Originally Posted by
Homeyba
I think the person who came up with the coast down the hills theory was a skinny racer guy who had to work way too hard to try and stay with a clyde on a descent...
Hmmm, works for me and I hardly have a problem keeping up with a clyde on the descent!
I've had to many encounters, even with some skinnies (road or mtb) that think they can't beat me on a ride cause they claim to be great descenders. If I can beat a guy on a 3 mile climb by 5 minutes, no way is he going to pass me on the dh since he only beats me on the descent by 2 mintues working hard and I'm coasting in a tuck!
On along distance ride or descent (like The Bear) I do pedal even if it's a soft pedal to keep the legs from freezing up. I've preached that to our fellow clydes a million times, it works!
The conservation statement was directed to the guy I quoted which seems to be short hills so I stand by my comments. I've seen too many guys power down a 1/8 mile hill , then fade on the next 1/8 when they could have cranked the entire length if not for having wasted their energy on the dh.
...You see this a million times on organized rides with small rollers. You can pick out the good climbers cause they carry a consistent pace on rollers. Equally fast on the ups and downs displaying a nice consistent pace. The not so good climbers will go fast downhill then fade on every short incline looking very inefficient.
Any climbing /descending instruction or training I've ever read says that a rider doesn't gain much on the downhills. It's hardly worth it to WORK hard on a downhill than it is to tuck. Yes, you will gain some on a long descent with a huge gear but hardly enough to beat a climber in a race.
Remember, the people you have caught up and past in a race doesn't mean you are ahead of them depending on the start situation.
This year on The Bear I was caught and passed on the last semi flat stretch off the mountain by a train of some spiffy looking racers all in purty matching outfits. I saw them coming from a long ways back. Nice blue train!
....4 guys all in a nice rotation. I was doing 30 and they blew by me. As tempting as it looked, it's not my style to draft so I let them go by. As we pulled into the clock station, they were ahead of me getting times read. Turns out eventhough they blew by me on th dh, I beat every one of the 4 guys by 20 minutes! So IMO and experience, going fast downhill won't win a race for you. I hardly believe Lance won the TDF on the downhill
