Crash diet

I want to get off this crash diet. Not a fad food thing. No. I’m tired of watching pros hit the deck. I’m full. Satiated. No mas. Why the steady parade of fallen riders, snapped bones and torn flesh? I don’t get it. On a good day, things look quite advanced, the peloton fueled by the latest technology, equipment and best minds in the business. Along with “race bibles” printed on paper, there are a flurry of advancements: GPS devices, heart rate monitors, power meters, all manner of rubber compounds and tread patterns, carbon fiber, aero spokes, aero rims, aero helmets, every conceivable sunglass shape or color of lens, race radios, team mechanics in team cars loaded up with additional team bikes, soigneurs in feed stations. The yellow neutral support motorcycle holds up a chalkboard with time gaps so the main bunch can dose its effort to perfection and reel in attacks before the end of  stage. Teams plot strategy in high-tech “buses” and prepare. Nothing is left to chance.

So why the crashes? In the rain, I can see a problem. Sure. Automatic danger. But on sunny Stage 1 of the Tour of California? I had this conversation with my wife tonight. She was adamant that pro riders today crash no more or less than riders of earlier decades: Coppi, Merckx, Hinault, or LeMond. She believes the pressure now is so great to win, riders are more tightly bunched, more nervous, more prone to take risks, which combined increases the odds that a single touch of wheels spells broken collarbones, shredded Lycra and dripping blood for many. Maybe it’s the intensity of television coverage that has shined a brighter light on crashes, and nothing more. I wonder. I wish someone had stats. I do. In our zeal to build the lightest, fastest, more aerodynamic bicycles, have we now also built-in higher probability for riders to go down? I don’t know about you. I’m a fan of bike racing. I’m not a fan of bike crashing. It’s a bit like NASCAR without the Budweiser, and fires. I doubt any pro riders signed up for becoming road pizza, either. At what point do these crashes become a byproduct of great racing and bad breaks — or simply poor judgement? Are riders pushed to the brink against what they know to be their limits? Think about it. All the technology exists today for riders to be better than any who preceded them in professional cycling. I just wonder. Streets closed to traffic. Food weighed. Thresholds tested with physiologists. Every detail studied. Maybe it’s time to study crashes. UCI? Race organizers? Anyone?

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Tagged as: bicycle racing, crashing, cycling, pro peloton