Pro Cycling Crashes: Is Tech To Blame?! | GCN Tech Show Ep. 368

I hate how all the blame is being placed on the racers. Race organizers could do a lot more work making courses safer. Reducing the number of motorcycles in the races would help, as would reducing the speed of the follow cars. Everyone’s commenting how the speeds have gone way up, yet the courses mostly have remained the same. Maybe they need to consider the increase in speed and redesign courses with that in mind to increase safety.

The complaint is that new tech is causing racing to become less safe, but do you still want to try this new disc front wheel? This just shows the natural tendencies of people to try something new and possibly better than what they already have. Accidents are just part of life and only so much can be regulated to reduce risk.

Winspace is one off the Carbon frame makers for the big brands. So now they are more and more into their own product

30:00 Bad idea to have the only brake to be upfront. In case of hopping off curves, or a chuck hole, or even an emergency stop. The bike will flip you off of it when you hit the brakes hard.

I wouldn't necessarily say the Race radios have made things safer. There is an argument for the opposite. When you have 22 face directors yelling at their rider or riders to move to the front of the peloton before the next turn/hill/bottleneck makes for some sketchy situations.

Speed doesn't kill; sudden deceleration sometimes does. Seems obvious to me that the best way to enhance safety is for every rider to know his or her limits and ride within them, but that's anathema to the concept of racing. Riders are encouraged and incentivized to take risks — that's what their salaries are all about. Fan control would be a huge boon to safety. Of course GCN can't say tech is making races unsafe — not the kinds of tech it sells anyway.

When I was racing in the 80's, steel frames and forks, toe clips and straps, these bike were very stable so not very many crashes. To make the sport safer today here is the list that need to be done, increase the weight 1 pound to help with stability, no rims over 30mm so breezy days won't push these bikes around, no less than 40cm bars for men and 38cm for women. Tires should be no less thank 28mm for tt, 30mm for mass start races and 32mm rain tires for wet days. I have been in the bike industry for over many years and would not be racing these bikes in mass start events for my own safety. Now they know this would help with lowering the crashes but the manufactures have such a big part of this to sell their high priced products, dollars first is the priority. Anyone who used to ride those bikes back in the day know how stable these bikes were at high speed.

To really unpack this there needs to be, if there is not one already, a study done on many different levels on what accidents happen, how they happened, you where they happen and how many people are involved. Because blaming speed might not be accurate, we're there more accidents on technical sections, on descents, when all this correlated then perhaps better ideas can be formulated.

Just to nitpick at Ollie's comment with the road safety videos, a car going at 30mph is carrying massively more kinetic energy than a cyclist at the same speed, so it's not quite the same. That said I actually think bike tech is becoming safer, it's really what the riders are choosing to do with their equipment that's the determinant

Put all the peloton on the same Fixie bike with the same gearing ! Mandatory change Fixie at the base of the hill, again at the top and again when you get on the flat !

That would certainly be interesting 🤣

The route/road and street furniture. These can be problematic.

Pro Cycling Crashes: Is cycling to blame? Well, yes ! Yes it is.

As a clinical exercise physiologist and former fat guy (466lbs) I know the absolute benefit of regular vigorous exercise…I think it's important to emphasize that resistance exercise as well as cardiovascular work is important in general health and weight loss.. fat loss. I'm not sure of the current literature on what maintenance of wht loss suggests
But I've come to know that regular vigorous exercise helps me maintain my wgt loss..improves my mood, blood sugar blood pressure…among the hundreds of other benefits…I love this type of content…. It hits close to home for me…because cycling and wgt loss have made my life so much better…I've gotten back everything I've put in to my efforts in losing wgt and cycling. Thanks Ollie!! You are a beast on the bike and a true nerd at heart and I appreciate you!

Ultimately, it’s the cyclist who controls how they use the technology. The tech itself isn’t inherently dangerous. For instance, a gun isn’t unsafe on its own, it depends on how it’s used. While technology can influence safety by making it easier or harder for riders to stay safe, I don’t believe it will be the primary solution to increasing safety in the peleton.

put road racing cyclists on 25 year old bikes and watch the safety stats improve.

I could be wrong, but most of the crashes I remember are due to bunch of riders (not necessary going at full speed) encountering some kind of obstacle (like road furniture or similar) and one of the riders makes a mistake (or have no where to go). Better (safer) race routes and riders which actually train themselves to handle “unexpected” conditions is the only way to make racing safer.

Not sure I get the point of that topeak tubeless tyre inflator….a co2 canister works perfectly at a fraction of the price….

It's not just speed, but there are a lot of crashes in wet conditions. They need to have wet condition tires and not ride on almost slicks going 70 in wet conditions.