We took away two important descending tools from the riders
- Supertuck
- Fake aero bars/puppy paws (i hate that term, carlton)
Do you think that riders would take less risk on turns if they could still do supertuck? Or would riders supertuck AND take big risks on hairpins?
Not blaming Mader or saying he took risks. But the incident made me think about risk management
I don’t think crashes have gone up since banning of the supertuck, so I’d say they would do both. If everyone does the supertuck then you still have to take risks in the corners to get the edge over others. Maybe alpine ski race netting like Vaughters is suggesting could help.
Trouble is, downhill ski courses are no longer than 5km. To fully secure cycling descents is many times more.
It is also really hard to design something good enough. Ski nets have several layers - how do you do that over a sharp drop. Making crashes safer will inevitably encourage more risks. A net that turns out to be inadequate could easily be worse than no net at all.
Maybe the big races could use their influence to add better security to roads generally, but I don’t see large-scale temporary netting to be anything other than a distraction.
I think they’d still take risks, but that said, it’s always been my opinion that
- Supertuck is ok as long as hands remain in drops (not on tops) that way controls are still accesible
- invisible aero bars are ok if you’re on the front, certainly if you’re solo
they already play the trade off game of going faster than others vs. crashing, whatever the mantadotory norms are.
