Basic Road Cycling Skills
Though road cycling skills may be an afterthought for experienced cyclists and coaches, basic road riding skills can help newer riders gain confidence and ride more safely. This course gives coaches a practical guide for teaching basics like signaling and navigating traffic to more advanced skills like riding in a pack, fast cornering, pulling through pacelines, and forming echelons.
Whether you coach new riders, juniors, club cyclists, masters athletes, or racers, this course helps you teach the skills behind smoother and safer riding.
Instead of assuming athletes “just know” how to ride in a group, corner well, or move through traffic, you’ll be able to identify where they need guidance and give them practical cues they can apply on the road.
You’ll learn how to:
- Teach clear on-bike communication, including turn signals, slowing and stopping cues, hazard calls, and when to pass signals down through the group.
- Guide safer group riding by helping athletes understand bike spacing, where to look, speed control, open-road etiquette, and how to rejoin a group smoothly.
- Explain pacelines and echelons so riders can see how pull length, smooth rotations, wind direction, and group structure improve efficiency without creating unnecessary surges or gaps.
- Break down traffic navigation and cornering technique, including predictable behavior, rear-rider responsibilities, braking, body position, apex selection, and choosing the safest line through a turn.
This course gives you coaches a playbook for how to teach the on-road skills that often get overlooked. You’ll come away with a stronger understanding of how to help athletes communicate, move, rotate, corner, and respond to changing road conditions with more confidence.
How to Enroll
All USA Cycling courses are offered exclusively through USA Cycling’s online learning management system at learn.usacycling.org.
Questions? Contact Suzy Sanchez, Director of DEI and Membership Programs, at ssanchez@usacycling.org.