Originally Posted by YWoodman

Yes, I see that the thread is ancient...but, you know, it's all new to me.

So...yes, the poor schmuck is trying to jut the bicycle underneath him out in front of him so as to hit the finish line earlier than he otherwise would, if not for the jutting action. This makes it appear as if he is trying to transplant the saddle into his gut. It is, of course, based on the same notion as the track runner who learns his chest forward in order to break the tape a bit sooner than he would without the lean.

Of course, they are NOT AT ALL the same thing. The runner's lean is sensible and works. This is because the finish is, by rule, only official once the athletes chest has crossed the line...and because the chest is a part of the runner's body and that body can be leaned forward, i.e., extended into the future from the waist.

It does NOT, however, work with bicycles. And it is amazing to see these idiots actually trying. See, the bicycle is in motion, just like your automobile...rolling along

There exists no force, attached to the vehicle, than can cause it to jump forward. It cannot extend itself from itself. It can only move faster via moving its wheels faster.

A cyclist can do to nothing to improve his position except pedal. This is as absolute as the soundest laws of physics. Pushing a bicycle forward, while attached to it, is 100% impossible.

That riders so often attempt it is nothing short of displaying their incredible ignorance and unthinking stupidity to everyone. Not to mention the complete morons their coaches, trainers and loved-ones must be to have said nothing sensible enough to them to stop this wholly cartoonish finish-line spectacle. It amounts to nothing more than a fine example of the superstition that drives, still, a great deal of human behavior.

And in the middle of all the modern equipment that the pros have now...all the engineering and bleeding edge tech that has gone into their machines and training. And the incredible vast majority of persons involved in the sport simply can't help themselves from the numb-skull belief that a bicycle in motion could monkey push itself forward via any method other than increasing the pressure on the pedals that rotate the chain that drive the wheel that are its velocity.

The levity lies in the fact that, because they go through a pushing motion, riders only end up pushing themselves backward. They give themselves the appearance of stomaching their seats. From their point of view, however, like the rider on the train who doesn't sense that he is moving and gets the feeling that the station is moving as the train pulls away from it.

From the poor dumb cyclist's perspective, while it is he who is actually moving backward, his eyes tell his fabulously insufficient brains that the bicycle is moving forward. No dude! The bike isn't moving further forward, you are moving further back.