Great Descenders or Climax Fighter

[toolittle]

Nibali is famous for his descending skill and he performs better than others when cold and raining days.
Fuglsang showed how to win by descending skill today.

Anymore?

Who is weaker when weather is bad for example hot, cold, rain or windy?

 

[JoeD1997]

I think we've seen in the past, especially when he rode TdF, Tim Wellens suffers a lot in the 30-degrees+ Celsius temperatures. Given his triathlete background, Porte always seems weak when the road tilts downwards if you ask me. Pinot has some issues (much less now than in the past) on descents too.

Back in his last season with IAM, Pantano was amazing on the downhills when he was in the breaks, the stage he won I remember him being dropped on the climb before catching and passing the lead moto that was with Majka and squeezing through tiny gaps and tight bends at ridiculous speed.

 

[May0maniac]

Spilak is another rider who suffers in the heat and is great in bad weather, he actually prefers a wet descent to a MTF in the heat and often unzips his jersey when it's raining and we have temperatures below 10° C.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

In order of history:

Hushovd
Cancellara
Sagan

Sagan's performance in TdS a few years back was spectacular.

None of the current GC riders has much to offer (other than the younger Nibali) other than an opportunity of a time loss.

 

[Koronin]

Valverde and I Izagirre are excellent descenders.

Valverde is usually great in the heat (unless he's over raced, which is a different issue). On the other hand he does struggle when the weather is cold and snowing or raining. With the injury last summer being in cold raining conditions that hasn't helped either.

 

[Frankschleck]

Mohoric is by far the best descender in my opinion. Ion Izagaurrie and Maxim Belkov have both won GT stages on descending skills, and are good aswell. A lot of good descenders in the peloton though.

 

[RedheadDane]

Re:

In order of history:

Hushovd
Cancellara
Sagan

Sagan's performance in TdS a few years back was spectacular.

None of the current GC riders has much to offer (other than the younger Nibali) other than an opportunity of a time loss.

Antonio?

 

[Akuryo]

Kwiatkowski. Basically won his Worlds title with a descending attack among other things!

 

[Cinemaniak]

Re:

In order of history:

Hushovd
Cancellara
Sagan

Sagan's performance in TdS a few years back was spectacular.

None of the current GC riders has much to offer (other than the younger Nibali) other than an opportunity of a time loss.

You call that history? Are people forgetting this easily the master in descending? Paolo Savoldelli! Il Falco

 

[42x16ss]

Re: Re:

In order of history:

Hushovd
Cancellara
Sagan

Sagan's performance in TdS a few years back was spectacular.

None of the current GC riders has much to offer (other than the younger Nibali) other than an opportunity of a time loss.

You call that history? Are people forgetting this easily the master in descending? Paolo Savoldelli! Il Falco

Savoldelli was a complete and total lunatic. Real heart in mouth stuff.

Virenque was also a superb descender, as was Sean Yates. Samuel Sanchez was excellent, as was Pantani.

Porte is up there amongst the worst I’ve seen, along with Basso, Wigans and Frank Schleck.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Indurain was the best descender I've seen. In the current peloton, I'd point towards Sagan, Kwiatkowski, Alaphilippe and Mohoric.But I'm sure that there are a lot of great descenders among the heavier guys that we just don't get to see descend.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re:

Indurain was the best descender I've seen. In the current peloton, I'd point towards Sagan, Kwiatkowski, Alaphilippe and Mohoric.But I'm sure that there are a lot of great descenders among the heavier guys that we just don't get to see descend.

I was just going to make this point. You often hear stories of the gruppetto descending like madmen during multiple mountain stages, taking big chunks of time back on those up front in order to make the time limit. We never get to see it but I’ve heard the likes of Cavendish say they can take well over a minute back on a fairly long descent.

 

[RedheadDane]

It would be really cool if they would show that one day.
If nothing else, just fly the helicopter back and show it from above.

 

[42x16ss]

Re: Re:

Indurain was the best descender I've seen. In the current peloton, I'd point towards Sagan, Kwiatkowski, Alaphilippe and Mohoric.But I'm sure that there are a lot of great descenders among the heavier guys that we just don't get to see descend.

I was just going to make this point. You often hear stories of the gruppetto descending like madmen during multiple mountain stages, taking big chunks of time back on those up front in order to make the time limit. We never get to see it but I’ve heard the likes of Cavendish say they can take well over a minute back on a fairly long descent.

I’ve heard accounts of Henk Vogels being such a good descender he was able to drop/jump between groups of sprinters at GTs. I’m sure there’s other big sprinters and classics riders able to do the same. Cipollini was supposedly an excellent descender as well.

 

[HelloDolly]

The best descenders are not the best climbers ...we just see the climbers . The best descenders are the guys who chase behind to catch the climbers or the sprinters wanting to avoid the cut

Magnus Backstedt and Sean Kelly ...brilliant descenders but not top climbers

 

[Velolover2]

I wonder if weight is an important factor? Someone like Pozzovivo is great downhill but he barely weights 100 pounds.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re: Re:

Indurain was the best descender I've seen. In the current peloton, I'd point towards Sagan, Kwiatkowski, Alaphilippe and Mohoric.But I'm sure that there are a lot of great descenders among the heavier guys that we just don't get to see descend.

I was just going to make this point. You often hear stories of the gruppetto descending like madmen during multiple mountain stages, taking big chunks of time back on those up front in order to make the time limit. We never get to see it but I’ve heard the likes of Cavendish say they can take well over a minute back on a fairly long descent.

I’ve heard accounts of Henk Vogels being such a good descender he was able to drop/jump between groups of sprinters at GTs. I’m sure there’s other big sprinters and classics riders able to do the same. Cipollini was supposedly an excellent descender as well.

It would be great to have a downhill TT, I’d bet most of the top times would be from guys usually in the Gruppetto.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Re: Re:

Indurain was the best descender I've seen. In the current peloton, I'd point towards Sagan, Kwiatkowski, Alaphilippe and Mohoric.But I'm sure that there are a lot of great descenders among the heavier guys that we just don't get to see descend.

I was just going to make this point. You often hear stories of the gruppetto descending like madmen during multiple mountain stages, taking big chunks of time back on those up front in order to make the time limit. We never get to see it but I’ve heard the likes of Cavendish say they can take well over a minute back on a fairly long descent.

I’ve heard accounts of Henk Vogels being such a good descender he was able to drop/jump between groups of sprinters at GTs. I’m sure there’s other big sprinters and classics riders able to do the same. Cipollini was supposedly an excellent descender as well.

It would be great to have a downhill TT, I’d bet most of the top times would be from guys usually in the Gruppetto.

In the 1987 Giro (I think it was) they had a TT down the Poggio. That would be fun to watch.

 

[Blanco]

Re:

I wonder if weight is an important factor? Someone like Pozzovivo is great downhill but he barely weights 100 pounds.

Of course it is, and Pozzovivo is not so great downhill...

 

[Akuryo]

For safety reasons they would never do that nowadays methinks.

 

[macbindle]

Re: Re:

In order of history:

Hushovd
Cancellara
Sagan

Sagan's performance in TdS a few years back was spectacular.

None of the current GC riders has much to offer (other than the younger Nibali) other than an opportunity of a time loss.

You call that history? Are people forgetting this easily the master in descending? Paolo Savoldelli! Il Falco

Savoldelli was a complete and total lunatic. Real heart in mouth stuff.

Virenque was also a superb descender, as was Sean Yates. Samuel Sanchez was excellent, as was Pantani.

Porte is up there amongst the worst I’ve seen, along with Basso, Wigans and Frank Schleck.

Yes, Salvoldelli sprang to mind when I read the thread title. Utterly amazing if not terrifying to watch.

As others have said, it's often the heavier sprinters who are the better descenders and certainly not the climbers.

 

[skippo12]

Nibali is still good but not even close to his younger self. In his Liquigas days he was completly crazy.
Most riders take less risk as they grow older.

 

[Red Rick]

Nibali is still good but not even close to his younger self. In his Liquigas days he was completly crazy.
Most riders take less risk as they grow older.

I think Nibali nowadays only takes risks in huge races he's peaked for, where back in the day he'd just take a lot of risk by default.

 

[Akuryo]

Nibali is still good but not even close to his younger self. In his Liquigas days he was completly crazy.
Most riders take less risk as they grow older.

I think Nibali nowadays only takes risks in huge races he's peaked for, where back in the day he'd just take a lot of risk by default.

Recently I watched a descent of Nibali from 2011 (Passo Fedaia) and it was some crazy stuff. Overtaking cars while cornering. Pure insanity!

 

[Red Rick]

Nibali is still good but not even close to his younger self. In his Liquigas days he was completly crazy.
Most riders take less risk as they grow older.

I think Nibali nowadays only takes risks in huge races he's peaked for, where back in the day he'd just take a lot of risk by default.

Recently I watched a descent of Nibali from 2011 (Passo Fedaia) and it was some crazy stuff. Overtaking cars while cornering. Pure insanity!

I also remember him just dropping everyone in like 2 turns on a gravel descent in a very insignificant part of a stage in the first week of 2011.