Who first used supertuck in a road race

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saunaking

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I hear mohoric but I just rewatched chasing legends and there are guys using the supertuck in 09 Tdf. What is the earliest use?
 
saunaking said:
I hear mohoric but I just rewatched chasing legends and there are guys using the supertuck in 09 Tdf. What is the earliest use?
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According to Nathan Haas (Mohoric's teammate and training partner at the time) Mohoric was just the first to pedal in the "Supertuck" position. Haas then went on to do it at the TDF a full year before Froome, who just made it popular.
 
Linus Gerdemann did it while descending into Le Grand- Bornand on route to the stage win in 2007. I've seen some quick shots of guys racing a few years before that coming back into the lead group doing the "supertuck".
 
It's mainly useful on a non technical highspeed descent, otherwise it's pretty overrated.
 
Don't know the answer to this but I have to say, it's actually kinda weird it took so long for riders to figure this out. Like, I know those famous pictures of Pantani descending in that completely suicidal position, laying his upperbody on the saddle. How on earth did they think of that before the"tuck position" they use now?
 
Gigs_98 said:
Don't know the answer to this but I have to say, it's actually kinda weird it took so long for riders to figure this out. Like, I know those famous pictures of Pantani descending in that completely suicidal position, laying his upperbody on the saddle. How on earth did they think of that before the"tuck position" they use now?
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Agreed.

It also continues to annoy me when people drone on about how dangerous the super tuck supposedly is. It's really not that difficult to do and we have never seen it go wrong.
 
tobydawq said:
Agreed.

It also continues to annoy me when people drone on about how dangerous the super tuck supposedly is. It's really not that difficult to do and we have never seen it go wrong.
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Correction: We have never seen it go wrong for a pro, in a race. If you jump on YouTube there's plenty of people getting it wrong, including amateur racers.
 
42x16ss said:
Correction: We have never seen it go wrong for a pro, in a race. If you jump on YouTube there's plenty of people getting it wrong, including amateur racers.
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Mohoric or ll falco..who would win? In a downhill race.
 
Zams said:
Mohoric or ll falco..who would win? In a downhill race.
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Good question, I'd love to watch that but I'd have to give it to Savoldelli. The man was a lunatic, even the likes of Virenque wouldn't bother trying to follow him. Cipollini once described him as insane - high praise.
 
The beauty of watching Savoldelli was not only was he so fast, but he so rarely looked like he was going to crash. I miss those days
 
I never really watched Savoldelli ride so I'm not enlightened here but I think Hirschi's descending in this year's Tour could maybe have given similar vibes. That is, until he crashed.
 
will-10 said:
The beauty of watching Savoldelli was not only was he so fast, but he so rarely looked like he was going to crash. I miss those days
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Me too, Man. I often watch old racing videos.
 
Does anyone have a good video of a Savoldelli descent? I am too young to really have witnessed him live and good videos from those days seem to be rather rare.
The one I know is a video of his Fauniera descent in 1999 where he catches the leaders, just drives past and has already dropped them a corner later. I guess that gives a pretty good impression of how good he was but the video is still rather short.
 
thomaswavrin said:
Linus Gerdemann did it while descending into Le Grand- Bornand on route to the stage win in 2007. I've seen some quick shots of guys racing a few years before that coming back into the lead group doing the "supertuck".
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The first I remember seeing it (commented on at least) was Landis in the 2006 TdF - the commentators referred to it as the 'preying mantis' because he was tucked on the top tube with his hands tight to the stem on the handlebars.
 
tobydawq said:
I never really watched Savoldelli ride so I'm not enlightened here but I think Hirschi's descending in this year's Tour could maybe have given similar vibes. That is, until he crashed.
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From about 5:50, but here Savoldelli was holding back to keep some companions for Sestriere.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thfKMaCtDq8
However Bettini's descents in the 2006 Giro di Lombardia, from 30:10 Civiglio and from 45:57 San Fermo della Battaglia are phenomenal:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH4yCLQ9uZ0
 
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Samu was a great descenderr himself.
About Savoldelli footage, there's not that much around.
Here you have him on the Passo Duran descent (from 16:00 onwards), during the 2005 Zoldo Alto stage.
 
If it is that is honestly the most ridiculous rule in cycling.
 
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