Nibali descending

frenchfighter

Just came across this video....bunnying hopping at 70km/h just before a hair pin bend. Legend. Imagine Froome or Wiggins in this situation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 0db_i125aU

ddraver

I know, they'd just like ride over it...

:?: :?: :?:

slowbike

Of course not - they'd stop the whole race and demand the damaged surface be repaired before carrying on ....



Oh .. hang on ... no they wouldn't ...


Imagine what would happen if FF was beaten in a race by either Froome or Wiggins - he'd blame the Sky Train and mumble about it all being unfair because they are so mechanical ...

FF completely forgets that these are ALL fantastic riders - excelling at bike handling skills far greater than the vast majority of cyclists, some are better than others in certain disciplines and it's this too & fro that makes it all interesting.

DeVlaeminck

To be fair Froome did bitch about the Sarenne this year when it wasn't that bad at all. Suppose you could put that down to him wanting to minimise opportunities for other teams to put him in trouble.

pb21

frenchfighter wrote:

Just came across this video....bunnying hopping at 70km/h just before a hair pin bend. Legend. Imagine Froome or Wiggins in this situation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 0db_i125aU

And just imagine, if you can, what Cancellara and Voigt would do in this situation too, the lightweights, they should MTFU.

andyp

frenchfighter wrote:

Imagine Froome or Wiggins in this situation.

They'd do exactly the same. It's hardly Martyn Ashton-esque handling is it?

rayjay

Some guys just know how to handle a bike better. Nibali , Ryder, Evans , Cancellara.

Wiggo is not the only one who's not got a natural talent for bike handling and can't ride in the rain.

My 10 year old son is not so good but he is better in the rain :

Is It dig? ...of course it is

ozzzyosborn206

in Belgium you would see amateur riders doing this all day long, granted not at the speed but its not out of this world skill. A mate of mine raced tour of serbia a few years back against Rasmussen and said he couldn't believe the speed at which he descended when if is considered 'one of the slower ones'

feltkuota

In Cav's book At Speed he mentions everyone bangs on about Nibali et al's descending skills but they fail to recognise that those in the gruppetto descend as well or better than those up the sharp end. This they do in order to make the time up and avoid being cut from the race..

Richmond Racer

feltkuota wrote:

In Cav's book At Speed he mentions everyone bangs on about Nibali et al's descending skills but they fail to recognise that those in the gruppetto descend as well or better than those up the sharp end. This they do in order to make the time up and avoid being cut from the race..

Cav's a bloody good descender, for the record

RichN95.

So what happened to the other 180 riders who went past? Did they
a) crash
b) bunny hop as well
c) go around the corner without fuss or incident.

I'm reminded of a tweet by Daniel Freibe: "Rider whose identity I won't reveal to me recently: 'Nibali's meant to be the best descender in the world? He's rubbish. Rubbish.'" (Freibe, of course, wrote Cavendish's At Speed)

deejay

andyp wrote:

They'd do exactly the same. It's hardly Martyn Ashton-esque handling is it?

They wouldn't have much choice at speed to get by it, if they brake then they would skid over the side.
You want to try coming down when the road was gravel, then you know why your hair stands upright.
No Problems.
Nice to see, he handled it well and I wouldn't call that rubbish.

Jez mon

Neat bit of bike handling, and clearly Nibali is one of the better descenders out of the GC riders. However, in the (admittedly limited) number of races I've watched over the last two years, what sticks out for me is that he's either failed to make his downhill attacks stick, or fallen over trying too hard...

Anonymous

Oh Frenchie it's Christmas lighten up.

feltkuota

Richmond Racer wrote:

feltkuota wrote:

In Cav's book At Speed he mentions everyone bangs on about Nibali et al's descending skills but they fail to recognise that those in the gruppetto descend as well or better than those up the sharp end. This they do in order to make the time up and avoid being cut from the race..

Cav's a bloody good descender, for the record

That's what I was trying to say but I'm also trying to not be so blunt

blazing_saddles

RichN95 wrote:

So what happened to the other 180 riders who went past? Did they
a) crash
b) bunny hop as well
c) go around the corner without fuss or incident.

I'm reminded of a tweet by Daniel Freibe: "Rider whose identity I won't reveal to me recently: 'Nibali's meant to be the best descender in the world? He's rubbish. Rubbish.'" (Freibe, of course, wrote Cavendish's At Speed)

If fairness, that's about the opposite extreme to Frenchie's exaggeration...........er, I mean observation.

takethehighroad

Isn't that from the Giro in 2011 when Nibbles was doing all he could to distance Contador on the descents as he couldn't match him on the climbs, a feat he repeated with similar success in the Tour in 2012?

DeVlaeminck

Whoever said Nibali can"t descend is talking out of their backside. He may not be Savoldelli but he's one of those who on occasion has distanced his rivals on descents at the shap end of a race. OK he can't just ride away from everyone when it goes downhill but who can? Cancellera is generally accepted as a top descender but he couldn't open a gap down the Poggio at MSR this year, Cav couldn't bridge acoss and he's supposed to be another.

thomthom

Cav is nowhere to be found when Nibali is forcing it..

RichN95.

DeVlaeminck wrote:

Whoever said Nibali can"t descend is talking out of their backside. He may not be Savoldelli but he's one of those who on occasion has distanced his rivals on descents at the shap end of a race. OK he can't just ride away from everyone when it goes downhill but who can? Cancellera is generally accepted as a top descender but he couldn't open a gap down the Poggio at MSR this year, Cav couldn't bridge acoss and he's supposed to be another.

The likes of Nibali and Savoldelli are the best that the cameras see. They can descend but the best guys are in the autobus. Sprinters are generally better bike handlers than GC guys and use descents to catch up time. Bernie Eisel is one that I've heard is shockingly fast.

DeVlaeminck

RichN95 wrote:

DeVlaeminck wrote:

Whoever said Nibali can"t descend is talking out of their backside. He may not be Savoldelli but he's one of those who on occasion has distanced his rivals on descents at the shap end of a race. OK he can't just ride away from everyone when it goes downhill but who can? Cancellera is generally accepted as a top descender but he couldn't open a gap down the Poggio at MSR this year, Cav couldn't bridge acoss and he's supposed to be another.

The likes of Nibali and Savoldelli are the best that the cameras see. They can descend but the best guys are in the autobus. Sprinters are generally better bike handlers than GC guys and use descents to catch up time. Bernie Eisel is one that I've heard is shockingly fast.

Well this is often said but I doubt sprinters are universally better descenders than GC men - there will be good and bad amongst both. Bike handling tends to be fairly specific - Wiggins can hold a position in a bunch well and ride a world class madison so he isn't a poor bike handler - but this year at least he proved himself a shocking descender in the wet. I'm not knocking Cav's descending but I am saying Nibali is very good and whichever rider said otherwise is talking nonsense.

Anonymous

Here's something on Cav doing the TT course on his home isle and managing to break a ton.

I love how some person on a forum is more knowledgeable on who is a better descender than someone who is a pro bike rider.

phreak

Dare say that even the Wiggins and Pinot are better at descending than most of us. Certainly better than me anyway, I went down the Giau like a granny.

Crankbrother

Nibali is an aggressive descender, which often makes him faster than others but prone to the odd moment ... You never heard of Salvoldelli hitting the deck as often (but then he was never at the front of the race as much so didn't have to 'push') ...

I'm sure Wiggins/SKY hammered the final descent in one of the early short stage races this year and gapped the peleton? And then the Giro happened

frenchfighter

sjmclean I've had enough of your BS on various threads - don't waste your time trying to have a dig at me (which 85% of your posts seem to be) as you are now on block and I wont be reading it.

Richmond Racer

phreak wrote:

Dare say that even the Wiggins and Pinot are better at descending than most of us. Certainly better than me anyway, I went down the Giau like a granny.

New brake pads? Been there

I'm eternally in awe of the pros' descending skillz, the speed, the way their bodies are just so fluid and at one with theit bike on corners

ps having said that, I'll be a bit cheeky and say that I hope Quintana's been doing extra descending homework back home....

phreak

I like to blame it on being very light, but in reality it's just my lack of skills I think I doff my cap to anyone that can do it really well. Was watching the 2010 Giro on the turbo last night and in particular stage 19 to Aprica. Was very impressive how Arroyo pulled back around 2 minutes on Basso and Nibali on the descent of the Mortirolo (before losing a lot of that again on the climb back into Aprica).

greasedscotsman

frenchfighter wrote:

Imagine Froome or Wiggins in this situation.

OK, Wiggins had his problems at the Giro this year, but is Froome now considered a poor descender? Did I miss this? Can anyone give examples?

frenchfighter

phreak wrote:

I like to blame it on being very light, but in reality it's just my lack of skills I think I doff my cap to anyone that can do it really well. Was watching the 2010 Giro on the turbo last night and in particular stage 19 to Aprica. Was very impressive how Arroyo pulled back around 2 minutes on Basso and Nibali on the descent of the Mortirolo (before losing a lot of that again on the climb back into Aprica).

That stage was certainly an amazing ride by him. That whole Giro was wonderful.

phreak

Made even more impressive of course by the damp road. Evans is a superb bike handler but even he nearly came a cropper and lost time to Arroyo on the descent. Impressive if you can do it well.

DeVlaeminck

sjmclean wrote:

Here's something on Cav doing the TT course on his home isle and managing to break a ton.

I love how some person on a forum is more knowledgeable on who is a better descender than someone who is a pro bike rider.

Oh please ! Are you seriously suggesting that Nibali is "rubbish" - even if a "pro bike rider" told someone that ? Your own eyes tell you he's very good - maybe not the best, maybe not even the best of the GC contenders but certainly a class act.