Crashes, what can be done?

[veganrob]

I love my Hunt hookless wheels.

 

[jmdirt]

How about riders not chopping each others' wheels?!

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Can we make a rule that bans deviating of the fastest line around a corner to talk on the radio?

 

[search]

In his Tour blog, Michael Woods has come up with a solution to reduce some of the danger in cycling: ban TT bikes

"My hatred for the TT stems from many reasons. The main one being that I am terrible at them. I have always struggled in this discipline, and even during my days of focusing on the General Classification, the TT was my Achilles’ heel. However, there are other reasons for my disdain for the discipline.

I think the TT bike and the equipment around it are a detriment to the sport. Most manufacturers find them to be an inconvenience. Consumers don’t buy them, as triathletes now prefer triathlon-specific bikes—which do not meet UCI requirements—and people who used to buy TT bikes now buy gravel bikes. The bikes and equipment create a massive disparity among teams and strain lower-budget World Tour squads that already struggle to remain competitive.

In my mind, to now call it the “race of truth” is disingenuous. Yes, you could probably put Remco Evenepoel on a mountain bike, and he would still be competitive with me in a TT. However, the difference between the best TT setup in the World Tour and the worst is enormous, and the power required to overcome this gap is insurmountable.

TT bikes are also wildly dangerous. It isn’t a coincidence that two men who have won the Tour in the last decade have almost died on TT bikes. To me, it’s crazy that nobody in the cycling community thinks it’s crazy that a TT bike is meant to be ridden without immediate access to brakes. I understand that this setup makes sense on a track; however, on open roads, it is incredibly dangerous.

Everyone knows that the fastest position in a TT is with your head down. To maintain this head-down position, you have to train it, and you can’t just do that on a home trainer.

Under the current UCI regulations, hundreds of pro riders are incentivized to ride on open roads at 50+ km/h with their heads down. That is crazy. Now, one could argue that you can stay on the home trainer (which is not a realistic environment) and only ride the position outside in a race, but just because the road is closed doesn’t mean that not being able to see ahead is “safe.”

I once heard a story of a top-tier time trialist in the World Tour telling his teammates that his plan was to start a TT with his head down, and he knew that after he saw the fifth sewer grate on the road, he would look up to prepare for the course’s first corner. When he started, he counted down the sewer grates, and after seeing four, he waited for five, but it never came. He must have missed one, and he went straight into a gate.

I still think that the TT has the potential to be a cool discipline, but for that to happen, it would have to be done on a road bike. If the TT were ridden on the same bike and helmet that you have to race with in the peloton, it would be way safer, much less of a hassle for teams and manufacturers, and it could start living up to its moniker of “the race of truth.”

The TT is Dog - Michael Woods - Pro Cyclist

â¨After two consecutive days of hard racing, Iâm now sitting in my bed at a Best Western just outside of Pau, excited for what will be our final TT of this race. Iâve stayed in this Best Western before, during the 2021 Tour. Often, your memory of hotel rooms on the Tour becomes a homogenous...

michaelwoods.cc

 

[Breh]

I honestly don't hate the idea.

 

[Oldman]

Can we make a rule that bans deviating of the fastest line around a corner to talk on the radio?

How about no radios, no chopping the wheels of the serious contenders out of sporting courtesy?

 

[mrgmyers]

Make all the riders draw numbers from a dice pot then ride in line with 4 meters between each rider to the finish that should sort it out

 

[mrgmyers]

I love my Hunt hookless wheels.

I love my Hunt Aero 50 hooked Rims!

 

[Izzyeviel]

If you spend a minute with your hands off the handlebars struggling to put on a rain jacket thats fine, but put your hands on the wrong place of the handlebars for a second you get dq'd.

Make it make sense!

 

[veganrob]

I love my Hunt Aero 50 hooked Rims!

I Originally got these wheels for gravel with 38m tires. I tried some 30mm Pirelli P Zero on them. 50 psi and they again are great. I want another set, maybe what you have. Aero 50. 😁

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

If you spend a minute with your hands off the handlebars struggling to put on a rain jacket thats fine, but put your hands on the wrong place of the handlebars for a second you get dq'd.

Make it make sense!

That's.... not really the case, is it.

There is plenty that it is valid to criticise the UCI for, so no need to make up anomalies that don't exist as criticism.

 

[RedheadDane]

Skjelmose has a pretty good tip:
Don't attempt to jump a traffic island when you're not 100% sure there isn't a sign in the way.

 

[mrgmyers]

Skjelmose has a pretty good tip:
Don't attempt to jump a traffic island when you're not 100% sure there isn't a sign in the way.

Looked bloody painful to me.

 

[Izzyeviel]

That's.... not really the case, is it.

There is plenty that it is valid to criticise the UCI for, so no need to make up anomalies that don't exist as criticism.

Marianne Vos would beg to differ