Cycling has a rich history of daredevil descenders, for over a century they have been racing up and down the dizzying high passes of the European mountain ranges. In recent years we have loved and praised the gravel roads of Strade Bianche, but in days of old every climb and descent in the Grand Tours was a Strade Bianche of its own for those mountain roads wear not paved until well after the Second World War. Up and down the mountains the heroic cyclists like grizzled pioneers would climb with vigor and descend at high speeds no matter the weather: wind, rain, washed-out roads, even snow could not stop them on their quests to victory or even to simply finish the race. All the men that would attempt the gravel, often muddy, descents were of course daredevils. But it was not until the road conditions improved and the speeds became even faster that an even more elite class of daredevils emerged. There have been top descenders in every generation, but from at least Gastone Nencini to Eddy Merckx to Sean Kelly to Marco Pantani to Fabian Cancellara there has been an unofficial mantle of greatest descender in the peloton. Some have simply been supremely fearless as they threw themselves into every blind corner and bend, others especially in recent decades have worked on their aerodynamic position. Surely one of the most memorable and unorthodox came from Marco Pantani il Pirata as he stuck his behind over the back-wheel and brought his bellybutton to the saddle lowering how much body surface area had to cut through the wind. To simply see images of it makes the hair on one’s neck stand up with fear, surely the Pantani descending position can be entered as one of the dictionary definitions for “reckless.” But for almost the past decade, another certain reckless position has taken the peloton by storm. So effective and ubiquitous it has proven, the UCI officials have finally decided to pre-emptively ban it before it inevitably causes a professional to lose their career or life, and to send a message to the aspiring ones watching on TV that such recklessness is not to be promoted. I am of course referring to the Supertuck, where the riders sit on the top-tube instead of their saddles to tuck into a faster aero-position. Mark me: No, this is not an April Fools’ Day joke this has truly been on record to come for many months—along with bans on littering and the aero puppy-paws. As far as this Supertuck position goes, I have no stake or experience to give much judgement on whether the position should be banned or not—though I myself have never been comfortable enough to try it in the mountains of Colorado. I guess overall if I had to stake a position, I will split the baby. I applaud the pre-emptive reasoning and the idea to send the right message so the UCI has my blessing in this banning for what that is worth; and yet at the same time, surely I shall miss the Supertuck. I shall miss it, for it has been the centerpiece of many iconic cycling moments of this era where I myself became such an invested fan of the sport. Thus let us now take a short walk down memory lane, and recall some of the most beloved and epic Supertucking moments—for surely in the History of Cycling Descending the Supertuck deserves more than a whole Chapter, it needs a whole meaty Section or Act to describe this iconic era of descending.
I cannot believe that that the idea of sitting on one’s top tube for a better aero position was not thought of until 2013—surely the occasional daredevil must have done it a time or two before, if not quite making it a habit. But by common consensus of all cycling loremasters, it was in 2013 at the U23 World Championships in Florence that the modern Supertuck was born. Whether others had been sitting on the top tube before or not is highly questionable, but in Florence in 2013 one rider did add a literally revolutionary element to the mix. Wearing the Slovenian national kit, 19-year-old Matej Mohoric went on to win that U23 World Championship over the likes of Louis Meintjes, Caleb Ewan, Dylan Van Baarle, Julian Alpahilippe, both Yates twins, Jasper Stuyven, and an eclectic assortment of other recognizable professionals still well on the scene today. The fact that a 19-year-old was winning the U23 World Title was memorable in itself, but way he rode was even more memorable. Yes, yes, Mohoric had the climbing legs of a deserving World Champion, but Mohoric’s decisive advantage came on the descents. There was Matej Mohoric in his green Slovenian jersey descending with the speed of a rocket re-entering the atmosphere to catch the lone rider in the lead, Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe, on the penultimate lap of the World Championship. Mohoric rode with his hands in the drops—as you do. But instead of being seated on the saddle, he was perched some 6-inches lower on the top tube—surely not “as you do.” His back was curled up in a fine aero-position leading right into his bare seat behind. From such a position, he even managed to spin a few light strokes of the pedals. Into the swooping two-pointed left-hand turn at the bottom of the descent, Mohoric adeptly lifted his body back over the saddle just in time and perfectly careened around the turn like a bobsled team about to win the Gold Medal at the Olympic Games. Having conserved so much speed from the descent and through the turn, he effortlessly caught up to the elder Alaphilippe ahead. But that penultimate descent show was nothing compared to the final next one. Mohoric dropped his rivals on circuit’s final climbs, and then all that was left was to stay away on the final descent. And on that descent, it was on full display: the modern-day Supertuck that is now banned. Not only was Mohoric sitting on the top tube—he was seated aggressively far up towards the handlebars. Meanwhile his hands were narrowly apart only on the tops of the handlebars. He was leaning over his front wheel while his chin was literally even with his handlebars, his shoulders almost touched the hoods of the brake levers. And if this wasn’t an aero and speedy enough position already: he was successfully pedaling to boot! Did I not say literally revolutionary? Yes, using that Supertuck Mohoric held off Meintjes close behind and a peloton of some thirty or forty riders. It was an amazing feat by all accounts…many could not believe what they had just seen.
Ever since Florence 2013, the Supertuck has been all the rage with many professionals despite its inherit precarious danger, perhaps most notably Peter Sagan and Michal Kwaitkowski became the biggest headliners to regularly support it on their ways to victories. But this modern Supertuck reached its zenith on the biggest stage in 2016 from an unlikely source: the Grand Tour rider of his generation. Before 2016, Chris Froome was notably known to be a subpar or bad bike-handler: always on the flat days of any stage race, his teammates needed to shepherd and protect this climbing machine of climbing machines—should he stay upright surely he could win any stage race, was the team’s thinking. But keeping Froome safe and upright on the bike was not always a given nor an easy task: forget not when he abandoned the 2014 Tour with a broken wrist after multiple crashes in the early days. Thus, after what many would say were dominatingly dull Tour victories in 2013 and 2015, Froome and Team Sky unexpectedly flipped the script on Stage 8 of the 2016 Tour de France that finished down into Bagneres-de-Luchon. It was a mighty High Mountain stage in the Pyrenees, Froome’s archrival Nairo Quintana and many others were watching and marking him like a hawk all day. Up the last climb of the day, the Peyresourde, it was a proper GC battle of a dozen or so men. This group of elite GC men were about to crest the top of the climb together in what seemed to be a ceasefire in the hostilities for the day, but then Froome’s Sky teammate on the front swung off job done while Froome himself then spun his highest of cadences while Nairoman grabbed a bottle from his soigneur. Just the split second it took Nairo Quintana to grab the bottle, Froome had a couple meters’ gap. Quintana let the bottle dangle between his teeth, because he did not want to give his archrival even a ten-meter gap. But it was too late, Froome had already pedaled away to a 20-meter lead. From there Chris Froome produced his Finest Hour of Descending, and arguably the Finest Hour in the History of Supertucking. The green Pyrenean Peyresourde descent weaved right and left in beautifully laid switchbacks, it was an immaculate road and stunning location for such a historic descent. Never before had Froome ever won a race that was not a Time Trial or summit finish, and yet here he was on this Peyresourde descent, bad-bike-handler Froome was putting time into all his rivals chasing behind. Like Mohoric in Florence, Froome was aggressively seated far up on the top tube, his chin was even with the brake levers, and in his white shoes and socks he was pedaling down this descent in his most massive gear. And yet in classic Froome fashion, it was not the most graceful sight. Even while perched on the top tube, every ten seconds he instinctively dipped his head below the tops of the handlebars impairing his foresight, and as he pedalled O! how the bike wobbled! Despite the danger, still the effective aerodynamics and speed were undeniable. Chris Froome was now taking time out of his rivals not up the climbs, but down them instead! Rumored consensus at the time figured it was the newly signed Sky transfer Michal Kwaitkowski that worked with Froome in the altitude training camps to develop these O! so aero Supertucking skills. It was not until this stage of the Tour that they were revealed, but O! how all remember such a feat from the Grand Tour Champion. The day Chris Froome rode with such until-then uncharacteristic spontaneity and “Balls of Steel.” By the end of the descent Chris Froome crossed the line first but only by some 14 seconds ahead of his top rivals. Yet that day Chris Froome moved into the Yellow Jersey and he did not relinquish it for the rest of that Tour. Froome won his third Tour in 2016, and that Supertucking performance is hallowed as the stuff of legend.
I cannot recall a time since Froome’s 2016 Tour that the Supertuck has been so decisive. This is probably because after Froome’s performance many of the professionals added the Supertuck or a comparably extremely aero position to their arsenal. Like when all the top cyclocrossers needed to learn to bunny-hop the barriers to match Sven Nys, over that next winter all the top GC men learned how to Supertuck to match Froome. Yes, from 2017 through 2020 the Supertuck has become a routine element of the descents. Not all use it, nor do those exercising the descending method make more than negligible gains very often anymore. But it has become a familiar and even iconic sight of daring-descending. The last iconic images of it will probably be from the shortened COVID 2020 season. Where Julian Alaphilippe descended to victory at Imola Worlds in 2020. Or in the Autumnal Tour of Flanders in a moment of calm before the storm archrivals Mathieu Van Der Poel and Wout Van Aert silently and perfectly descended like stone marble statues conserving as much energy and speed between the Cobbled Bergs as they could. Finally, most recently, and most fittingly, this past week at the late-March Volta a Catalunya the era ended full circle as Matej Mohoric from a breakaway put on one last fine Supertucking display on the wickedly fast descent in the hilly Barcelona circuit that eerily echoed the Florence Worlds circuit of 2013. Ah! yes, for safety reasons it seems to me for the best to ban the Supertuck before there is a major professional casualty and to discourage the imitating youngsters watching around the world. But still my heart is heavy to see this era end—and surely it was an era. In the decades to come, the new fans of cycling studying up on their cycling history and lore will come across articles and clips of Chris Froome’s 2016 Peyresourde descent…and it will seem as foreign and ancient as the cyclists with no helmets, the cyclists smoking or drinking midrace, and the cyclists with the spare tire slung across their chest. “What daredevils these Supertuckers must have been,” the future historians might say. “Surely, all were aware this was insanely dangerous in an already dangerous sport: to what crazy lengths these cyclists went to win a bike race.” Yes, the Supertuck has had a good run—truly, we are aware of no professional injuries caused by it—but it is right to not push our luck any longer. We have played with fire and luckily come away unburned. We shall cherish the greatest Supertucking moments that have produced multiple thrilling and legendary descending wins, but that list of great Supertucks is now complete. The Supertucking era is over and come to a close.
The Supertuck
Florence Worlds, 2013 – April 1st, 2021
Cycling Odysseys 