Pro-cycling thread

Lovely!

Love this photo. Excellent.

Great day of racing that.

In msr there was a lot of excitement about the use of a dropper. Anyone been using one in the tour to speed up their descending?

I’d like to see the bike companies arrange a timed descent among the likes of Mohoric, Pidcock etc.

Down hill TTs…?

There was one down the Poggio in the 1987 Giro.

I don’t want to see the whole peloton do it. Just choose the best descender from each team and sling them down a 20km mountain pass for a cash prize.

Is he not technically from Otley?

Red bull used to run daft downhill races on road, but not pro?
I’d still like to see a week stage race including Mtb stage, cross day, crit, tt, road stage etc- sea otter expanded basically. Pidders, MVDP and Wout would presumably boss it

Otley

they're all in the north

Adam Yates. What is up?

Another great stage yesterday.

I never thought of Froomedog as a big guy but he looked like a giant compared to Pidders.

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Otley is in Leeds. Just. I’ve got family there and it annoys them immensely.

This would be mega. BMX and individual pursuit for good measure too?

Would be great seeing mtb/Cross riders figuring bmx out

I'd never really considered that there must be a cross over point where the aeros of being tiny on a descent trumps the pull of gravity on bigger guys but it was there yesterday. And the physics of grip when cornering, lower centre of gravity etc?

Also lols for big grown folks on tiny bikes. MVDP inparticular...

This sounds dumb but it might just be he is braking less. It's impossible to see on telly how much they are using their brakes. From the way Pidders moves around the road and the body position on his bike it might just be he's not braking as much and so is faster. Sounds dumb but take Froome's comment when he said that Pidders was pushing the limit. Sounds to me like Froome was braking and Pidders wasn't - there are some sections where they must be totally hands off but they have to be doing a bit of feathering and moving their body around to slow down down and position as they weave their way down mountains. And people like Pidders and Nibbles just must brake less. Or am I way off base never actually done descending like this

Pidcock is likely one of the best descenders in the world. When you can handle a bike without fear you can just flow like others can't.

I think the pull of gravity is trumped by skill and handling mostly.
The variation of weight in the peloton is not that wide, at least for the people that might be contesting a mountain stage win. 58-68kg?
Froome is about 67kg and 6'1, Pidcock is probably 58 ish and 5'7.

Not quite the same as a 100kg sportive rider barrelling down a mountain.

And without closed roads, us non pros probably never will get to descend like that.

Agreed. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like that outside pass on the corner yesterday. Just pure moto GP full leaning into the corner, especially just after passing the rider. Must just be pure confidence in the tyres. No thinking, just doing.

Pidcock brakes, but he carries more speed through the corners, which is where the gains are made. Froome was fortunate yesterday that Pidcock caught him just before Plan Lachet, as the road straightens significantly after there, so he didn’t have to try and keep up through the corners.

Yeah, all this chat. Descending is a piece of piss. Just head downhill and go fast, no?

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Yeah, all this chat. Descending is a piece of piss. Just head downhill and go fast, no?

Where did you find that pic of sean kelly?