My trouble isn’t with being a good descender; it is with cornering and stopping – and sometimes both. Or, as G’rilla puts it, “Descending is like sex; how good I am at it has nothing to do with how much I enjoy it.”
Descending is demanding and requires great skill. It is not a time for resting or taking it easy; getting down the mountain should be every bit as hard as getting up it. Merckx was himself a good climber, but his bikes were all designed to be stable and fast on the descents so he would be able to get off the mountain faster than the mountain goats he was chasing.
On the way down, we are compelled to smoothly spin the pedals at 120 or more rpms in pursuit of maximum speed. Once escape velocity is reached, we contort our bodies into the most aero tuck possible, causing our muscles to scream out in agony from the unnatural position. Cornering, we push on the pedals and bars in an effort to maximize friction between tire and pavement as an alternative to finding too much friction in the ditches at the roadside. The mind is consumed in the total concentration of keeping the rickshaw in one piece.
We hereby hand down Rule #93, plucked from the ether by @urbanwhitetrash in a moment of clair-V-ance after the VVhidbey Island Cogal.
Descents are meant to be as hard and demanding as – and much more dangerous than – the climbs. Climb hard, descend to close a gap or open one. Descents should hurt, not be a time for recovery. Recovery is designated only for the pub and for shit-talking.
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@RManneck not too hard really. When you think about it, at 80kph, anordinary car or motorbike is cruising, safely within its design parameters. A bicycle doing 80kph is right on the edge of disaster.
Ah, descending; one of the greatest pleasures in life when i manage to relax in to it. I always seem to feel myself loosen up as I crest a long climb but doubts so easily creep in. It's my sense of mortality I guess. But for me, on the couple of occasions I've been blessed enough to spend a week in the high mountains and watch better riders, plus learned to trust my equipment, there is no feeling like it. God I envy people who have those mountains as their home playground!
@brett
They only time the descents? What kind of pussy-ass sport is that?
The gravel races are timed, but only about 5% of people give a shit, the rest are out for a laugh. Its fucking fantastic.
I might need to rethink things when it comes to riding down the hills.
Till now I've always thought it impolite to work too hard on the downhill sections - instead allowing the fat fucks that I ride with a chance to feel good about themselves after the ass kicking they just took on the climb. I crusie along behind feeling all superior, knowing that I can take them out again just as soon as the road turns skyward.
Maybe I'm being shortsighted.
78 km/hr and working on getting north of 80. Why do I suffer up hills? So I can ride like a banshee down the other side.
Although, I guess I should really work at getting up the hills faster too.
@Ken Ho
I think it depends on conditions. A properly set-up and maintained road bike on a smoothly-paved descent having long sweeping turns and no motor vehicles (or dogs or deer or coyotes) is, at least in my experience, not a problem at 80 or even 90km/hr. (97 km/hr felt really fast to me, and I did it only once, because it made me afraid.)
The problem, IMO, is not knowing the specific conditions around the next turn.
@PeakInTwoYears
IMO worrying about the SPECIFIC conditions would be nirvana mostly I just worry about where the next turn goes! I have to admit here, as one who likes to venture out on routes previously unknown to self, that the much scorned GPS is a bit of a help that I use in giving some indication as to whether the next bend is a little wiggle or a complete blind hairpin. Darn it I guess it's soap for breakfast again.
@Teocalli
Dude. I have as much dried semen on my various GPS-enabled devices as any other navigation geek. I really enjoy navigation with map, compass, GPS, and any combination thereof.
But if you're looking at the damned thing during a descent, on a bike, I'm sorry, and I'll be even sorrier when you eat shit because you weren't looking where you wanted to be in two or three seconds.
All those videos but no mention of MohoriÄ yet? The kid demonstrated some skills on the WC U23 road race...
@Fiery Just 'cos you're a winner doesn't make it OK.