His gaze is fixed on only one point, nothing is going to distract him on the long way down. Slovenian rider Matej Mohoric prefers to look as far ahead as possible. Then he knows what the ideal line should be, when he is at the top of the steep Galibier or the Col de la Croix de Fer. His technique does not let him down in the bends that follow, he trusts it blindly. The more difficult the descent, the more fun he likes. He is not at all afraid of what is to come, perhaps that is even more important.
If you ask who the best descenders are in the cycling peloton, his name is often mentioned. Matej Mohoric is a master descender. The rider behind him in a descent during one of the mountain stages of this Tour de France has difficulty holding his wheel. He can make up time on the way down, or if he is in a leading group, decide to attack just then. Something he definitely wants to try in the stages through the Pyrenees that are still to come.
It starts at the limit, says Mohoric during the second rest day in the Tour de France. As a child he likes to visit them on his bicycle. It gives him a kick. When falling downhill, he breaks his shoulder blade once, and another time his wrist is broken. “I had to see how far I could go in the corners,” says Mohoric. The risk is no reason for him to squeeze harder on his brakes.
A serious fall in a descent can also make you think as a rider, says Dutch rider Taco van der Hoorn. If he falls down hard during a training session due to a car, he will sit differently on a bicycle in the following months. He starts thinking. Does he have to want to go down that hard? “Now I have lost that feeling. But that did bother me for a while,” says Van der Hoorn.
No trust
Once you lose confidence when descending, it becomes a big problem. Van der Hoorn sees it reflected in the peloton this Tour de France, among other things, in the technique with which some riders go through the bends. “A couple of Total Energies guys completely fell through on one of the first descents. They went round the bend,” he says. Instead of following the smooth curve of the bend, they make two almost ninety-degree angles with their handlebars. They completely lose their momentum.
French climber Pierre Latour rides with the French team Total Energies. In an interview with sports newspaper L’Equipe he was open about his fear of falling at the beginning of this year. On the way up, Latour is among the best in the pack, but already during the climb he only thinks about what is to come. Especially when it rains and the road gets wet, the stress in his body increases, he said. His body then feels paralyzed, it no longer wants to go down.
It is the result of a hard fall in the UAE Tour three years ago, where Latour broke both arms through a hole in the road. His teammates are now trying to help him descend. They gather around him, closing him in. “If another rider passes at high speed, it just puts more pressure on me,” said Latour.
You have to be one with the bike while descending, says Mohoric. The handlebars are an extension of his arms on a descent, he has full control over the material. He determines the line, his bicycle follows.
dropper post
During the spring classic Milan-Sanremo he confirmed his status as master descender in the peloton this year. After the Poggio, the last climb in that course, he accelerated in the descent so that no one could follow him. He had received help from a so-called dropper post, it turned out after the game. With the push of a button on the handlebars, he lowered his saddle; that made it more aerodynamic.
The dropper post, which has been used in mountain biking for some time, is not yet commonplace in the peloton during this Tour de France. The device brings a few extra grams of weight, which climbers in particular cannot use. But the set cannot be mounted on every racing bike either. The bike Mohoric won Milan-Sanremo on was developed just for that race.
Even on his way to the Italian seaside resort, Mohoric was convinced that the system would help him. Against the Belgian newspaper The morning he says afterwards that he had passed his main competitors one by one. “I sang the James Bond tune. I showed them my dropper post and told them not to follow me on the descent later. Only at your own risk,” said Mohoric.
But not only the dropper post helps him. At some of the bends towards Sanremo, many television viewers will have held their breath. The Slovenian barely gets them, he is literally cycling on the edge. „I knew it was possible with the device, and if I all inclusive went,” says Mohoric now in the Tour.
During a descent, the peloton, or what is left of it during a mountain stage, often becomes an elongated ribbon. Most riders follow the wheel and line of the bike in front of them. Some riders just drop a hole. The Dutchman Dylan van Baarle prefers to descend alone than in a group, he says. “The chance that someone will make a mistake for you is so great. If that rider misjudges a turn, you have to correct. And then hope that the person behind you also pays attention enough.”
Descending is not something Van Baarle is looking forward to anyway, he says for the tenth Tour stage, which starts in the mountain village of Morzine. Even though he can handle his bike well, it has to be more and more extreme, and harder too. “You often only see afterwards on the images how dangerous it was,” says Van Baarle. A stage like Tuesday, which starts with a descent, should be banned in his opinion. “Anyone who wants to get away from the pack is going to take a lot of risk.”
The small computer on the handlebars, which collects the data from the riders, is now also used during the descent. “Many riders now use it to estimate a bend that they can’t see well,” says Taco van der Hoorn. The navigation reveals the angle of the road. “But that also has drawbacks,” says Van der Hoorn. “If someone in front of you doesn’t make it through the corner well, you have a chance that you will miss it because you are looking at your computer.”
descent coach
Yet it is mainly technique and daring that determine the way in which riders find their way down. “You either own that technique or you don’t,” says Dutch sprinter Danny van Poppel. “It is certainly not the case that the riders at the front of a mountain stage are the best.” On television, especially the climbers may appear during a descent, according to Van Poppel, the best descenders are at the back of the pack. The sprinters, for example, who also have to rely on their steering skills during a bunch sprint. “A descent is an opportunity for us to make up for time,” he says. “But we never really come into the picture.”
To give riders more certainty on their downhill route, teams and individual riders work together with a descent coach. Frenchman Thibaut Pinot, who is known as one of the least descenders in the peloton, hired Spanish mountain biker Oscar Saiz. Such a specialist coach is not yet common with Van der Hoorn’s Belgian team. But he did receive some tips from descent coaches through fellow riders. “He tells you not to enter too early, to put your weight on your lowest pedal and how to distribute the pressure on your race bike.”
Mohoric also tries to help his less gifted teammates with the descent. “Actually, I can’t say much. It starts with confidence and courage. And they have to build that themselves.”
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of 16 July 2022