The advent of disc brakes in the peloton and the increasing use of aero bikes, aero clothing, and bigger gears, along the modern preference for individual training efforts which neglect group riding, are behind the recent spate of high-profile crashes in professional cycling, Sean Kelly has said.
The classics legend-turned-iconic Eurosport commentator’s claims come in the aftermath of the shocking high-speed crash at the Tour of the Basque Country earlier this month, which injured several leading riders including Jonas Vingegaard (potentially ending the Dane’s hopes of a third consecutive Tour de France title), Remco Evenepoel, Primož Roglič, Jay Vine, and Steff Cras.
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And while the famously combative Kelly was himself no stranger to the rough and tumble of pro cycling, especially in the sprints and the cobbled classics, the Irishman has told Sticky Bottle that a number of modern trends and innovations within the sport have increased both the speed and therefore the danger for today’s crop of riders, and have contributed to the unusually high number of mass crashes we’ve seen over the past few years.
“There are these high speeds now,” Kelly told the Irish cycling site. “The bikes are so aero, and maybe more difficult to handle. They add a bit more speed to the riders, as does the aero clothing.
“Everything is all about speed now, and you can only go so fast in some of those corners. That’s the problem, they are arriving at too much speed.”
The former world number one also believes the use of much larger gears has had a massive effect on how descents are tackled – a key talking point following the crash in the Basque Country.
“Of course, they are using much bigger gears. We hear about this crazy gearing in different events like in time trials, especially. But also in the normal road races they are using these huge gears,” the Eurosport commentator said.
“So that means that on descents you can get higher speeds than before as you don’t run out of gearing. Previously you were spinning out and you couldn’t pedal anymore. So that adds to it.”
Kelly also reckons that the increased focus on riding to watts, and bespoke individual training plans, have led to a widening disparity between the best and worst bike handlers in the bunch.
“Some riders can calculate how fast they can go on a corner. Others maybe don’t have enough experience and they just crash out and slide off the road,” the double Paris-Roubaix winner said.
“There is a question if bike handling is perhaps not as good as before, there is talk about that as well, that when riders nowadays are junior they have a coach and they are told to go out and do X number of hours at X number of watts.
“This individual training. And they don’t get enough bike riding in groups. Whereas if you go back some years, a lot of riders trained together in groups of six or eight or 10 people. So perhaps with some riders, their bike handling is not as good as it should be.”
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And of course, it wouldn’t have been a discussion about increased risk in the peloton without disc brakes rearing their sharp-stopping head.
“The disk brakes are so sensitive. When you go on them hard, somebody behind you does not have the reflexes to react quickly. Then they just crash into the back of you. That’s how a lot of the crashes are happening,” Kelly pointed out.
“It slows up suddenly front, there is a bit of a panic, and they seem to crash in from behind. Eddie Dunbar had that problem there when he crashed in the UAE Tour. He was hit by behind. If a big guy hits you like that, and particularly if you are a light like Dunbar, it is like being hit in a car with a truck coming from behind.
“I think the issues are a lot to do with the speed they are going now, the bikes, the riders, the level of fitness that is there. There are more riders at a higher level a long, long way into a race. They’re all able to be up there to a certain point until the vital where the race is blown apart.
“You have 70, 80, 100 riders fighting for 30, 40 positions. And that’s going to equal crashes because there’s not enough room on the road. It’s just a combination of all those things that are causing those crashes.”