Originally Posted by
caloso
I'm sorry, you have it exactly backwards. It's not a commitment to speed, it's a commitment to control. In the drops your center of gravity is lower, you have more leverage on the brake levers, and less chance of your hand slipping off. Not to mention you protect your bars from getting snagged by a rider who is alongside you. We teach our juniors that the only time you should be on the hoods if you're off the front, off the back, or just toodling along. Any time you're under stress, you should be in the drops.
Yes, but this was not a race and not even a tight group. And when you are using the road as your personal race course, things that apply in a race like protection from hooking bars and weighting the outside pedal and maximum velocity while cornering on a descent are not really important/smart in every situation. I don't recommend riding the fine line on rides. I have no problem with tearing around on a bicycle, I just leave a bit more of a buffer for the unknown when speed it is not really necessary.
To each his own. I have taken worse chances and have managed to survive so far...I feel for those riders and hope that I am not in a similar situation. Think if that was a family pushing a baby stroller around the inside of that corner, they would have crashed as well. Too much commitment.