Vino

Guys who grew up in mountainous regions are often fantastic, because they learned how to descend as small kids, before they learned to over-analyze things (and while they still felt indestructible).

Thor Hushovd (add him to your list) seems to be an exception to this rule, though if you look at googlemaps, it looks like the terrain gets pretty “lumpy and bumpy” within 5 miles from his coastal town-of-origin. (No terrain contour lines yet, so I’m not sure about the absolute heights, but the local pix show hills and some steep and snowy streets.)

Contador (no random flames from saying his name—perhaps we should write it as C*ntad*r, when we don’t want to invite general polemica?) is also pretty good for his size.

Small guys have more wind problems—including the airspeed in a descent. Less weight means more maneuverability, but less chance to use that weight to good effect, too (to stick hard in a well-banked turn, for example).

and he’s probably one of the lightest-weight riders in the peloton.

RE: Cancellara – I was just thinking along these lines a couple days ago watching the Worlds RR replay. On some of those overhead shots, you can see Cance gapping guys coming out of corners on the descents, so I think he’s definitely at the top of the list. Remember how he handled the somewhat technical London prologue? Not a descent I know, but bike handling on a TT rig – dude’s got skeeelz.

Another thought occurred to me, it wasn’t that far out of line to consider him a favorite for the “Worlds Double”. He’s relatively young and entering his prime bike-racing years. I think we might be witnessing the new standard for “all-rounders”.

One last thought, don’t count out LA’s descending prowess. He may not be up there with Sam San, but I’d say he’s on par with Simoni. We’re just not used to seeing it, cuz he usually has 8 guys in front of him.

while he was commentating on Eurosport a year or so ago – that the best descenders are actually the sprinters.

Of course, no-one ever gets to see them descending, because they’re in the grupetto, about 40 minutes back from the contenders.

Regardless of how great one’s descending skills are, the opportunities to make a race on the downhill are just too far and too inbetween. The bad descenders, in my opinion, are much more prone to impact the outcome of a race.

Lombardia last year.

One of my favourite bits of descending this year was Nibali on the Colombière, i think it was, though I’ve just been looking & couldn’t find any video, shame, as apart from anything else it was rather amusing watching him niggling away at Armstrong, as I recall. But great descending too.

cycling needs to have a descending contest at the Worlds. That would so cool to see the sprinters & other bests get to go all out. Only the best could compete. A camera on each rider the entire way down and keep it short enough so only one rider would be on the course at a time. Must be a dry, well maintained road.

Its a plan!

and here’s the video of it.

The one that comes to mind is the guy who stood atop the podium at the end of the 06 TdF. That guy was a good descender as well as a cheat. Seems that the mountain bike guys have to deal with loose gravel as well as the fall line. Put ’em on hard pavement where their tires stick and they fly.

Hincapie can bomb it when he needs to. An otherwise flat stage with a giant hill in the middle will get him going downhill fast. He might get dropped on the hill but he seems to be pulling his team by the time they get to the bottom.

The day after the tour descended into Bourg St Maurice L’Equipe did a whole page on “Descentes aux Enfers” (Descents into Hell) – which sadly I did not find on their site to link to. As part of this they did a small feature (headlined as above) in which they asked the DS/ADS of each team in the tour to name the three best descenders in the peloton. The results:

First – Hushovd – 10 votes, Joint Second – Cance & SamSan – 6 votes,
Joint Fourth – LuLu And H Haussler – 4 votes; Chavanel, Di Luca, Popo – 3 votes
Garzelli, Nibali, Dumoulin, Lequatre, Van Hummel, Bertolini, Eisel – 2 votes;
Valverde, Voeckler, Bonnet, Dean, Lancaster, Furlan, Rosseler – 1 vote.

And who voted for who:
Cervelo (Van Poppel) Haussler, Thor, Dean
Lotto (Frison) Van Hummel, Cance, Thor
Astana (Gallopin) Cance, SamSan, Popo
Saxo (Anderson) Lulu, SamSan, Thor
Rabo (Breukink) Lulu, SamSan, Thor
Garmin (Marie) Chavanel, Lequatre, Garzelli
Euski (Galdeano) SamSan, Nibali, Popo
Columbia (Holm) Cance, Eisel, Lulu
AG2R (Lavenu) Dumoulin, Haussler, DiLuca
FDJ (Gayant) Cance, Thor, Haussler
Liqui (Chiesa) Nibali, Garzelli, Thor
CdE (Ledanois) Chavanel, LuLu, Dumoulin
BBox (Rous) Cance, Thor, Bonnet
Cof (Deleoil) DiLuca, Chavanel, LuLu
Lampre (Baldato) Bertolini, Popo, Furlan
QSI (Peeters) Rosseler, DiLuca, Thor
Kat (Parsani) SamSan, Valverde, Voeckler
Agri (Hubert) Lequatre, Haussler, Eisel
Milram (Algeri) Thor, Lancaster, Bertolini
Skil (Kemna) Van Hummel, Lulu, Thor

The results
1st – Moncoutie – 12 votes, 2nd – Schleck, F – 7 votes, 3rd – Soler – 6 votes
4th – Anton – 4 votes, Joint 5th – Basso, Moinard – 3 votes
2 votes each for – Di Gregario, Kern, Szmyd
1 vote each for – Leipheimer, A Schleck, Menchov, Evans, Voigt, Wiggins, Casar, Vogondy, Rolland, Roy, Perget, CA Sorensen, Schierlinchx, Cuesta, Hansen, de weert, Terpstra.

A surprising number of DS’s incriminated their own men as follows:
Saxo was the nominee of both Voigt and CA Sorenson
Liqui – Szmyd & Basso, Lotto – Scheirlinckx, Euski – Anton, FDJ – Roy, CdE – Perget, QSI – de Weert, Agri – Vogondy, Milram – Terpstra, Cof – Moncoutie. And one that nearly counts Lampre – Szmyd

ah, always one of my favs….

desending and just great overall bike handling skills. You don’t win 7 tours with no crashes (except uphill due to a musette bag) without being able to descend. I would also say sprinters in general are good descenders. They generally are big and fearless, and no how to handle the bike. Guys like Thor that can climb a little too, can make up time. O’Grady is very skilled at this as well.

I seem to recall Sean Yates was scary good going downhill, but could someone confirm this?

Cancellara descent on stage 7

Hollentour hell on wheels

~:>

camera mounted on handlebars

And I’m not having much luck with live video this morning.

Bettini – 2006 Giro di Lombardia
Savoldelli – 2008 Milan San Remo
Sanchez – 2004/2005 Paris Nice