Who are the best/worst bike handlers in the peloton?

[Hawkwood]

Richard Virenque was another superb bike handler on the descents. His crazy breaks often stuck because he was usually so much faster than the GC guys downhill.

Agreed, there was a classic TDF stage where he was with Ullrich, I think they were trying to chase down Pantani, and Virenque was having to wait for Jan after every corner. Virenque appeared to be amused at the situation.

 

[Magnus]

Sagan definitely has the "Best Wheelier" title sewn up!

So, he can do it unseated and he can do it with no hands.
He should get serious and combine the two.

 

[ustabe]

Contador's descending is pretty amazing.

I'm not sure how Cancellara got on the "best" list, especially after two critical crashes last year. I'd replace him with Cadel Evans. Even though Cadel's '12 season was a wash, the time trialing and descending skills he showed in '11 were outstanding.

 

[Panda Claws]

Contador's descending is pretty amazing.

I'm not sure how Cancellara got on the "best" list, especially after two critical crashes last year. I'd replace him with Cadel Evans. Even though Cadel's '12 season was a wash, the time trialing and descending skills he showed in '11 were outstanding.

Contador's descending is good but not that outstanding.

 

[Afrank]

Contador's descending is pretty amazing.

I'm not sure how Cancellara got on the "best" list, especially after two critical crashes last year. I'd replace him with Cadel Evans. Even though Cadel's '12 season was a wash, the time trialing and descending skills he showed in '11 were outstanding.

Only one of his crashes last year (at the Olympics) was due to not great handling. The other one at Flanders was just bad luck and, as I see it, shouldn't have much bearing on how good a bike handler he is.

IMHO that one crash isn't enough to remove him from the list of best handlers. After all, lets not forget his descent at MSR last year. Where he was dropping Nibbles.

 

[cineteq]

Where he was dropping Nibbles.

He couldn't drop him. Agree a crash it's nothing, just bad decision making on his part.

 

[ElChingon]

I'm not sure how Cancellara got on the "best" list, especially after two critical crashes last year. I'd replace him with Cadel Evans. Even though Cadel's '12 season was a wash, the time trialing and descending skills he showed in '11 were outstanding.

Only one of his crashes last year (at the Olympics) was due to not great handling. The other one at Flanders was just bad luck and, as I see it, shouldn't have much bearing on how good a bike handler he is.

IMHO that one crash isn't enough to remove him from the list of best handlers. After all, lets not forget his descent at MSR last year. Where he was dropping Nibbles.

He couldn't drop him. Agree a crash it's nothing, just bad decision making on his part.

Its not that it was one crash but how that Olympic crash occurred, basically a dumb move and just took himself out. Just like... wait for it ...
the Carrots in the Tour, so slap on the orange sticker on Fabian.

 

[Cancellator]

Cancellara's crash at the Olympics was due to him not focusing on the moment, he was already kissing the gold medal in his mind... He still is a great bike handler, just watch the end of last year's Strade Bianche, where he just went inches past roadsigns etc

I think Sagan is great, but he's also young and did not have many opportunities to crash yet, so I'll wait to see how he's doing at 30-something before calling him the absolute best.

 

[hoerpi]

Mikel Nieve is probably the worst, the only decent descent he has ever done was last year on Mortirol where he wheelsucked Ion Izagirre.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

ion izagirre is an amazing downhiller, so I wouldn't know if that was bad by nieve. I never saw him suck in any downhil from what I've seen

 

[Netserk]

ion izagirre is an amazing downhiller, so I wouldn't know if that was bad by nieve. I never saw him suck in any downhil from what I've seen

I know it was mainly because Garzelli got moto-paced, but Nieve did lose quite some time in the descents in the stage to Gardeccia.

 

[Parrulo]

I know it was mainly because Garzelli got moto-paced, but Nieve did lose quite some time in the descents in the stage to Gardeccia.

by "some" do you mean a total of 6 seconds on the fedaia descent while garzeli was motor paced?

 

[Netserk]

by "some" do you mean a total of 6 seconds on the fedaia descent while garzeli was motor paced?

I remember it as more

All I remember was that Nieve took massive time uphill, yet Garzelli still managed to keep him behind for very long...

EDIT: Do you know how much it was on the Giau descent?

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

I know it was mainly because Garzelli got moto-paced, but Nieve did lose quite some time in the descents in the stage to Gardeccia.

I don't remember that at all

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

by "some" do you mean a total of 6 seconds on the fedaia descent while garzeli was motor paced?

ah that explains it. in my db nieve is "above" average downhiller and I never noticed him being bad at it anywhere. that's why I wondered

 

[Parrulo]

Re checked the stage.

top of the giau garzeli had 45 secs on nieve and at the bottom he had 1.05 min to the "chasing group" which i am not sure if it was nieve or people behind him, but let's assume it was nieve.

at the top of the fedaia garzelli had 39 on nieve and at the bottom the he only had 35 even after being motorpaced on the false flat at the top of the fedaia.

so saying nieve "is probably the worst" is complete BS.

if anything the fact that we never saw him crashing on any race, even at GT's where he gets very little support on the flat is a gigantic clue that he can't be all that bad.

 

[The Hitch]

Its often the best descenders that crash because they are the ones who take risks every corner. the bad ones are bad because they play it safe.