Pierre Latour

mrb123

https://road.cc/content/news/tour-de-france-pro-says-he-feels-paralysed-descents-302559

A brutally honest and revealing interview about his descending demons. Really brave of him to be so open.

I'm sure he's not alone in the peloton having this type of fear, particularly since Mader's death.

joeyhalloran

Not to take anything away from him but it's so easy to see as soon as he goes downhill I think everyone knew most of this anyway. Even last year's tour he was getting dropped on every descent and this tour is no different.

No_Ta_Doctor

This was a TV interview with him, not sure who made it, but it was on DK TV2. They showed it a couple of days ago, where he got into the huge break and got spat out the back of it on the downhill. Very brave of him to confront it publicly

rick_chasey

No_Ta_Doctor said:

This was a TV interview with him, not sure who made it, but it was on DK TV2. They showed it a couple of days ago, where he got into the huge break and got spat out the back of it on the downhill. Very brave of him to confront it publicly

I mean, we all saw it on the road. Not a massive surprise he struggles.

TBH this is maybe not a popular view but I don't have a massive amount of sympathy for it as it's such an important part of cycling - doubly so if you're a climber!

You'd quickly lose interest with a sprinter who gets psyched out bumping shoulders a bit, and we'd be a lot less sympathetic. But a climber who can't go downhill well and suddenly everyone is pouring out the sympathy.

(yes and I know he'd still descend an awful lot faster than me).

No_Ta_Doctor

rick_chasey said:

No_Ta_Doctor said:

This was a TV interview with him, not sure who made it, but it was on DK TV2. They showed it a couple of days ago, where he got into the huge break and got spat out the back of it on the downhill. Very brave of him to confront it publicly

I mean, we all saw it on the road. Not a massive surprise he struggles.

TBH this is maybe not a popular view but I don't have a massive amount of sympathy for it as it's such an important part of cycling - doubly so if you're a climber!

You'd quickly lose interest with a sprinter who gets psyched out bumping shoulders a bit, and we'd be a lot less sympathetic. But a climber who can't go downhill well and suddenly everyone is pouring out the sympathy.

(yes and I know he'd still descend an awful lot faster than me).

It's precisely because it's a massive part of cycling that I have sympathy with him. It got into his head and he can't get it out, and it's close to career ending for him if he cant deal with it. That would be te same for a sprinter that got nervy as well (I have no idea how Jakobsen managed to sprint again)

super_davo

Didn't Pinot have the same issue earlier in his career?

I seem to recall he did quite a lot of things to "fix" his demons like following MotoGP riders round a tight course at steadily increasing speeds.

Pross

Lutsenko seemed to have a few issues on yesterday's stage too. Foot out several times to take corners trying to stay with Alaphilippe.

me-109

Indeed it was a bad sprint crash that set a new direction for Jalabert.

joeyhalloran

super_davo said:

Didn't Pinot have the same issue earlier in his career?

I seem to recall he did quite a lot of things to "fix" his demons like following MotoGP riders round a tight course at steadily increasing speeds.

I think Latour has said he has tried lots of things but plans to go out to Moto track sessions following this tour to see if he can get more accustomed to the speed a line choices etc...

jdee84

I have sympathy for him having come off on a steep twisting decent(I had been down previously )at low speed and not knowing exactly why it happened.
Only a couple of weeks before I had ridden Ventoux Bedoin to Maulacene and descended reasonably quick for an amateur. 've never been able to get the fear out of my head descending since the off, to the point it's ruined the enjoyment of cycling even more regular long descents.

m.r.m.

Story time. Apologies in advance. 😉

I had two big objectives this year that finished last week. I had trained really hard and a lot, had hit 5W/kg FTP and was all set and ready; beat my PR up the Passo Stelvio by 4 min in the race setting and was with the splintering leading group when on the descent to Bormio a car appeared on the course where the road was supposed to be blocked off. The rider in front of me skidded hard and lost control entirely and since I was pretty much on his wheel i collided with him while he was falling right at the hairpin turn. Turned in the air, wrecked my vest, smashed the back of my helmet and landed in rubble almost off the cliff at 65 km/h. Miraculously my bike didn't have a scratch on it as it landed on the rider ahead of me. I also think the ceramic coating might have contributed to the lack of scratches. On a side note, I can't recommend the GTechniq ceramic coating enough. It's amazing how much easier it makes bike cleaning.
I was fine outside of road rash, so I rode the remaining 100+ km and finished, but that was my race done.
2 weeks later I had the next race over 226 km and 5500 m of climbing and with the corresponding descents. This is where we all have to decide how much such things affect us. I don't see much of a point in doing such races if I am unable to descend with confidence, since being afraid will only make descending even more dangerous. So I decided in advance that crashes happen, but I will be fine if I ride with confidence and without taking (unnecessary) risks. I hit my highest top speed at 102.7 km/h in the race and all the worries disappeared when actually riding. I found a different way to screw up the race, not to worry. 😉

I sympathize with Latour, but he does need to ask himself who he wants to be in life. Clearly the pressure is much more on him having to follow the best in the world, but he is a paid professional and has all the support in the world to improve technique and build confidence etc.
I think it's really healthy for him to speak out, but he does have the responsibility to do the work to be better. I hope he manages it and conquers his demons.

davidof

jdee84 said:

I had been down previously at low speed and not knowing exactly why it happened

They are difficult. I had the same thing on a mountain hairpin I'd ridden a number of times. Lost a nasty amount of skin and it took months to heal. The only thing I could think was there were works going on and diesel had been spilt on the corner (French workers are like drunks with beer when it comes to pouring jerrycans of diesel) but it was not obvious why I came off.

Took me a long time to get over and I still take that particuarly bend carefully.