Downhill is one of the most spectacular mountain biking disciplines in the world, forcing athletes to push themselves to the limit of their abilities. What happens on race weekends and what do riders do off-piste?
In honor of the UCI World Tour, the first leg of which took place this weekend in Lourdes, here’s a brief introduction to downhill:
The format
Downhill is easy to understand: athletes take turns on the track and the winner is the one who showed the best time of the race. The order in which they appear at the start is determined by the qualifying run, according to the results of which the last to start is the one with the best time.
Downhill is won by whoever can get down the mountain as fast as possible. It’s not as easy as you might think to complete a downhill course. Today’s downhill courses are very dangerous and challenging. They abound with “twists” of jumps between trees, piles of rocks, winding sections, steep descents. For downhill skiing you need a fairly serious training of the athlete. The most important is to have the bike control on the top, although one should not forget about the physical preparation, as after 5 minutes of downhill most athletes just fall off the legs. The average speed on the competition downhill – 36 km / h, the maximum – 60 km / h. Height difference on the track is about 80 meters.