We’ve seen some nasty accidents in races in the previous few seasons – essentially the most infamous was the one at Itzulia Basque Nation that introduced down Jonas Vingegaard, Primož Roglič, and Remco Evenepoel amongst others. The lengthy shadow it threw over the season means it was no less than as consequential to the yr as, say, the collected efforts of Staff Ineos.
Michael Hutchinson
A number of nationwide champion on the bike and award-winning writer Michael Hutchinson writes for CW each week
The way you make the game safer is a crucial query, with no simple solutions. On the latest race organisers’ convention, Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme drew on years of expertise to inform the room, “The races must decelerate. The riders are going too quick.”
He’s not likely fallacious, per se. However, “the riders are going too quick” is like standing by the roadside flapping your arms and shouting, “Cautious!” I do know that doesn’t work as a result of these had been the precise phrases I heard just a few years again instantly earlier than going headfirst over a wall right into a area of sheep. Coming from somebody like Prudhomme, whose whole enterprise mannequin exists solely to incentivise bike riders to go as quick as attainable, it’s extra like irony than evaluation.
However, to take it at face worth for a second, might we gradual all of it down? Limiting the scale of gears has been a proposal, which might cease riders pedalling on descents. Right here’s the issue, although. When you’re belting down a ten% hill, pedalling at 300 watts in one thing like 58 x 11 and doing 85kph, you’re clearly at some danger. When you needed to freewheel as a substitute, you’d nonetheless be doing 80kph. Besides that if you happen to don’t must pedal you’ll be able to undertake a extra aero place and do most of 85kph anyway.
There have been different concepts. We might use the regs to unwind some expertise advances. If we mandated flapping jerseys, box-section wheels, helmets with vents sufficiently big to suck in entire birds and frames made out of massive spherical tubes, it might set aerodynamics again 30 years and gradual racing at a stroke.
Right here the issue is worse than physics. It’s optics. Would anybody need to watch a race the place all of the riders have arrived contemporary from 1985? Do you need to see professionals racing bikes that aren’t pretty much as good as these in your membership’s over-60s cafe experience?
We might attempt a turbo-trainer fashion electromagnetic brake within the rear hub to only gradual the whole lot down, however then Tadej Pogačar would probably set fireplace to his personal arse.
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What would possibly work? Actually, I’ve nothing useful to supply. It’s a sport that’s all about going quick and I’ve no concept the way you flip that spherical. The perfect I’ve provide you with is neutralising descents, however whereas nobody needs to observe a crash, everybody needs to observe Tom Pidcock slicing down an Alp. My over-60s WorldTour doesn’t work both, as a result of if something, previous bike riders are even greater maniacs than younger ones they usually’re as topic to gravity as the following rider.
The reality is that safer racing most likely requires a number of issues. Cautious course design, possibly utilizing extra multi-lap programs in order that riders have fewer surprises to cope with. Extra scrutiny of highway surfaces within the design course of. And whereas getting riders to decelerate could be very exhausting, getting them to experience extra safely is likely to be simpler, however wants clever commissairing.
The one factor I do know is that telling riders they’re going too quick will solely encourage them to go quicker. They’re racing cyclists. They’re like that.
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