If it were not filmed, nobody would believe │ Short Documentary

What you just saw is a great demonstration  of the importance of aerodynamics in cycling. It shows that adjusting your posture on the bike  can sometimes be more effective than pedaling. Since the 90s, there have been many attempts to  come up with the ultimate position for descending. Riders tried to be creative. Some were more  effective than others, as shown by a group of scientists from Belgium in this research.  Chris Froome's famous descending position is slower than Marco Pantani's iconic

style, but  they both lag behind the Super-tuck that was invented by Matej Mohoric which is 17 faster than  a regular position. Still, none of the above stands a chance against this one. On this descent, this rider and the rest of  the group were going at exactly the same speed, before he transitioned into what cycling fans  call the "superman" position, and it did magic. This extremely aerodynamic position allowed him to  descend 24% faster than the rest. He streamlined himself to drastically

reduce his frontal area,  which consequently reduced the amount of air friction, and allowed him to pick up speed from  the gravitational force on this descent. In this case, a speed that wouldn't be achievable by just  pedaling. However, this posture and many others including the super tuck have been banned from  professional racing by the UCI since April 2021. Wind It can either be your best ally, or your worst enemy. On stage 13 of the 2016 tour de France,  photographer Joris Knapen shot one

of the wildest photos in cycling. It shows  Julian Alaphilippe flying in the air, six feet above the ground, something you  don't see every day. The French rider was time-trialing at the speed of 52 kilometers per hour when a wind gust blew him off the road, lifted him into the air, and threw him against  a rocky cliff-side. It was a horrible scene. Miraculously the Frenchman got up  unharmed and continued on his race. He only suffered a cut on his thumb and  a few bruises on his shoulder and ba

ck. In the post-race interview Julian said: "the  wind caught me, I did not expect to take a gust like that .. it took me to the outside of  the turn and I went straight into the rocks". This remains one of the weirdest and most  unbelievable shots ever taken in cycling. Road cyclists are more known  for their endurance capabilities and less for their bike handling  skills, but there are exceptions. When a road cyclist comes from a different  field, like cyclo-cross or mountain biking, where he'

s required to constantly adjust  to varying terrains, he usually brings with him a variety of skill sets, skills that  make the difference at crucial moments. Fernando Gaviria is the fastest without doubt  out of these few riders on the left-hand side Nacer Bouhanni as Gaviria goes down! In the 2016 Milan-San-Remo, a touch  of wheels sent Fernando Gaviria to the ground in the home straight, on his wheel Peter Sagan  shows incredible reflexes that are really hard to catch in real speed. With no t

ime to think,  his instinct, being a former mountain biker, intervened. Having strong neural pathways and  muscle memory allowed him to dodge Gaviria's left leg by just a few centimeters, with a  reaction time of around 150 milliseconds, which is way below the average person's  reaction time estimated at 215 milliseconds. The same could be said about Fabian  Cancellara, although instead of solely relying on his body reflexes, he used his  brakes masterfully to avoid the fallen rider. This is ano

ther example of Peter's elite bike  handling skills, he lost balance on this slippery corner but he quickly unclipped and used his foot  against the ground to regain balance. And it didn't prevent him from winning the race a few seconds later. The photo-finish invention was a great solution to  distinguish the winner of a race when the simple eye or a regular camera can't. After hundreds  of kilometers of racing, one pixel could be the difference between winning and losing. I've  been in a few p

hoto-finishes myself, sometimes I've been on the wrong end of a pixel you could  say. Just like in this photo from the 2017 tour de France the difference between the two riders was  no more than six millimeters, which corresponds to three milliseconds in time according to the  officials. The closest margin in the history of the race. But there's always something  strange about this type of image. The first thing you may notice is the curved spokes and the  weird-looking road surface. In order to

explain these strange artifacts, let's first try to get a  general understanding of how a photo finish image is taken. Normal cameras catch what's in front  of the sensor at a particular moment in time, the result is an image that's thousands of  pixels in width and height. But a photo finish is a result of a completely different process.  A particular type of camera is used to capture thousands of frames per second, each frame is one  pixel in width and thousands of pixels in height, each vert

ical slice was captured at a different  point in time from the next one to it. A computer software program compiles all these frames  together to create a photo-finish. When you're looking at it, you're seeing the progression  of that one pixel wide frame through time. The bikes and the riders riding them usually  look normal, but the spokes look curved because the wheels would be spinning as they cross the  finish line. And because the road is stationary, and it's being captured on every frame,

the  resulting image shows a stretched background. It's the penultimate stage of the 2002 Tour Down  Under. A 21 year old Michael Rogers has managed to get himself into a strong breakaway group in  the hope of getting the race's overall lead. Look at that the yellow jersey is at  six minutes it's all over for Fabio. So far his plan was working very well, until one  of the in-race motorcycles destroyed his bike in a collision. Michael Rogers has thrown his bike  to the ground, he desperately nee

ds one quick, he's got one. It's not a team bike although  it's the same makers his team, Colnago, and i have a feeling that's come from a  spectator. Rogers slams it to the ground in frustration knowing that the replacement bike  will not be arriving anytime soon. But a fan from the side of the road showed up with a bike and  offered it to Rogers, who hopped on it without hesitation to get back into the race. That in  itself is unheard of in professional racing. But this is the strange part abo

ut this story. Out of  thousands of other possibilities Roger's original bike and the one he borrowed from the side of  the road were identical in almost every aspect. Except for the custom paint job, the two bikes  share the same manufacturer, same module, and same size, and it came with compatible pedals as  well. What's even more mind-boggling about this, is that Adam Pyke, to whom the bike belongs,  happened to be at the perfect location on that 156 kilometers long stage where Rogers had the

  mechanical problem. What are the possibilities? and he has always been an admirer of Michael Rogers  and Rogers is still sprinting on this bike at least he knows now his bike goes because that was  the sprint and a very valuable three seconds bonus. Rogers made a comeback that day, overtaking  the breakaway group and finishing second, with enough time advantage to claim the race  lead. And Michael Rogers is making sure he's got the race lead because he's getting a  second place, win bonus as w

ell. So that will give him a clear lead overall and it's  all been done on a borrowed bicycle today. He ended up winning the Tour  Down Under the next day. He met with Adam after that stage and both were  interviewed to tell the story on live television. At first glance it looks like  one of those video game glitches. Some, jokingly, said that the wheel sunk into a  patch of quicksand. But this image is not fake. Taken by photographer Christian Hartmann at the  end of stage four of the 2010 Tour

of Switzerland, this photo shows a moment before disaster.  Renshaw trying to set Cavendish up for the win, it's a headwind finish, he can't go too  early. Cavendish bounces out of here, Ciolek  gonna go for it, Cavendish goes in the middle Cavendish goes for the line. Is he gonna get this  one oh it's a massive crash on the finish line Haussler goes down, Cavendish goes down, Petacchi  takes the win, but they are all over the road. HTC's Mark Cavendish was going head-to-head  with his rival He

inrich Haussler in the sprint when their front wheels touched at well over 65  kilometers per hour. Look at this, Cavendish and Haussler there's nowhere to go, they just lean  on each other, and Cavendish at maybe 40 miles an hour Both went down in front of a charging  pack of riders resulting in a massive pileup. Haussler's wheel rode up on Cavendish's  wheel causing it to fold up, but it snapped back into shape in less than half  a second, in that moment, this shot was taken. In the slow motio

n replay, the carbon  fiber wheel seemed to spin normally, but it wasn't ridable after  undergoing such deformation. The overhead shot shows both riders moved  laterally towards each other, but Cavendish's movement was more dangerous. The race jury decided  to find him. Lucky for him he escaped with small cuts, but Haussler had to abandon with a deep  cut to his arm that required hospital treatment.