Best bike handling skills in the pro peleton
 

Who do you think has the best:
Accident avoidance skill,
Bike tricks skill,
Smoothest spin,
Best out of saddle technique,
Best overall?

Please don't tell me it's LA

Not sure about overall, but as for sprinters I would say Robbie needs consideration. He has a better ability to weave through high speed traffic at the end of races than anyone I have seen. That surely takes some excellent handling skills.

Rassmussen?

Why him?

Flandis can wheelie on a road bike. THAT is commendable.

:lol:

Flat ground:

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...8/flandis2.jpg

Steeeeep ground:

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...18/flandis.jpg

No hander:

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...8/flandis3.jpg

Kinda hard to beat that. Floyd wins.:)

I can just imagine the team rides:

Team rider #1: "OK guys, let's go, go, go!!"

Floyd: "Naw, naw, wait! Check this out! *does wheelie*

Team rider #1: "Yes, Floyd, that's great, but it won't win you the Tour de France."

Floyd: "Yeah, I know, we have drugs for that! Plus, it'll win me Cypress' undying respect."

Team rider #1: "Damn, you win again!"

:D:D:D:D

McEwen comes from a BMX Backgroud, Floyd from a Mtn Bike Background. Robbies does wheelies too, usually as he crosses the top of the mountains. tough to say, but McEwen mixes it up head to head, banging bodies with guys much bigger than him at 45mph. and i can;t ever remember him falling either. IM sure he has, we all have, i just dont remember ever seeing it.

I know you don't want to hear LA, but he was pretty fearless.

Stephen Roche could go from the back of the peloton to the front, just by weaving his way through holes and never having to push a bit of wind. Cool as ice he was.

Descenders include Yates and Salvodelli.

McEwen is tops for sprinters at the moment.

He was the world mountain biking champion. Takes some handling skills. These guys like Floyd, Rasmussen and McEwen really are showing how valuable skills from other styles of riding can be.

Yeah, but i think the Peng was making fun of his atrocious TT in stage 20 of the 2005 TdF, the guy crashed like 4 times, and lost his podium spot, which I think he would have lost anyways, but he did keep the KoM jersey.

It can be very difficult to tell who has handling skills. They are only on display when you are close to the limit and in general this is something to avoid. Tricks like Floyd doing wheelies means little.

That said, don't forget that when he needed the time Floyd put time into everyone on the final downhill on stage 17 in the last TDF.

Armstrong did show some pretty good skills when needed. He displayed them rarely, he did an excellent job in avoiding situations where he was at the edge. But in that crash where he cut across a switchback he showed he has the skills in the rare cases that he did need them.

Great pix, Cypress! The LA/Floyd mtb (Leadville 100) should be quite a showdown!

Ridley had a pic of Robbie doing a wheelie after the last TdF stage and holding up three fingers in a late summer ad campaign. Saw it on the back of CycleSport, but can't find an image.

Here's one from the Lotto/Domo days. Note the bandage on his left shin. We all fall sometime, for sure.

http://www.sdbc.org/photos/albums/us...en_wheelie.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...818/mcewen.jpg
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...18/mcewen2.jpg

One handed:

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m...en_wheelie.jpg

My vote goes out to either McEwen or Landis.

I lose. lol

LA's Awsome display yes, we have all seen the L.A. crash avoidance cut accross the switch back. :)

Floyd's downhill capabillities are tops, can anyone match it. His trick moves rock and they make him fast too:D

Track star moves and snaking up through the peleton in the sprint the way R.M. can is classic.

don't worry. i'll get disqualified for high levels of IPA after they test me later this afternoon.

I think Salvodelli is a better descender than Floyd although neither of them
are anywhere near as good as JaJa was.

McEwan probably has the best handling skills of any rider in the peloton
currently.
Spin? I dunno Zabriski has to be pretty smooth, but LA was always smooth
no matter how stressed he appeared.

marty

Eddy was also a pretty good decender. His epic stage 17 ride in 69 started when he put seconds on the rest of the lead group on the next to last climb and added a minute on the decent.

With some of the best riders decending skills get overlooked. They are seldom needed and also don't stand out from the other abilities.

Hell, Salvodelli won his second Giro on the strength of his descending skills. He had the race lost on the last climb, and came back to win by making up a minute or down on the way down to the finish.

I would say Robbie then Floyd but Robbie himself claims Frederic Moncasson could put his bike anywhere he wanted to (except in front of Robbie apparently)