
Slow and steady wins the race, but in cycling, as in all sports, speed is the first and last goal. Today's cycling is extremely fast: impatient young riders who put themselves in escape mode to put on a show. However, today's cycling is also characterized by too many crashes, some of which are very serious and painful. The cycling world and its governing bodies are questioning this trend. Today, Piero Mei in Il Messaggero carefully addresses this delicate issue.
"The first Giro d'Italia races were run at speeds between 25 and 29 kilometers per hour," writes Mei, "the 2024 edition recorded an average of 41.86. The peak speed in the last Tour de France was 130 km/h: downhill, agreed. But in neck-breaking zones."
Something needs to be studied, reflections and evaluations are underway: experimentation is being discussed. "The experimentation - during this season, the race is to be defined, Mei adds - was announced, albeit with some perplexity, by David Lappartient, the 5-year-old French politician, recent unsuccessful candidate for the IOC presidency (4 votes), who is the president of the UCI, the body that governs world cycling. And among the future measures to defuse the explosive 'speed-accident' mixture that looms over ordinary car traffic, taking the top statistical spot among causes of mortality, this idea of slowing down emerges, somewhat like a 'zone 30' cycling, which contradicts the 'citius', go faster, the first word of the Olympic motto 'citius, altius, fortius'. A kind of airbag is also being studied, like those used by car, motorcycle, and horse riders, but it seems difficult to imagine something light or extremely light to wear when the sun is beating down and you're coming down from the mythical Ventoux where not a blade of grass or a tree leaf grows."
The bicycle is under the magnifying glass. Ever faster and more performant, it is clearly the object of study. "It's the bicycle on which 'braking' solutions are being sought. And here the famous 'ratios', braquet in French, come into play," Mei explains. "The 'ratios' concern the gearshift, a device of Italian invention that makes it possible to extend the meters covered per pedal stroke with the chain moving from one rotor to another. The larger they are, the faster you go, but also the more tiring the pedaling. Now, reducing the device, or another devilry (like the pit limiter button in Formula One?), will propose other innovations: the pedaling frequency, which will become faster since one rotation will be less demanding, and with the pedaling frequency, even the posture in the saddle might change, whether standing on the pedals or seated. And therefore, by deduction, different training for different movement. 'All to go slower?'" Perhaps, because who goes slowly...