Being that I ride touring gearing, how is it that the guys have gears low enough to climb the "bonnet" and can still pedal on a 50-60 mph descent?

Well they can also put a larger chainring on the front, maybe 54-56 tooth and I'm guessing 10-11 for a smallest cog in the back. Of course on the other end of the gearing, you have to realize that these guys can climb an alpine col in a gear that would make me struggle when I ride to the post office. :lol:

there's an old saying that 43x19 is the gear of champions


the real climbers on the Tour are turning gears that would snap the legs off normal people. That's why they are such light built riders.

and if you watch riders on a long decent, they aren't always pedalling on those fast parts, they are tucked up like a downhill skier.

If you look at the fastest speed thread you get a lot of people around topping out between 45 and 55, with some up into the 60s. I would assume most are doing it on a standard set up.

I would guess most of the tour riders are doing it on a double that is 53/39 and have a cassette that might be 25/11. Remember these guys go up mountains at over 10 mph. I figure i could handle about 2 mph on those, as I pushed my bike up.

You can find their gearing just by checking out the high end gruppo cassette make-up.

I think for the most part it's somewhere between 25-11 or 10.

They are also pro riders so that means they can mash the heck out of some gearing combinations that make my knees tremble!