Originally Posted by
terrymorse
Your presumption is that technical descents are the only situation that warrants the use of drops. I don't think that's the only situation. Off the top of my head, here are some others:
Okay, let’s break down your list.
“Emergency braking” is just what it implies. Done out of necessity without prior planning. Do you ride exclusively in the drops
at all times? Because if you don’t, then shifting your hands from the hoods to the drops takes at least some time that you could be using to apply the brakes from the hoods. This is an “emergency”, remember? Personally in those situations, I’m not thinking about “proper“ form. I’m thinking about not hitting whatever is causing the emergency. If I’m on the hoods, I’m braking from the hoods.
rough and uneven pavement
You’ve been shown lots and lots and lots of examples of professional racers racing on surfaces that are far worse than just uneven or rough pavement while on the hoods. Perhaps they have a better skill set than the average cyclist but I haven’t seen any of them in the video examples shifting their hand position in those situations.
poor visibility on unfamiliar roads
Um...huh? Most people are going to be more cautious on unfamiliar roads, never mind during poor visibility. They aren’t really going to be going that fast and need to be more upright to scan the road. Being down in the drops to get more aerodynamic advantage isn’t really a priority in that situation.
And how is that going to help in a crosswind? Your surface area isn’t any different from the side when down in the drops than when upright.
That’s more of a racer thing. Even then there are examples of people sprinting from the hoods and winning a race. Perhaps it’s bad form but last I checked, bicycle racing doesn’t award points for style and/or artistic merit. Most of the rest of us aren’t going to be sprinting to win a race in the first place.