Aurélie Sacchelli, Media365, published on Monday January 6, 2025 at 11:25 p.m.
While he is about to play the last season of his professional career, Christopher Froome suggests, in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport, to limit the gear ratios in order to reduce the number of serious falls.
This is a subject that has come up regularly in recent years, due to the numerous falls that sometimes punctuate Cycling races, in the descents or final sprints, and which can sometimes turn out to be very serious (Fabio Jakobsen, Nacer Bouhanni, Jonas Vingegaard …) or even fatal (Gino Mäder, André Drege, Muriel Furrer…). Recent technological advances allow runners to go faster, but this can come at the expense of their health. This is why Christopher Froome, who will celebrate his 40th birthday in this year 2025, which will be the last of his professional career, and who knows about serious falls which can disrupt a career (he has not won anything since his terrible fall during the recognition of the time of the Critérium du Dauphiné 2019) offers an idea in an interview granted to La Gazzetta dello Sport : limit the gears.
Froome: “Keep speeds low on descents”
“We are seeing this sport go faster and faster and the races are happening differently with more stress, more fighting for positions and unfortunately we are seeing more serious accidents happening. At some point, I think we may even need to discuss limiting the progression of technology in sports to accommodate the safety aspect. This could be something as simple as limiting the gears we use, for example. That doesn't mean everyone is going to be riding junior gears, but maybe in a year or two we won't see guys coming in sprinting on a 60 gear, which is what happens at some races. The speeds needed to move a 60 chainring can be over 80 km/h and you're still pedaling. Maybe we should put a limit on them. I'm not saying we should have junior gears but maybe 56 or 54 should be the limit, to keep the gears low on the descents. ” According to Cycling Newsthere are now no more gear limits for juniors, but until 2023, they could not do more than 7.93m per pedal revolution.
Young people more dangerous?
Chris Froome admits that everything has been put in place to go faster in recent years, but that the generational renewal of the peloton could pose a problem. “ We tried to become more aerodynamic, get more power through nutrition, through training, through coaching and actually I think all of these things are starting to work nowexplains the four-time winner of the Tour de France. I think riders aren't necessarily taking too many risks, but the average age of the peloton is also changing. We are seeing that the average age of the professional peloton is getting younger and younger, which means the experience level is also much lower. Maybe guys with less experience go faster and take more risks, which could also be a factor. »
