Car!
February 21, 2018 11:21 AM Subscribe
Climbing is a huge part of the mythology and culture of road cycling, both professional and amateur. Legends are born on the slopes of mountains, at least going up them. The fun part, however, is going back down again so join ex-pro riders Si Richardson and Matt Stephens as they descend Mallorca's Sa Calobra.
More descents:
More descents:
I live at the foot of a 2200m mountain in central Spain and I see these guys all day every day on the road that goes over the pass. It reminds me a bit of BASE jumping: very close to flying, with a danger quotient* I don’t even want to know about.
*Ok, I know it’s got to be safer than BASE jumping, but I haven’t been on a bike in ten years, so it looks extremely dangerous to me.
posted by lollymccatburglar at 11:59 AM on February 21, 2018 [3 favorites]
*Ok, I know it’s got to be safer than BASE jumping, but I haven’t been on a bike in ten years, so it looks extremely dangerous to me.
posted by lollymccatburglar at 11:59 AM on February 21, 2018 [3 favorites]
It's good! ...but is is Fabian Cancellara good...?
posted by the painkiller at 12:17 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by the painkiller at 12:17 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
I live within a short bike ride of Mt Diablo, and it seems like every single weekend there's at least one near miss bike/car interaction that follows the exact same pattern. Car behind climbing cyclist gets too impatient to wait for the next bike turnout, crosses double yellow line right before blind fucking curve, and nearly runs head on into a descending cyclist. It'd be a driver education issue except every weekend there's a new set of impatient stupid tourists who've never been up the mountain before. I'd like to ride up the mountain someday, but I'm for damned sure not going to do it on a weekend.
posted by BrotherCaine at 12:50 PM on February 21, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by BrotherCaine at 12:50 PM on February 21, 2018 [5 favorites]
I love road cycling, but descending absolutely terrifies me.
I had to stop watching after they started to get really sideways on some of those curves.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 1:00 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
I had to stop watching after they started to get really sideways on some of those curves.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 1:00 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
Maybe I'm getting old but fun is descending at 30mph. When you start approaching 50mph it's a nerve wracking shot of adrenaline fueled terror. If you really want to know what this feels like, strip down to your underwear and have someone hold a belt sander over your sensitive bits while you play a game of tetris.
posted by cmfletcher at 1:16 PM on February 21, 2018 [10 favorites]
posted by cmfletcher at 1:16 PM on February 21, 2018 [10 favorites]
I'm still relatively new to cycling and generally ride gravel roads instead of paved. For me, descending turns into a trust test between myself, the bike, and the road. This is probably true for any physical activity which combines gravity with some form of equipment designed to move one faster over a surface, but it's been a gradual process for me, letting go of that brake, feathering it a little bit less every time and acknowledging that I can trust my bike not to slide out under me and that I simply have to keep relaxed and balanced like I would were I going less fast on a more even grade. It's exhilarating and frightening - much more so on gravel. In fact, the gravel makes going fast down pavement a lot easier because the mind can think, "Pavement....this is terra firma, this is something I know from walking and driving, and short of potholes or weird obstructions, I can trust that my tire is making proper contact with the road at all speeds....!"
Meanwhile on gravel, "OMGOMGOMGOMGIGOTTHISIGOTTHISIGOTTHISMYBACKTIREISN'TSLIDINGOUTITSGOODOMG
STOPBREAKINGSOMUCHYOU'REGOINGTOMAKETHEBIKETIRESLIDEOUTOMGOMG!"
posted by Atreides at 1:17 PM on February 21, 2018
Meanwhile on gravel, "OMGOMGOMGOMGIGOTTHISIGOTTHISIGOTTHISMYBACKTIREISN'TSLIDINGOUTITSGOODOMG
STOPBREAKINGSOMUCHYOU'REGOINGTOMAKETHEBIKETIRESLIDEOUTOMGOMG!"
posted by Atreides at 1:17 PM on February 21, 2018
The one thing I couldn't help wondering about on that descent was brake fade... and then I realized that what I'd really like to see is a tandem team doing a descent like that, with real-time disk and drag brake temperatures, probably just as glow in the visible spectrum...
posted by straw at 1:37 PM on February 21, 2018
posted by straw at 1:37 PM on February 21, 2018
People ride up the TelefériQo in Quito with their bikes so they can ride the trail back down, some wearing practically a suit of armor, and some wearing next to no protection at all.
posted by lagomorphius at 1:56 PM on February 21, 2018
posted by lagomorphius at 1:56 PM on February 21, 2018
Made me a little motion sick!
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 2:22 PM on February 21, 2018
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 2:22 PM on February 21, 2018
Omg.omg.omg. all I can think is that their mothers are watching that with the same terror I am.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 2:24 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 2:24 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
That looked utterly horrifying, but then I'm also not a thrill seeker (aside from roller coasters). Also, there were several times where torso-mounted camera guy took one of his hands off the handlebars, and "OMG, JUST WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, YOU PUT THAT HAND RIGHT BACK ON THOSE HANDLEBARS MISTER!!!"
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 3:33 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 3:33 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
If it wasn't for descents I'd never beat any MeFi Strava peeps on any segments. I call it the "unmarried bonus."
posted by rhizome at 3:35 PM on February 21, 2018 [7 favorites]
posted by rhizome at 3:35 PM on February 21, 2018 [7 favorites]
The Blue Ridge Parkway is a lot less stressful. It has mostly wide, sweeping turns, a 45 mph speed limit, and no steep grades. (It's occasionally up to a 9% grade, but is usually less than that.) So the downhills normally don't need much braking at all.
The climbs out of Asheville NC can have some of the sketchy "passing on a blind corner" drivers, but most of the Parkway is usually very low traffic.
Here's a descent from Waterrock Knob, 8 miles and 2400 feet down. You can see the brake levers in the video, and the rider only feathers the brakes a couple of times.
Youtube link. The main descent starts at the 1:25 mark.
posted by jjj606 at 3:38 PM on February 21, 2018 [3 favorites]
The climbs out of Asheville NC can have some of the sketchy "passing on a blind corner" drivers, but most of the Parkway is usually very low traffic.
Here's a descent from Waterrock Knob, 8 miles and 2400 feet down. You can see the brake levers in the video, and the rider only feathers the brakes a couple of times.
Youtube link. The main descent starts at the 1:25 mark.
posted by jjj606 at 3:38 PM on February 21, 2018 [3 favorites]
I love GCN! While they're definitely copying Top Gear, the fact that it's bicycles, and that the presenters seem to be genuinely nicer people (fingers crossed) make it a lot more down to earth and enjoyable for me. I would prefer a little less lycra and road racing, but they're pretty self-conscious about the MAMIL stereotypes so it's bearable.
I recommend looking up the Commuter Challenge, the London Tourist Challenge, and the E-Bike challenge for further watching.
posted by other barry at 3:41 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
I recommend looking up the Commuter Challenge, the London Tourist Challenge, and the E-Bike challenge for further watching.
posted by other barry at 3:41 PM on February 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
The real boss is the guy riding the bike up the hill @ the 4:30 mark in the title video.
posted by grimjeer at 3:57 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by grimjeer at 3:57 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
Now, some real talk, for those of you who have trouble with descending....
The worst, most awful piece of advice that I cringe every time I hear it, is to start the corner on the outside of the lane, cut across to the inside through apex, and finish wide on the outside of the corner again, to "straighten out" the corner. Never ever "straighten out" a corner on a public road! This is not a racetrack, you do not have perfect knowledge of the corners, and you *will* come across a corner that turns out to be tighter than you thought! If you are lucky, you will run wide off the road onto a grassy shoulder or graze a barrier. If you are unlucky, you will run wide over the center lines and have a head-on collision.
Start corners on the outside, and aim to finish on the inside. Start wide, finish tight. This gives you vital buffer space and room for error, and as a bonus will set you up perfectly on the outside of the next corner in the opposite direction.
The second myth, is that you have to do all your braking before the corner, and completely let go of the brakes while turning. Again, while this works great for the racetrack, it can be bloody terrifying on a steep mountain switchback. Trail braking - where you ease off the brakes throughout the turn, aiming to let go of them completely near the apex - is perfectly acceptable and a lot more controllable. However, it is still good advice to slow down a little more than you think at the start of a corner, and try to exit a little faster than you think.
Source - my dad is a senior motorcycle instructor for Honda Rider Training.
posted by other barry at 3:59 PM on February 21, 2018 [5 favorites]
The worst, most awful piece of advice that I cringe every time I hear it, is to start the corner on the outside of the lane, cut across to the inside through apex, and finish wide on the outside of the corner again, to "straighten out" the corner. Never ever "straighten out" a corner on a public road! This is not a racetrack, you do not have perfect knowledge of the corners, and you *will* come across a corner that turns out to be tighter than you thought! If you are lucky, you will run wide off the road onto a grassy shoulder or graze a barrier. If you are unlucky, you will run wide over the center lines and have a head-on collision.
Start corners on the outside, and aim to finish on the inside. Start wide, finish tight. This gives you vital buffer space and room for error, and as a bonus will set you up perfectly on the outside of the next corner in the opposite direction.
The second myth, is that you have to do all your braking before the corner, and completely let go of the brakes while turning. Again, while this works great for the racetrack, it can be bloody terrifying on a steep mountain switchback. Trail braking - where you ease off the brakes throughout the turn, aiming to let go of them completely near the apex - is perfectly acceptable and a lot more controllable. However, it is still good advice to slow down a little more than you think at the start of a corner, and try to exit a little faster than you think.
Source - my dad is a senior motorcycle instructor for Honda Rider Training.
posted by other barry at 3:59 PM on February 21, 2018 [5 favorites]
Speaking of motorcycles, these guys looked like they almost needed knee pucks for some of those turns. Good lord.
posted by rmd1023 at 5:14 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by rmd1023 at 5:14 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
One thing you learn as a rider when sharing descents with motor vehicles is that bikes have much better traction at speed than heavier vehicles.
posted by rhizome at 5:21 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by rhizome at 5:21 PM on February 21, 2018 [1 favorite]
I used to do this. Then I started getting old and timid and decided 80km/h was my limit. I even changed my gearing so it doesn't go as high anymore. I doubt if I've even gone anywhere near that fast in the last few years.
And yeah, it doesn't matter how dangerous the ride is, even if you're obeying the rules and staying in your lane, the cars are the biggest threat.
posted by klanawa at 5:47 PM on February 21, 2018
And yeah, it doesn't matter how dangerous the ride is, even if you're obeying the rules and staying in your lane, the cars are the biggest threat.
posted by klanawa at 5:47 PM on February 21, 2018
That Spartacus descent was my first thought after reading the OP.
posted by oheso at 4:17 AM on February 22, 2018
posted by oheso at 4:17 AM on February 22, 2018
The Blue Ridge Parkway is a lot less stressful. It has mostly wide, sweeping turns, a 45 mph speed limit, and no steep grades. (It's occasionally up to a 9% grade, but is usually less than that.) So the downhills normally don't need much braking at all.
FYI, last year the Shenandoah National Park closed down a 31.5 mile stretch of Skyline Drive for a day to allow cyclists to ride it without worry of motorized vehicles. Allegedly it was a big success and may happen again this year.
posted by Atreides at 11:07 AM on February 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
FYI, last year the Shenandoah National Park closed down a 31.5 mile stretch of Skyline Drive for a day to allow cyclists to ride it without worry of motorized vehicles. Allegedly it was a big success and may happen again this year.
posted by Atreides at 11:07 AM on February 22, 2018 [1 favorite]
Jesus, I'm terrified at 30 on the flat.
Of course, living in Houston, we don't have to descend -- or climb -- anything.
posted by uberchet at 10:30 AM on March 1, 2018
Of course, living in Houston, we don't have to descend -- or climb -- anything.
posted by uberchet at 10:30 AM on March 1, 2018
That's scary. Even just watching the footage of them riding down the hill at those speeds gives me the shivers! I'd love to see a kids race on balance bikes down a hill like that. Would be hilarious to watch! Might be a few bruised knees and tears though!
posted by temerity at 9:55 PM on March 13, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by temerity at 9:55 PM on March 13, 2018 [1 favorite]
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