![]() Bugno beat Greg LeMond who would go on to win the Tour.Ĩ. This was Bugno’s second success on the Alpe, and he became the first rider to climb the Alpe in under 40 minutes.ħ. The first – and now only – American winner on the Alpe.Ħ. This was 30-year-old Conti’s first ever professional win.ĥ. Eros Poli had won the day before on Mont Ventoux and now another gregario had his day. This is generally agreed to be the record ascent at 37 minutes and 35 seconds, and was Pantani’s first stage win in the Tour.Ĥ. The pirate won 19 months after an accident at Milan–Turin which would have ended the career of many riders – he suffered multiple compound fractures to his left leg.ģ. Guerini got up, hopped back on his bike and was so far ahead he still won the stage.Ģ. The Italian climber was knocked off his bike by a young German photographer – eager to take a photo. The 21 signs on the 21 hairpin bends each bear the names of the riders who have won on the most glamorous mountain in cycling:ġ. Christophe Riblon is the most recent winner – in 2013 he won the historic “double d’Huez” stage in the Tour de France when the Alpe was climbed twice in the same stage. Lance Armstrong’s name is not, though he won there twice – the Alpe doesn’t acknowledge some of its miscreants. Fausto Coppi’s name is there – he was the first to win on the Alpe. Your prize for winning the stage? Your name on a sign at one of those famous lacets. First climbed in 1952, its 21 hairpins (or lacets) loop their way from the village of Bourg-d’Oisans to the ski resort at the summit. The Alpe d’Huez is probably the most famous mountain climb in cycling and certainly the most glamorous in the Tour de France, where it was the scene of the first ever mountaintop finish in the race. YOU SAY > ALP – DOO – EZ (rhymes with fez) Somewhat bizarrely, the Dutch and Belgian fans shout “hop” at their riders. Equivalents include vai in Italian and venga in Spanish. WHAT IT MEANS > Go! Come on! Allez is the universal expression of cycling encouragement, shouted from French roadsides since 1868 when Englishman James Moore won a 1200-metre race on at the Parc de Saint-Cloud, Paris. YOU SAY > AL (rhyme with pal) – AY (rhymes with hey!) If Laurent Fignon had worn a cap he would have won the Tour.”Īerodynamics. Get into a good aerodynamic tuck and you’ll scythe through the air like a Cavendish or a Wiggins – or you’ll go faster, anyway.īLUFF FACT > “In the decisive time trial at the end of the 1989 Tour de France, Greg LeMond used aero bars and an aero helmet. The rule is: the flatter you can get on the bike, the better. The bigger you are, the higher that percentage goes, which is why so many of today’s professional cyclists are so skinny, giving them a far better power to weight ratio and better aerodynamics. ![]() Position – this is the biggest single factor in the rider-plus-bike-versus-wind equation, as a cyclist’s body accounts for 70–80% of drag. Aero helmets work by smoothing the shape your head makes and improving airflow around it and make a significant time saving in a time trial – a small price for looking like an alien. This is the reason cyclists wear clothing that’s as streamlined and form-fitting as possible.Īero bars and helmet – aero bars protrude straight out from the front of the bike and you can rest your entire forearm on them and lie flatter on the bike, which helps to shrink the ‘wall’ your body presents to the wind in front: less wind slams into your body, and more flows over. Imagine going swimming fully clothed and the effort you need to expend to get through the water the same is true of a cyclist passing through air if less immediately appreciable. There are several key factors to making a cyclist more aerodynamically efficient:Ĭlothing – Team Sky have popularised the use of skinsuits for time trials, where aerodynamics are of huge importance, with individual cyclists riding alone against the clock, with no rider or peloton in front to take the brunt of the wind. ![]() Minimising drag is the key for making a cyclist go faster, and cycling teams often spend a significant amount of money sending riders into wind tunnels to measure how aerodynamic they are. Even though you feel you’re moving forward, wind drag is always pulling you backwards. ![]() In order to cut through the air with maximum efficiency you need to be as aerodynamic as possible in order to reduce the drag effect that wind creates. When a rider is forced to climb off his bike during a race because of illness or injury, he “abandons” and may end up in the broom wagon (see B).Ī cyclist’s greatest enemy is wind (no, not that kind). ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |