Tag Archives: descending

Port de Balês: descent

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I posted on the on the Port de Balês climb, which will be part of the potentially decisive Stage 15 of this year’s Tour de France.

Alex Murray posted some useful comments about the length and gradient of the climb. He also said: The descent on the other hand was amazing. Never mind worrying that there’s no rail and a sheer drop, it was fast and open and spectacular.

On Michael Barry’s site, there is a long video of the descent accompanying a blog post flagging up how significant it could be for the stage, which finishes at the bottom.

I think I’ll be taking some spare brake pads with me to the Pyrenées this July.

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High speed descending

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Going downhill on a bike is one of life’s joys, in my opinion.

My best moment from this year’s Tour de France has to be Fabian Cancellara’s high-speed descent from the Col de Serra-Seca in Spain on Stage 7.


The full descent video has been subject to copyright issues, but here’s another youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_wEG2RNMJc

And one from the earlier part of the descent from Belgian channel Sporza:
http://www.sporza.be/permalink/1.561174

Stunning bike handling. I’m sure I could go that fast if I knew nothing was coming! Then again I’m not sure I’d be confident to weave in and out of team cars and motorcycles at 50-60mph.

The evidence for this is below- descending Dunning Glen in Perthshire with my brother this week, I went against my better judgement and tried to film him with my phone. When a car suddenly apeears, the viewer gets and impromptu look at my nostrils as I nervously stuff the phone in my mouth in order to get both hands back on the bars.

Issue 11 of Rouleur magazine discusses the descending (an excerpt), and argues it is an unjustly neglected art.

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