4d ago

“Why the hell am I not wearing hockey equipment?” – pro rider calls for safety gear at Tour de France

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“Why the hell am I not wearing hockey equipment?” – pro rider calls for safety gear at Tour de France | BikeRadar

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Always wondered why “dress for the slide, not the ride” didn’t apply to bicycles.
- You are the power source for your travel on a bike, you need to be able to dump heat. Also generally the top speed isn't all that high
  
  I mean, I have worn some pretty breathable crotch rocket gear in the middle of summer. I get where everyone is coming from with needing to dissipate heat from a human powered mode of transportation, and keep it as light as possible, but simply saying “no protection cause speed must be fast” is just not a phrase that makes sense with today’s and tomorrow’s technology and textiles.
  
  But it kind of is? The Tour de France is really a different beast from you riding around - they are averaging at over 41km/h for the whole tour with all those brutal climbs. You can imagine how fast they are going at flat sections. They are reaching 100km/h+ at descents.
  But even for me as a unfit guy the speeds can get crazy. If I go down the hills around here and if I do not brake, I will reach 70km/h+ easily. Which is kind of insane just wearing a helmet and short lycra clothes.
- At the pro level, adding 100 watts to your apparel just won't work.
  For commuters, reducing comfort, increasing sweat, and spending more just doesn't fly. It's hard enough to get people to wear helmets.
  Same as above for recreational riders.
  I say that as someone who wore full on motorcycle equipment while riding an e-scooter that could go 50km/h, but I kept it legal at under 25 km/h. Overkill to the max.
  It's challenging enough to dress comfortably and without sweating too much while cycling normally. I can't imagine adding an armored jacket or pants to the mix. MTB and downhill riders do wear stuff like that, though.
  
  If safety equipment was mandatory at the pro level like it is on MTB, everyone would have that added increase. More research and development would go into lighter, breathable, rip proof fabric and lightweight, aerodynamic hard protection. Sure, time would go down, but I don’t see why you should sacrifice safety and health for a few seconds off your times.
  
  Change the rules, the sport will adapt as will the training adapt to the changes in equipment.
  I agree it's a bit dumb but they're absolutely cooking out there. If they want it, let them have it, or those that want to, allow them to.
Some people used to laugh that I wore JoeRocket motorcycle gloves for my bicycle commute to work, and in colder weather I would don large leather motorcycle pants. (And low friction shorts over top because seat leather on pant leather is horrible)
But they work and after a high side flip turning downhill, it was the gloves ruined and not my hands.
And the motorcycle pants had thick hip padding.
- Good call on the gloves, I took that same downhill header and broke both my hands, a bunch of fingers, and lost a lot of skin. Highly recommend motorcycle gloves if you're planning to go fast
  
  Or just MTB gloves. I don't leave home without those on bicycle
Because I am pretty sure you're not gonna be hit by sticks, pucks, or slammed into walls by the other riders?
Though, now that you bring it up... I wanna see that version of the race. Road Rash it up! I'd go with the chain. The chain was the best weapon.
Can't wait to see what interesting aero designs they would come up with for knee and elbow pads.
But also I could see this increasing the aggressiveness in the peloton similar to how american football impacts are harder and more injury prone than rugby impacts because american football players wear much more protective gear than rugby players.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_compensation
  a theory which suggests that people typically adjust their behavior in response to perceived levels of risk, becoming more careful where they sense greater risk and less careful if they feel more protected.
  
  It is a theory, but as you read the article you discover many of the examples given have not checked out.
Quite a bit of environmental storytelling in that photo.
A couple of years ago they were talking about some of the teams implementing Dyneema sections into parts of the jersey where road rash was most common, or problematic.
Haven't heard a peep about it since.
Cause you'll be slower, pretty fucking obvious.
- He addresses that directly. He says that there's absolutely no point in telling competitors to take fewer risks if risky behaviour is faster, so you need to regulate for safety
  
  No, you really shouldn't, aside from spectators. If you've decided it's too unsafe for you, repsect that and take up curling.
  I am specifically talking about competition.
  I'd never do cave diving for example, i definitely don't want others to stop doing it becase i think its unsafe though.
From what I can read the argument is mandatory safety gear.
Terrible article but great point.

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