Road cycling competitions...

[Externet]

Hi.

Is there a reason that nobody (that I know of) has ever attempted to complain or eliminate support and media non-electric automobiles and motorcycles riding next and together with bicycles on competitions; injecting their exhaust fumes to athletes that are exerting intense physical extenuation ?

Edited August 6, 2016 by Externet

[imatfaal]

250+km of start-stop travel at 40km/h + getting to start + getting from end.

 

Need to be able to 100km/h downhill and accelerate upto from corners in just a few seconds (the bikes will go round corners 40-50 Km/h faster than cars). They are in constant investigation - but there is just no car that all the teams are happy with

 

Electric bikes (per TT zero) would be ok for the speed handling - but unsure about the range, and you need a two seater. Electric scooters just not fast enough.

[StringJunky]

Electric bikes (per TT zero) would be ok for the speed handling - but unsure about the range, and you need a two seater. Electric scooters just not fast enough.

Better get Elon Musk on it.

[imatfaal]

Better get Elon Musk on it.

 

As pro cyclist will top 100kph on descents - some even hitting 10-20% higher and the motos are there to keep up with - just in front and just behind the cyclists around sharp hairpins you need pretty stonking engines / handling. They mosst use 1000cc or 750cc; because with two people and lots of equipment most other bikes just become difficult to handle

[StringJunky]

 

As pro cyclist will top 100kph on descents - some even hitting 10-20% higher and the motos are there to keep up with - just in front and just behind the cyclists around sharp hairpins you need pretty stonking engines / handling. They mosst use 1000cc or 750cc; because with two people and lots of equipment most other bikes just become difficult to handle

I think part of Externet's question is: why do they need to be in such close proximity? I wonder that too.

[imatfaal]

For the racing - I suppose technically they don't.

 

One bike per group has commissaires / judges - they also ride in some of the cars. There are also neutral service vehicles and bikes - but they tend to be crap

 

The rest of the cars are team support - and you could just force people to abandon with a puncture or wait a huge amount of time for a car which is further back. They would need to arrange for drinks to be delivered regularly if the team cars were not close

 

The rest of the bikes are media - still and video cameramen.

 

But you would have poorer racing, more cheating, more dangerous (dehydration is a real risk), and no coverage; so it does not seem like an option to have none.

 

To have fewer - yes a good idea. Which everyone would love to see as long as it is not their photographer, their team car etc which is cut from the train

[Externet]

The lack of range/performance of an electric vehicle to keep up with cyclists could be fixed with several staged electric vehicles. But exhaust fumes next to competing athletes is criminal.

[StringJunky]

For the racing - I suppose technically they don't.

 

One bike per group has commissaires / judges - they also ride in some of the cars. There are also neutral service vehicles and bikes - but they tend to be crap

 

The rest of the cars are team support - and you could just force people to abandon with a puncture or wait a huge amount of time for a car which is further back. They would need to arrange for drinks to be delivered regularly if the team cars were not close

 

The rest of the bikes are media - still and video cameramen.

 

But you would have poorer racing, more cheating, more dangerous (dehydration is a real risk), and no coverage; so it does not seem like an option to have none.

Right. I see your point.

 

 

To have fewer - yes a good idea. Which everyone would love to see as long as it is not their photographer, their team car etc which is cut from the train

"Share it fairly but don't take a slice of my pie"

[imatfaal]

....

"Share it fairly but don't take a slice of my pie"

 

Gonna steal that line.

The lack of range/performance of an electric vehicle to keep up with cyclists could be fixed with several staged electric vehicles. But exhaust fumes next to competing athletes is criminal.

 

The two things I really know about are cycling and criminal law - it might be a bad idea but it ain't criminal. The exhaust fumes of a few well tuned and well maintained new cars whilst riding in a non-built up area with access to breezes is practically zero compared to the pollution - both gaseous and particulate - that anyone living or working in a large city has to put up with.

 

Undoubtedly it would be better if there were to be no hydrocarbon burning cars / motos around the cyclists but the car fumes are the least of most procyclists worries. You cannot really use multiple cars - each team car has tens of thousands of bucks worth of bike attached to the roof rack and a backseat stuffed with team equipment. One missed bike change - in which the team takes 2 minutes rather than 30 seconds - can be the difference between a win and a lose on a three week race.

[StringJunky]

 

Gonna steal that line.

Money - Dark Side of the Moon 1973 Pink Floyd.

[John Cuthber]

The lack of range/performance of an electric vehicle to keep up with cyclists could be fixed with several staged electric vehicles. But exhaust fumes next to competing athletes is criminal.

Beijing games?

[imatfaal]

Beijing games?

Definitely.

 

Maybe Rio games for those poor sods in the open water events . Levels of fecal viral pollution orders of magnitude higher than would be acceptable in EU/USA