How Not To Descend

I think there are a few shots in this highlights reel: 2019 Stage 3 Highlights - Cavagna takes it from the break - YouTube

Actually: that video is toss. 4:46 long, intro takes up the first 15 seconds, doesn’t actually show racing until a minute in, then at 3:36 it’s just post-race footage. :angry:

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“The stage was so long and hard. We rode full gas from the start, and when I sensed there was an opportunity, I jumped into the breakaway, where we worked really well together. Then, when I attacked, I felt I could go all the way. Ok, I was a bit scared on the downhill, because it was a very difficult one, but I remained calm and went as fast as I could there.” -Remi Cavagna

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Thanks. There was a short clip of him running off the road and in to the gravel. That was indeed a pretty terrible line

how bout a link? …

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https://twitter.com/i/status/1128433384009584641

Wow that’s some awful riding!

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That was the most painful descent to watch…

3:40 shows a little but, it doesn’t show where he went off the road. I can’t link the entire replay as you need a subscription.
https://www.nbcsports.com/video/highlights-remi-cavagna-wins-stage-3-tour-california

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I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he went over the top gassed, then got rattled and between the two never quite got over it. As he crossed the line it looked to me like he thought about sitting up and raising both arms but decided that maybe today was not the day for the that.

He won a pro tour stage, riding away by himself for a long time, he should have been tired. But yeah it was pretty scary watching him go downhill. And then Hoehn was eating and cruising down and I’m thinking man if you’d just seen the other guy you’d put that gel away…:joy:

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Thanks for the clip - my two cents when you’re tired af you’re not going to be able to make second split decisions as quickly and effectively. Yeah painful to watch but imagine attempting to do mildly technical descending between vo2 intervals on TrainerRoad…

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Don’t remember his name, but a few years ago there was a Euro Pro Tour rider who was scared of descending, so much so that it cost him a lot of time in races. He solved his problem by taking a car racing program. :man_shrugging:t2:

Try www.amgentourofcalifornia.com. Tour of California and Tour of Utah are (or have been) always available on line for free. You can watch each stage replay with profile tracking.

The descent in question is the same one where Toms Skujins crashed last year prompting the most dramatic 10 minutes of cycling viewing my house has ever seen. :wink: At one point somebody yelled to turn off the screen because we were ‘About to see this guy die!’

Anyhow. Wonder if that was on Cavagna’s mind while he was descending. He was definitely nervous about the road turtles and the road snakes on the way down.

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Lance Armstrong knows what to do when you run out of road! Love him or hate him there’s no denying this was fun to watch

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Thibaut Pinot. And I think it was rally cars in particular. He’s still not a great descender, but he is no longer bleeding time to other riders on the descents.

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I’m late to the thread, but if anyone hasn’t seen it, here’s a direct link to about 2 minutes of just the descent. It’s painful to watch. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/watch-remi-cavagnas-sketchy-descending-riding-tour-california-solo-victory-423502/amp

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direct link to short video of Quimby descent - doesn’t include earlier and equally scary Mt Hamilton descent:
https://twitter.com/AmgenTOC/status/1128433384009584641

Thanks for the post @KorbenDallas. Good stuff here.

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Oooof, that is bad. However, I imagine fatigue must be the #1 cause here.

I believe he was cross-eyed and blew a mental fuse. Right after cresting the summit/KOM of Mt Hamilton, he started the descent and couldn’t ride a straight line. It almost looked like he would fall off the bike before hitting the difficult switchbacks.

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This actually looks like descending Metcalf, not Quimby. I haven’t seen a video of him descending Quimby. Metcalf is another super-freaky descent–it is also very steep, and if you look away from the road you see the valley very far below, as well as a steep hillside on the left side as you descend. When I go down Metcalf, I have to just focus on the road. Quimby is also bad–as I said before, the switchbacks are super-tight, off-camber, and the road is screwed up and has weird bumps in it… but Quimby doesn’t give me quite the vertigo feeling that Metcalf does because it’s a bit more closed-in. But he does a horrible job going down Metcalf. I’m far from the best descender and I would do better than this!

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You know the area better! I just drive up and down 101 to visit customers in Morgan Hill :slight_smile: Looking at a map, sure looks like Metcalf where he went off road (it was final descent down to 101).