What you just saw is a great demonstration
of the importance of aerodynamics in cycling. It shows that adjusting your posture on the bike
can sometimes be more effective than pedaling. Since the 90s, there have been many attempts to
come up with the ultimate position for descending. Riders tried to be creative. Some were more
effective than others, as shown by a group of scientists from Belgium in this research.
Chris Froome's famous descending position is slower than Marco Pantani's iconic style, but
they both lag behind the Super-tuck that was invented by Matej Mohoric which is 17 faster than
a regular position. Still, none of the above stands a chance against this one. On this descent, this rider and the rest of
the group were going at exactly the same speed, before he transitioned into what cycling fans
call the "superman" position, and it did magic. This extremely aerodynamic position allowed him to
descend 24% faster than the rest. He streamlined himself to drastically reduce his frontal area,
which consequently reduced the amount of air friction, and allowed him to pick up speed from
the gravitational force on this descent. In this case, a speed that wouldn't be achievable by just
pedaling. However, this posture and many others including the super tuck have been banned from
professional racing by the UCI since April 2021. Wind It can either be your best ally, or your worst enemy. On stage 13 of the 2016 tour de France,
photographer Joris Knapen shot one of the wildest photos in cycling. It shows
Julian Alaphilippe flying in the air, six feet above the ground, something you
don't see every day. The French rider was time-trialing at the speed of 52 kilometers per hour when a wind gust blew him off the road, lifted him into the air, and threw him against
a rocky cliff-side. It was a horrible scene. Miraculously the Frenchman got up
unharmed and continued on his race. He only suffered a cut on his thumb and
a few bruises on his shoulder and back. In the post-race interview Julian said: "the
wind caught me, I did not expect to take a gust like that .. it took me to the outside of
the turn and I went straight into the rocks". This remains one of the weirdest and most
unbelievable shots ever taken in cycling. Road cyclists are more known
for their endurance capabilities and less for their bike handling
skills, but there are exceptions. When a road cyclist comes from a different
field, like cyclo-cross or mountain biking, where he's required to constantly adjust
to varying terrains, he usually brings with him a variety of skill sets, skills that
make the difference at crucial moments. Fernando Gaviria is the fastest without doubt
out of these few riders on the left-hand side Nacer Bouhanni as Gaviria goes down! In the 2016 Milan-San-Remo, a touch
of wheels sent Fernando Gaviria to the ground in the home straight, on his wheel Peter Sagan
shows incredible reflexes that are really hard to catch in real speed. With no time to think,
his instinct, being a former mountain biker, intervened. Having strong neural pathways and
muscle memory allowed him to dodge Gaviria's left leg by just a few centimeters, with a
reaction time of around 150 milliseconds, which is way below the average person's
reaction time estimated at 215 milliseconds. The same could be said about Fabian
Cancellara, although instead of solely relying on his body reflexes, he used his
brakes masterfully to avoid the fallen rider. This is another example of Peter's elite bike
handling skills, he lost balance on this slippery corner but he quickly unclipped and used his foot
against the ground to regain balance. And it didn't prevent him from winning the race a few seconds later. The photo-finish invention was a great solution to
distinguish the winner of a race when the simple eye or a regular camera can't. After hundreds
of kilometers of racing, one pixel could be the difference between winning and losing. I've
been in a few photo-finishes myself, sometimes I've been on the wrong end of a pixel you could
say. Just like in this photo from the 2017 tour de France the difference between the two riders was
no more than six millimeters, which corresponds to three milliseconds in time according to the
officials. The closest margin in the history of the race. But there's always something
strange about this type of image. The first thing you may notice is the curved spokes and the
weird-looking road surface. In order to explain these strange artifacts, let's first try to get a
general understanding of how a photo finish image is taken. Normal cameras catch what's in front
of the sensor at a particular moment in time, the result is an image that's thousands of
pixels in width and height. But a photo finish is a result of a completely different process.
A particular type of camera is used to capture thousands of frames per second, each frame is one
pixel in width and thousands of pixels in height, each vertical slice was captured at a different
point in time from the next one to it. A computer software program compiles all these frames
together to create a photo-finish. When you're looking at it, you're seeing the progression
of that one pixel wide frame through time. The bikes and the riders riding them usually
look normal, but the spokes look curved because the wheels would be spinning as they cross the
finish line. And because the road is stationary, and it's being captured on every frame, the
resulting image shows a stretched background. It's the penultimate stage of the 2002 Tour Down
Under. A 21 year old Michael Rogers has managed to get himself into a strong breakaway group in
the hope of getting the race's overall lead. Look at that the yellow jersey is at
six minutes it's all over for Fabio. So far his plan was working very well, until one
of the in-race motorcycles destroyed his bike in a collision. Michael Rogers has thrown his bike
to the ground, he desperately needs one quick, he's got one. It's not a team bike although
it's the same makers his team, Colnago, and i have a feeling that's come from a
spectator. Rogers slams it to the ground in frustration knowing that the replacement bike
will not be arriving anytime soon. But a fan from the side of the road showed up with a bike and
offered it to Rogers, who hopped on it without hesitation to get back into the race. That in
itself is unheard of in professional racing. But this is the strange part about this story. Out of
thousands of other possibilities Roger's original bike and the one he borrowed from the side of
the road were identical in almost every aspect. Except for the custom paint job, the two bikes
share the same manufacturer, same module, and same size, and it came with compatible pedals as
well. What's even more mind-boggling about this, is that Adam Pyke, to whom the bike belongs,
happened to be at the perfect location on that 156 kilometers long stage where Rogers had the
mechanical problem. What are the possibilities? and he has always been an admirer of Michael Rogers
and Rogers is still sprinting on this bike at least he knows now his bike goes because that was
the sprint and a very valuable three seconds bonus. Rogers made a comeback that day, overtaking
the breakaway group and finishing second, with enough time advantage to claim the race
lead. And Michael Rogers is making sure he's got the race lead because he's getting a
second place, win bonus as well. So that will give him a clear lead overall and it's
all been done on a borrowed bicycle today. He ended up winning the Tour
Down Under the next day. He met with Adam after that stage and both were
interviewed to tell the story on live television. At first glance it looks like
one of those video game glitches. Some, jokingly, said that the wheel sunk into a
patch of quicksand. But this image is not fake. Taken by photographer Christian Hartmann at the
end of stage four of the 2010 Tour of Switzerland, this photo shows a moment before disaster.
Renshaw trying to set Cavendish up for the win, it's a headwind finish, he can't go too
early. Cavendish bounces out of here, Ciolek
gonna go for it, Cavendish goes in the middle Cavendish goes for the line. Is he gonna get this
one oh it's a massive crash on the finish line Haussler goes down, Cavendish goes down, Petacchi
takes the win, but they are all over the road. HTC's Mark Cavendish was going head-to-head
with his rival Heinrich Haussler in the sprint when their front wheels touched at well over 65
kilometers per hour. Look at this, Cavendish and Haussler there's nowhere to go, they just lean
on each other, and Cavendish at maybe 40 miles an hour Both went down in front of a charging
pack of riders resulting in a massive pileup. Haussler's wheel rode up on Cavendish's
wheel causing it to fold up, but it snapped back into shape in less than half
a second, in that moment, this shot was taken. In the slow motion replay, the carbon
fiber wheel seemed to spin normally, but it wasn't ridable after
undergoing such deformation. The overhead shot shows both riders moved
laterally towards each other, but Cavendish's movement was more dangerous. The race jury decided
to find him. Lucky for him he escaped with small cuts, but Haussler had to abandon with a deep
cut to his arm that required hospital treatment.
