best descender

[hfer07]

two reasons why I truly believe Nibali is the best descender:

1-) Unlike Cancellara, & Gilbert-whose descending skills are magnificent too- Nibali is way lighter than they are, so he has to make up that limitation with pedaling & bike handling.
2-) you have to be a crazy mothafvcka to do a bunny hop at 90 km p/h while descending-like the one he did this past Giro

 

[Michielveedeebee]

Cancellara, w/o any doubt best descender on a TT bike, watching him in this TdS or TdF in Monaco was just amazing... Those are wicked skills

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

nibali has guts but no technique(like celestino and samu used to have). downhilling is an art like savoldelli could. now in europe you have ancellara who is an excellent example of this, also guys like hushovd and haedo but we rarely see them

 

[hfer07]

how come nobody has mentioned Vinokourov & LuLu Sanchez?

 

[Parrulo]

ofc ryo had to come and bash nibali and put 3 south american no1 has ever heard of has best decenders. typical ryo is typical.

i like to take into account the situations where this guys have to pull a great descend and the GT GC contenders deserve more credit here imo. going all out in a descend because you got dropped and are on your way to lose the goal of your entire season or going all out because you are on your way to achieve your season goal is much different then doing it to make the time cut. the pressure can't even be compared.
anyway for me nibali arroyo and samu are the best for the reasons above. btw those 3 nibali edges it simple for the high speed bunny hop

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

3 costa ricans yes, except libardo nino, costa ricans like basks are overall the best downhillers in the world. colombians are one of the worst but there are of course some good when you have so many pro's

 

[robertocarlos]

isn't the 90% of the euskatel team basque? aside from sammu i have not seen any good descening done by them. sprinters and guys like cancellara have it easy compared to the gc guys. i was reading an interview with mark cavendish where he stated that he paces himself to just finish within the time limit but be fresh and the same applies for hushvod and to some instance cancellara. they are climbing easier so they have a clearer mind while going down.

 

[El Pistolero]

two reasons why I truly believe Nibali is the best descender:

1-) Unlike Cancellara, & Gilbert-whose descending skills are magnificent too- Nibali is way lighter than they are, so he has to make up that limitation with pedaling & bike handling.
2-) you have to be a crazy mothafvcka to do a bunny hop at 90 km p/h while descending-like the one he did this past Giro

Gilbert doesn't weight nearly as much as Cancellara.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yISN7pgfCtY

You need balls for this as well by the way.

 

[hfer07]

Gilbert doesn't weight nearly as much as Cancellara.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yISN7pgfCtY

You need balls for this as well by the way.

I'd give you that-Gilbert & Evans were madmen on that descend-specially with those damn road conditions-but you got to appreciate this too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuGzA_o0HBc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPXIdGy1iM0&feature=related

 

[c&cfan]

Gilbert doesn't weight nearly as much as Cancellara.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yISN7pgfCtY

You need balls for this as well by the way.

based in what i saw so far the winner is cancellara. but i am a young guy you know. lol

i would like to know what's the deal with some guys regarding gilbert's weight.

some people here are always saying things like he is all big and muscular, has upper body muscles and that's why he is cool... bla bla.

i never saw that. isnt gilbert 15 to 20 kg lighter than an 82kg cancellara hushovd bonnen etc? yes he is..

if he is so muscular with 67kg and 1.75m, i must be really amazing with 1.80m and 84kg at 13%fat. lol cut the crap fanboys. xD but he really knows how to descend. amazing video pistolero.

 

[red_flanders]

Cancellara is out based on his whiny bee-otch fest in le Tour las year.

 

[The Hitch]

You do realize we are talking cyclists here right? What are those? Songs by Cesária Évora?

Got to hand it to you here.

That was witty.

 

[mewmewmew13]

I voted Cancellara...
Nibs is not bad either.
I didn't check out the links posted here...maybe one of these is the same one I am mentioning, but Fabu's famous 8 minute descent to catch the peloton...hairball stuff..and I never listen to the youtube audio--just like to watch it in silence...so I don't get distracted by the tunes.

 

[nvpacchi]

 

[craig1985]

How about Óscar Freire?

 

[greenedge]

That vid seemed flat out for Evans. And also Nibali's. However i will go with Samu especially since he will need it so much in this TDF. Luis Leon Sanchez is also great too.

 

[dlwssonic]

gotta choose nibali as we see him do it more often.

 

[The Sheep]

nibali is incredibly overrated in everything including downhillingh. last year in giro di lombardia gilbert showed he was better and he could not get a gap at all. also in giro he could never really distance his opponents like in the past savoldelli could. not even close

That was in the rain that's when technique counts a lot more I reckon

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

based in what i saw so far the winner is cancellara. but i am a young guy you know. lol

i would like to know what's the deal with some guys regarding gilbert's weight.

some people here are always saying things like he is all big and muscular, has upper body muscles and that's why he is cool... bla bla.

i never saw that. isnt gilbert 15 to 20 kg lighter than an 82kg cancellara hushovd bonnen etc? yes he is..

if he is so muscular with 67kg and 1.75m, i must be really amazing with 1.80m and 84kg at 13%fat. lol cut the crap fanboys. xD but he really knows how to descend. amazing video pistolero.

gilbert is 178 and 71 kg.

 

[CobbleStoner]

what is amazing is seeing how many pro's are bad descenders, like LTD getting dropped by Cuenego the other day, how can you not be a good descender buy that point in your career?

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

That was in the rain that's when technique counts a lot more I reckon

which is most important because you gain the most time with that. the best downhillers have always bene the most technical

indurain, jalabert, pantani, savoldelli

 

[auscyclefan94]

I certainly don't think Nibali is the best descender the stages he has got gaps on riders on descents was due to the fac of lack of pace by leading riders or getting away from poor descenders.

 

[Jan the Man]

From the list Cancellara then Hushovd.

I think that Nibaili is the best descender of the main GT favourites but I think there are many excellent descenders in the grouppetto- we just don't see them on TV so often!

 

[Lanark]

what is amazing is seeing how many pro's are bad descenders, like LTD getting dropped by Cuenego the other day, how can you not be a good descender buy that point in your career?

Probably just fear. Don't forget that Ten Dam crashed in a descend in the Tour de Suisse just last year, breaking half the bones in his body. Took him the rest of the year to recuperate from that.

 

[woodie]

I think one day they should do a downhill time trial, send them all down a mountain and see what the times are like. That would be a better way to see where they all stand, although I don't think it would ever happen