle a bit and tilt the bike underneath yourself.

When you are in a pack around a corner it becomes necessary to follow the line of the riders in front and around you, but when conditions are best and you can pick your own line through the corner you want to come out wide and cut in close - you want to try to make as straight a line of the corner as possible - this is hard to describe so I'll post up a diagram (one is a single corner the other 2 close together). Coming out of the corner stand and sprint.

hope this helps!