Giro: Steep Hills, Skinny Tires and Guts

Steep Hills, Skinny Tires and Guts

Contenders at Cycling's Giro d'Italia Must Master the Descents; Learning How to Crash Properly

by Wall Street Journal



This year, the major contenders for the overall win at the Giro d'Italia, the elite stage race that began Saturday, are Italy's Ivan Basso, Levi Leipheimer of the U.S. and Italy's Damiano Cunego. All three are closely matched, setting the stage for one familiar difference maker in the Giro: The descent.



Of all feats in sports, few are as harrowing as this: Carving down a mountain at 60 miles per hour in a pack of 15-pound bicycles with tires as wide as a roll of Scotch tape, while wearing only a thin layer of lycra. Hitting the brakes can send a rider flying, and a mistake in the wrong place can lead to death.



"The worst thing you can do is start thinking about the 'what ifs,' " says Frankie Andreu, a former professional cyclist and Tour de France commentator for Versus.



Cyclists say the true key to descending is, basically, to adopt a certain sense of fatalism. Most expect to eventually take a spill going extremely fast downhill, and some even practice falling correctly to avoid broken bones. The unknown variable is guts -- that sense of invincibility that gives professionals who started when they were fearless teenagers a distinct advantage.



"It's a question of courage," says Sean Yates, a former professional cyclist and now a director of the Astana cycling team.



At no major race is the art of descending on a bicycle more important than at the Giro. The Tour of Italy's steep, narrow slopes, often filled with potholes, gravel and oil, are treacherous to descend. The steep grades of 9% or greater tend to give smaller riders an advantage going up, but the most daring riders an advantage going down. The Tour de France, by contrast, has more gradual climbs and more sweeping turns, the result of more modern road construction. The fact that the Giro is held in May means there are chances of extremely cold weather, even snow, on the course's mountain passes.



"It's an amazingly important aspect of cycling," says Jonathan Vaughters, director of Team Garmin-Slipstream, which is racing in the tour of Italy.



This year's Giro, a tradition that began 100 years ago, isn't as mountainous as usual. The organizers opted for fewer of the climbs that are its trademark. And with last year's winner, Spaniard Alberto Contador, gone, the field is wide open. Lance Armstrong, recovering from collar bone surgery, says he is there to help out Mr. Leipheimer, his teammate, who finished second last year.



The Giro's best descender in a generation was Paolo Savoldelli, known for his almost suicidal downhill drives. Mr. Savoldelli famously made up time on his rival Gilberto Simoni on the Colle delle Finestre descent to win the closely contested Giro in 2005. His ability to swoop through the turns so much faster than his competition was stunning, earning him the nickname "Il Falco," or The Falcon. Mr. Yates, who has followed Mr. Savoldelli's career, says he never figured out how Mr. Savoldelli did it: "He wasn't an insane type of bloke."



Mr. Savoldelli agrees, saying he was more calculating than crazy. "The Giro has tight curves and lots of them where, if you know what you're doing, you can clip off an opponent at the right moment," he says. "I was a little bit better at it and I was always very precise. I never went above what I knew I could handle on those curves."



Because the tires on racing bikes are so thin and have so little surface area on the ground, riders say they need as much weight pressing down on the center of the bike as possible. Professional cyclists lean the bike over to the inside of a turn, but keep their body weight upright, pressing down on the outside pedal. At high speeds, braking actually becomes dangerous because it causes the tires to lose traction and wobble. Braking too much also causes heat, which can melt glue on the rims, causing tires to detach. To descend well, experts say, riders need exceptional hand-eye coordination to handle the unpredictable nature of descending without panicking. Mr. Yates calls it "soft focus," or the ability to see the whole road, and all potential obstacles at once, while staying firmly concentrated on technique.



Descending is almost impossible to practice. Because roads in big professional races are completely blocked off, cyclists use the entire road to gain speed and turn, using the maximum amount of space. When training, cyclists can only use half the road, because the other side is reserved for oncoming traffic. "You kind of just have to learn it in races," says Mr. Vaughters, who says having a "descending camp" with blocked roads might be helpful.



Before races, some riders scout the course and take notes. But in some descents -- which can take more than an hour -- there is no way to memorize every switchback and every turn. Mr. Yates says he used to try and predict turns based on the pace motorcycles in front of him -- particularly when their brake lights went on -- and the angle at which they were leaned over.



Andy Hampsten, the only American ever to win the Giro d'Italia, says he learned to descend as a young rider from people like Greg LeMond and legendary Polish coach Eddie Borysewicz. Mr. Borysewicz didn't just teach descending skills, though. He also taught Mr. Hampsten and other juniors how to do the inevitable: crash.




Mr. Hampsten would do tumbling drills where he would jump in the air and learn how to soften his fall with his arm. Mr. Borysewicz showed him how to roll, rather than slide, on the ground while keeping his hands wrapped around his head. (They rarely wore helmets in the mountains back then.) "It was actually was one of the major reasons I could relax about taking risks and overcoming the fear of falling," says Mr. Hampsten.



That training came in handy during the 1988 Giro, when Mr. Hampsten gained time on his rivals going up the Gavia Pass during a snowstorm. With the roads covered in snow and ice, Mr. Hampsten says he descended so much faster than his rivals that he widened his gap on the 25-kilometer descent, securing his historic win. "I just rode as hard as I could. I'm a bike racer, and that day it snowed and I just had to do my best," he says.



Photo: Chris Horner descending; looking ahead, in the drops, fingertips on brakes, inside leg up, outside leg down and weighted. For descending tips see:
http://italiancyclingjournal.blogspot.com/2009/04/4-ways-to-become-better-descender.html



After the Giro we'll get back to "regular programming": everything from A to Z about Italian cycling. Stories, including cycling trip stories, for the Italian Cycling Journal welcome; contact veronaman@gmail.com

4 Ways to Become a Better Descender

Back on April 10th we blogged about "5 Ways to Become a Better Climber" (http://italiancyclingjournal.blogspot.com/2009/04/5-ways-to-become-better-climber.html). If you've worked hard to be able to climb faster it only makes sense to work on your descending skills as well. Here are some coaching tips from Thomson Bike Tours (http://www.thompsonbiketours.com/):

Getting down the mountain one has just climbed is half the fun of climbing it — if one goes about it the proper way, that is. Are you white-knuckled after the first turn? If so, then read on... Are you fearless, but find yourself leaving skin on the mountain a little too often? If so, then read on carefully!

The roads in Europe are fantastic, fabulous in the most literal sense; they are very well engineered (better than most in the Americas), and getting down them can really heighten the experience of a Euro cycling trip. That said, there are certain rules of descending that act in accord with the laws of physics, and are therefore best well respected. Follow these simple rules, and learn to employ them—cautiously at first!—and you'll increase your speed and fun factor considerably.

Rule 1): Look ahead!

This sounds simple enough, but most people get into trouble by ignoring this obvious caveat. There are many things that can distract on a descent: e.g., potholes, other riders, splendid vistas, cute animals, a fast approaching concrete barrier, etc. The key is to look where you want to go, and nowhere else. Of course, if something unanticipated arises, you may need to adjust where you want to go, but the rule holds and is worth restating: always, always look ahead and look where you want to go.

Rule 2): Hand positioning.

When you begin a steep or twisty descent, it's best to be in the drops (even if you otherwise never use that part of your handlebar). Your center of gravity is lower, your back is (for the most part) flatter, and your steering is more controlled. The safest, most reliable position is in the drops. Some like to remain upright out of habit. It's best to train oneself to use the drops when going down hill. Some like to get super aero on the tops, nose skimming the front tire and all, but this is dangerous (for the practitioner and those around him/her). Good tuck in the drops allows for a lower center of gravity, and wider purchase for greater leverage in crosswinds and through corners, and better access to the brakes for speed control.

Rule 3): Braking.
a) Where descending is concerned, brakes are meant to slow you, not stop. As such, your brakes should be adjusted to the size of your hands. If your brakes are set up to engage from the moment you pull the lever in, your hands will tire quickly, and the rest of the way down the mountain will be no fun. You should be able to "cover the brakes", keeping them partially engaged but with little or no pad/rim contact until your fingers are partially bent, thereby allowing greater use of hand strength.
b) Control your speed (note: this is a preemptive idea [see "Cornering" below]).
c) Use the rear brake more than the front. Both should be used, but keep in mind the front has much more slowing power than the rear. When you slow too quickly, your weight is thrust forward, and your center of gravity changes unpredictably (esp. on steep hills). Feather the front brake and keep the rear from skidding.

Rule 4) Cornering.

This is, of course, the best and the worst part of descending, depending on your perspective.
a) See Rule 1 above: Look ahead! You must control your speed before entering the turn, so as to limit any emergency braking. Therefore, as you approach the turn (be it a sweeper or a switchback) you should slow to a speed to which you feel certain you can negotiate the corner. So look ahead, and control speed.
b) Be sure that your outside pedal is down, and that your weight is planted firmly on that pedal (more on this below).
c) Always, always, always look to the inside apex of the turn, whether it be the centerline, the shoulder, or some imaginary line. This is because the G forces will always pull you to the outside of the turn, so keeping your eye on the inside will help you stay on course.
d) Enter the turn a little wide, and then cut it in tight and hold it as tight as possible (tighter is usually better, as the Gs will pull you out anyway), and then exit the turn as tightly as you can given your speed.
e) Once you have entered the turn, you should practice letting off the brakes. This is a tough skill to master, but it works wonders. If you do need to use your brakes, you should feather the front, and apply the rear with moderation, lest the rear wheel skid and slide sideways. The front deserves special attention. (Think about this: if you grab a fist full of front brake, the body continues to move forward as the bike slows, and this sudden change in weight distribution sets up all sorts of undesirable scenarios. Also, when the rotation of the steering [i.e., front] wheel slows suddenly, traction changes, too, and rather unpredictably at that.) So, just as in a car, you should brake before the turn, let the wheels roll through the turn, and then accelerate out of the turn, carrying speed until the next set-up.
f) When in doubt, lean it more. A bicycle can lean much farther than an untrained rider will generally let it lean. If you find yourself in a little trouble (which you shouldn't because you've been controlling your speed, right?!), it's far better to lean it, than to hit the brakes and bail out. "Bailing" (refusing/failing to commit 100%) in a turn does a number of bad things; most importantly, it can send you into oncoming traffic, and/or cause you to straighten up suddenly, thereby throwing your weight forward and off center (think of yourself as though you're a plumb-line on your bike, and your weight stays more or less anchored), and when one's weight is thrown off the likelihood of "high-siding" is increased tenfold. To commit 100% to your turn you may have to employ "counter-steering" technique, which is accomplished by pushing on the inside of the handlebar as you simultaneously weight the outside pedal (see above), keeping the knees braced inward. This takes practice, and should be tried incrementally, not all at once at high speeds. Once this technique is mastered, however, it is very, very difficult to crash, because you're using the laws of physics in your interests, not simply charging downhill and hoping for the best.
g) Finally, when it's wet, respect the roads! European roads can be very slick when wet.

Follow these simple rules, be careful and enjoy your descents

Photos: looking down the Stelvio

Stories, including cycling trip stories, for the Italian Cycling Journal welcome; contact veronaman@gmail.com