best descender

[craig1985]

there are no videos but it was stage 14.

http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/results/1999/giro99/stage14.html

Then Savoldelli, who was 2.00 behind Pantani at the summit, rejoined the group on the descent across the Stura Valley

look at how far up he finished!! man I was only 13 then but I will never forget that downhil. the sickest I've ever seen. hopefully some others here remember

That's a who's who of the Clinic right there. It must of been a brutal stage, Sastre came in the grupetto at more than 24 minutes behind Il Falco.

 

[McLovin]

So anybody still believe Niballi is the best descender? He is the best with Contador, Andy and all the others. He just sucked a lot of wheel today in MSR while descending. I don't know if Fabian is the best, but he is a class above Niballi.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

Me, obviously.

good one

If there's ever a poll for best crash and burner of the world, I'll pick myself for that!

But for this poll TODAY..... CANC !

 

[hrotha]

So anybody still believe Niballi is the best descender? He is the best with Contador, Andy and all the others. He just sucked a lot of wheel today in MSR while descending. I don't know if Fabian is the best, but he is a class above Niballi.

Why would Vincenzo "I Can't Outsprint My Teammates When They're Trying to Give Me Free Bonus Seconds" Nibali cooperate once the Poggio was over?

 

[Parrulo]

So anybody still believe Niballi is the best descender? He is the best with Contador, Andy and all the others. He just sucked a lot of wheel today in MSR while descending. I don't know if Fabian is the best, but he is a class above Niballi.

ya because it would make a lot of sense to take turns on a group where he was the slowest by far and when he had a fast team mate on the group behind. . . .

 

[roundabout]

good one

If there's ever a poll for best crash and burner of the world, I'll pick myself for that!

But for this poll TODAY..... CANC !

Paolini (I think) was pretty good as well.

 

[roundabout]

Why would Vincenzo "I Can't Outsprint My Teammates When They're Trying to Give Me Free Bonus Seconds" Nibali cooperate once the Poggio was over?

Come on, he isn't that slow. Not getting anywhere near Cancellara despite doing nothing in the last 7km shows that he was spent.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

today nibali proved again what an overrated downhiller he is

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Why would Vincenzo "I Can't Outsprint My Teammates When They're Trying to Give Me Free Bonus Seconds" Nibali cooperate once the Poggio was over?

he could barely hold the wheels of cancellara and gerrans. lol he was exposied good today again like he was in lombardia few years back

 

[Zam_Olyas]

today nibali proved again what an overrated downhiller he is

Riders tend to be overrated, huh?

 

[killswitch]

So anybody still believe Niballi is the best descender? He is the best with Contador, Andy and all the others. He just sucked a lot of wheel today in MSR while descending. I don't know if Fabian is the best, but he is a class above Niballi.

Did you see his expression/rocking before/when the trio turned to descend? Gerrans saw that and immediately moved from his' to Canc wheel.

 

[therhodeo]

I choose Nibali for the display he put on in that gravel descent last year at the Giro. That takes skill if you've ever been on gravel you know.

 

[burning]

So anybody still believe Niballi is the best descender? He is the best with Contador, Andy and all the others. He just sucked a lot of wheel today in MSR while descending. I don't know if Fabian is the best, but he is a class above Niballi.

It is a bit disrespecting to put Contador and Andy into same sentence while talking about descending skills
For best descender, I think cancellara or most of the autobus in GT's

 

[cineteq]

today nibali proved again what an overrated downhiller he is

Today you proved how pathetic you are in analyzing races. Sometimes all you need to use is common sense

 

[luckyboy]

Any chance this descent wasn't technical enough for Nibali? More of a power one suited to Cancellara.

 

[therhodeo]

Any chance this descent wasn't technical enough for Nibali? More of a power one suited to Cancellara.

I'm guessing that when Cancellara hopped on the train Nibali knew that he was just going to sit in anyway.

 

[El Pistolero]

Any chance this descent wasn't technical enough for Nibali? More of a power one suited to Cancellara.

The Poggio not a technical descent? Clearly you have never ridden down the Poggio

Cancellara is just a better descender, everybody in the peloton knows that...

 

[Panda Claws]

Clearly the current 2 best descenders are Cancellara and Hushovd.

 

[cyclopeon]

Voted for Samu.

For me best descender means what a guy can do with his bike without working hard on the pedals. Nibali in the Giro, Cancellara in M-SR, both were taking time out of the peleton only by driving out of the corners with big accelerations, rather than putting their bike through the corners in a way that didn't require much deceleration or speed recovery afterwards. Salvodeli, now, the one time I saw him on tv in Contador's (first) Giro just swooped around the corners like his namesake, better than Samu for my money.

Nibali and Cancellara paid the price for their downhill technique by losing power in the flat afterwards, no surprise after driving so hard. The real downhillers will take time out of the peleton and be fresh as a daisy at the bottom.

(by the way: what's with the announcers who talk about "descends like a stone"? Galileo and the leaning tower of Pisa, ffs! "Descends like a raptor" is a far better analogy! Like Il Falco, of course!)

 

[cyclopeon]

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

AS objects!!

 

[karlboss]

There is no way Cancellara could drop Nibali on a decent nor the other way around if they are starting on each others wheels. Cancellara, for example, could well go in and out of the corner faster, but then until they reach the next corner he breaks the air for Nibali in which time Nibali catches up again. You can be quite a long way back and get a huge slipsteam on a decent.

 

[woodie]

AS objects!!

Well he needs to suck it up!

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

I can't see that thee is a way to clearly see who is the best descender... Both Hushovd, Canc, Nibali, Sagan, they would all follow each other down a mountain, no matter how difficlut and tecnicall it is

 

[Climbing]

Nibali going downhill is like Contador going uphill.
Must be the best of the GT riders for sure, he's not overrated.

 

[El Pistolero]

Nibali going downhill is like Contador going uphill.
Must be the best of the GT riders for sure, he's not overrated.

He is overrated if you think he stands a chance on a long hard descent against Cancellara and Hushovd. These 2 are better descenders than any other cyclist in the peloton. FACT.