Originally Posted by
Seattle Forrest
Depends. Some downhills are like roller derby and don't take much more skill than watching a toy roll away, others have tight corners that separate the men from the boys. It's definitely not true that all descents take a lot of skill.
Also, the key word here is skill. Riding your bike up a hill doesn't take much skill. It takes stamina, fitness, and perseverance, but not skill; a descent full of switchbacks doesn't take a lot of cardio fitness, it takes finess. And this forum likes to focus on the ra ra meat-head mentality you find in the weight room at the gym. So technical descents don't get much love here.
No disagreement, really, from a card-carrying coffin-dodging troll or whatever, except for one thing: people aren't likely to get seriously injured on a climb, unless it makes them blow through a red light or something.
Descending quickly can take a lot of skill, which the average recreational cyclist is not likely to possess. Turning it into a race is asking for serious injury.
Now I'm cool with it. Serious injury is loads fun, to be sure.
The analogy is that anyone can put down some cash and buy a high performance auto, but putting him on a racetrack is just asking for an injury unless he knows how to drive the thing.
Putting someone with a dentisr bike on top of a steep chicane-riddled descent, intent on winning a Strava segment, is just asking for trouble.
Again, I don't want to be a kill-joy. Trouble is gnarly, especially if someone tapes it and posts it on youTube.