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A moment in photos: Alaphilippe’s excellent crash technique at Strade Bianche
A moment in photos: Alaphilippe's excellent crash technique at Strade Bianche
There is skill in crashing well, as odd as that may sound. Technique, even. The ability to twist oneself in the air to minimize impact and to roll instead of thud can be as important to getting through a dangerous racing season as anything.
The wind whipped up across Tuscany on Saturday, picking up Strade Bianche’s white dust and flinging it across early spring fields. It did the same to riders. The decreased grip on the gravel roads combined with tall, aerodynamic wheelsets and nasty crosswinds with predictable results.
It all led to a spectacular and disconcerting moment with 100 kilometers to go, halfway through the Lucignano d’Asso sector. Julian Alaphilippe, already on the far left edge of the road with wind whipping in from the right, was pushed further to the edge as a blast of wind hit riders to his right. He unclipped his left foot, trying to pull himself back into the harder, grippier tracks on the road. He may have saved it, but we’ll never know as an Alpecin-Fenix rider had his front wheel blown sideways by the wind, losing grip on the gravel and dropping his entire bike straight into Alaphilippe’s path.
Photographer Tim de Waele was on moto just ahead and captured the moment. It isn’t often that we get to dissect a crash so closely. And because everyone appears to be relatively unscathed, it feels like a good opportunity to see how a world-class crasher walks away from doing a mid-race front flip.
Already in trouble, but Alaphilippe probably could have saved this. You can see that the bikes of the front few riders are at all sorts of angles already, blown around by the hard wind from their right side. Losing the rear wheel is saveable; losing the front wheel is not. The combination of wind from the right, tall carbon rims, and minimal grip on the strade bianche surface meant that there was no saving this crash once it started. The minor slope of the road didn’t help either, as Tiesj Benoot (the Jumbo rider) is about to find out.“Merde,” Alaphilippe probably thought. Possibly also “Mon dieu!”The classic jacknife. A fistful of front brake, minimal grip, and a lot of momentum turned Alaphilippe’s front wheel sideways, which makes it really hard to ride forward. Kudos to the tire for staying on. Note that Alaphilippe is still holding onto his bars. This is generally considered good crash technique – sticking your arms out leads to broken collarbones, broken wrists, all sorts of broken things. This is where Alaphilippe’s skill comes in. He’s still holding onto the bars. He’s starting to flip, and is about to tuck his head into his chest to pull the rest of his body around. He’s not doing this consciously, of course. It happens too fast. But he’s doing all the right things. The result is a landing on the top of his shoulders, rather than his head or neck. He continues to roll on his back, toward his feet. The roll is key. Think back to you physics classes: very simply, force of impact is decreased as the time of impact increases. Rolling into and out of a crash increases the time of impact. Imagine jumping into a pile of snow, where you come to a stop more slowly, versus jumping onto concrete, where you just stop. Alaphilippe is still rolling, now forward onto his feet. Alaphilippe rolls all the way back to his feet. Tadej Pogacar is showing good technique too – his hands are still on the bars and he attempts the classic Handlebar Hurdle. It’s a bold strategy, Cotton, let’s see how it works out for him. Alaphilippe then launches forward again, still extending the time of impact. He’s slowed down enough now that sticking his hands out to cushion the final impact is probably a safe bet. The aftermath: Alaphilippe stands up and walks away. He got a new bike and chased back to the front group, where he put in a hard chase for Kasper Asgreen, who went on to finish third.
The video shows just how fast the whole thing happened.
The excellent news is that it appears Alaphilippe escaped without any major injuries. He was undoubtedly aided by the grass landing, but his ability to tuck and roll was crucial too.
