
I spoke of purposefully losing substantial weight. It certainly helped with climbing and endurance, but it also slowed descents.
I also needed to work on descending, getting into and comfortably maintaining a lower, more aerodynamic position.
To start, I slammed all of the stems on my roads bikes and installed a longer (110 mm) stem on my carbon racing bike. Surprisingly, I didn’t notice much of a change. I had been working on my flexibility and core strength.
Next, I would practice getting into a lower position with my back almost level to the ground, hands on the hoods, elbows tucked in and as low as I could get them. At first, this did not feel comfortable, but over time with consistent practice it became second nature.
And lastly, I worked on continuing to pedal throughout the descent. It felt awkward at first pedalling in the position, but not now.
After 2 years of work on this, I have become a reasonable, more confident descender.
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I very rarely out-descend anyone. Being a lighter rider doesn’t help, but I’m also not all that good a descender and a little bit more “risk aware” than I was when I was younger. I try and make up that time on the climbs…
I feel much the same way. Some years ago I crashed at 65+ kph on a long descent, and ever since I have been more cautious. I don’t take unnecessary risks and whenever I get up near that 65 kph range I instinctively back off. I know a fellow that rode on the professional tour in Europe for 15 years. I asked him how fast he would descend on some of the stages. He said he once topped 125 kph. And I’m putting the brakes on at 50.
When you’re getting paid to race, you gotta race hard I guess!