A lot of things taken for granted in Cycling go swiftly out the window when cobblestones are introduced to bicycle and rider. The notion that your wheels should both be pointed in the same direction at any given moment, for instance, or that that they should in some way be in alignment with the direction of travel of the rider/bicycle unit, such as it is. Not true, in fact. As it turns out, wheels can move wildly in any maner of directions and not greatly impact forward motion. Another misconception is this notion that one needs to have their handlebars reliably in hand while whisking through a corner or that the direction the handlebars are pointing should be in the direction of travel. Also untrue.
Riding cobbles is a matter of going full gas over the secteurs, no holds barred. The faster you go, the more your bike cascades over the tops of the stones; as the bike flails along, the rider links together recovery after recovery to stave off the imminent crash caused by any of the above conditions going catawampus. Riding the pavé is basically like a toddler learning to walk: always one step away from a face-plant.
For me, though, the biggest challenge is recuperation during those intense efforts. Over the years, I have gotten good at faking it and stealing a few deep breaths during short windows of opportunity, like when the pressure comes off the pedals briefly when cornering. On the cobbles, however, this matter is complicated somewhat by the bouncing wheels, jackhammering of the bars and saddle, and the certainty of an imminent crash.
Which leads me to conclude that while endurance, strength, and interval training will all form critical elements of my training for Keepers Tour 2013, I’m going to also make a point of learning how to take recovery breaths with a tightly clenched bunghole as I try to keep from shitting myself. That’s going to be a differentiator for sure.
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Techniques currently being honed over the cobbled roads of Bristol. Terrifying in the dry, in the wet... I bail onto the tarmac roads. I'd be on my face in seconds.
That brings back a dull ache in my fore arms just looking at it!
Great photo, reminds me of these two going full gas into this corner
Not sure if it's a smile or just one long shout of "faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaark!"
Out of the pan... from the cobbles onto loose grit. Gianni clenches everything.
I have been following the cornering (descending without pedal stroke) style of Yates since I picked it up from an earlier article that he pulls his knee toward the top tube. It feels much more stable. Only turn the knee out occasionally to slow things somewhat on a straight descent.
Holy Shit! That was the scariest thing I have ever done on a bike. Cornering on the pave' was unbelievably hard. You thought you knew where your bike was going, you thought you had accounted for the speed, and you thought you had your line set and then ... BAM, right between the fucking eyes you are clinging on for dear life while your bike has been posessed by a poltergiest which has a mind of its own. Fighting your machine just parying to make it through the corner and back onto the straight where only more pain awaits you. Fuckin' hardcore!
The pave' alone, on straights, makes it feel like your biceps are going to be torn off your radius/ulna but add fighting the corners, just deadly.
William gave me the best advice the night before the ride: "Hands are always on the tops or drops on the pave', NEVER the hoods". He was sooooo right. Be the end my hands and forearms were aching for a different position and I slipped on to the hoods for a few meters and the amount of control you give up riding the hoods on pave' relative to the drops or tops was unbelievable. Just a death wish riding hoods on pave'.
Man, almost starting to want to ride those fuckers again!
Cannot wait to ride today!
Btw, is that Yates pic from 1992? His bike looks just like my 1992 Team Motorola Eddy Merckx. Man, I love that bike. I just sit there and stare at her at times. Thing of beauty and history to boot!
"Most importantly, he (Yates) showed Armstrong how to corner the hitherto unique Yates way. The classic style, and still the most common technique, going into a sharp bend is to open out your inside leg from the knee, almost to 90 degrees which shifts your body's weight to that side.
Partly because Yates was so big and tall for a Tour rider he found this uncomfortable so chose instead to do the complete opposite - press his inside leg hard against the top tube of the bike frame.
That in turn enabled him in turn to press hard down on the opposite pedal and gave the bike greater stability and therefore speed." -- The Telegraph
@mxlmax I think that was in regards to descending and cornering, no cornering on the pave'.
That shot of him on the pave' is just a millisecond in time. You cannot catpure pave' cornering in stop motion, probably in the next frame his leg is going in the opposite direction!
@mxlmax
I'm all for spinning wild theories, but I think the Telegraph was just making shit up when they said that. I've never seen a solitary photo of him cornering with his knee in, and I've never seen one of Armstrong doing that either. It also doesn't make sense to me why that would stabilise the bike - in fact I think it would be putting more mass up higher, which has a destabilizing effect.
@Chris
Yeah, some of those were tricky where you started in dirt, rode over the crown, then back across the dirt.
Those photos are both totally badass!
@Fausto
I'm not familiar with the cobbles in Bristol, but even the kasseien in Belgium don't hold a candle to those brutes in Paris. Photos please, we need to make a judgement!
@frank
In this picture Yates is putting the whole mass of his tongue in to the corner too - I'm going to try that tomorrow.