Quote Originally Posted by Pascale View Post
those large rock gardens freak me out though!
I understand what you mean. But another one of the skills coach's fine sayings was to look "through" the rock garden not "at" the rock garden. Oh - and pair it with "loosey goosey" as well.

Basically you need to carry a bit of speed, stay light on the bike, be relaxed and loose, so you can just sort of float over the rock gardens (not an easy task for somebody of my weight) and then rather than look down at the individual rocks and panic (usually results in stopping dead and gumby stacking) you look out towards the exit of the rock garden.

Between both of those, you just sort of bounce your way across soaking up the bumps and without losing too much speed (momentum is your friend) and you're out before you know it.