Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

Video: Inside the sprint – spectacular footage from the Tour of Switzerland

Plenty of shouting, bumping and barging as nervous peloton negotiates difficult run-in to Stage 5 finish

Remember Shimano’s on-bike videos at the Amgen Tour of California that gave an unprecedented view of the action after the UCI authorised a trial? Well, the experiment is being repeated at the Tour of Switzerland, with the cameras this time supplied by InCycle, and the footage is riveting.

Here’s the finish of Stage 5, which had been criticised by riders and team management because of the danger posed by its twists and turns. The peloton is clearly nervous as it approaches the flamme rouge – there is a lot of shouting going on.

You get a brief glimpse of Mark Cavendish in the British national champion’s jersey before he drops back to try and stay out of trouble but instead ended up in a spectacular crash, somersaulting over his handlebars but luckily emerging relatively unscathed.

The stage was won by Lampre-Merida’s Sacha Modolo.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

Add new comment

22 comments

Avatar
chrisc | 9 years ago
0 likes

Respect

Avatar
samvegg | 9 years ago
0 likes

This is why I prefer mountain and cyclocross racing. I never have the fear that at any second I could go from riding perfectly fine to sitting on the ground in pain and covered in road rash.

Avatar
Paul J | 9 years ago
0 likes

MotoGP has self-levelling cameras, however they're servo-driven by a controller with a solid-state accelerometer. Probably a bit too heavy for cycling.

Avatar
mt | 9 years ago
0 likes

you'd bet wrong

Avatar
J90 | 9 years ago
0 likes

Eurosport need to get on this, this view but live would be great, press the red button for it sort of thing.

It would be amazing to see this at the tour for the sprint battles between OPQS and the likes of Giant Shimano as they're bringing Degenkolb and Kittel to fight for some stages!

Avatar
zagatosam | 9 years ago
0 likes

Glad that I'm not the only one who thinks this is scary stuff. I'll stick to triathlon and TT racing thanks- at least then
it's only me to blame for a crash  7

Avatar
Fran The Man | 9 years ago
0 likes

Absolutely no room for footballers!  41 Not enough room on the road for their rolling and writhing antics!

Avatar
Salkeldi | 9 years ago
0 likes

Completely mental, I notice that they edited out the accident on the penultimate turn. They must have had footage looking at the rest of it.

I get nervous at 40kph in a small group all working together, that is brutal. Brave lads, footballers need not apply  1

Avatar
J90 replied to Salkeldi | 9 years ago
0 likes
Salkeldi wrote:

Completely mental, I notice that they edited out the accident on the penultimate turn. They must have had footage looking at the rest of it.

I get nervous at 40kph in a small group all working together, that is brutal. Brave lads, footballers need not apply  1

You get more broken bones and injuries in football I'd bet.

Avatar
bikebot | 9 years ago
0 likes

Stunning action, but horrible quality in the video. It looks like it's been converted into 1080i for TV and then back into 1080p for the web, de-interlacing artifacts.

Avatar
adrianoconnor | 9 years ago
0 likes

Found Ted King's Strava upload for the ride: www.strava.com/activities/155129936/analysis

The bit before the final KM (at the start of the video) is a slight downhill, so it is fast -- for the last three miles he's averaging 35mph, and even on the flat bit in the town he's doing around 33 for about a mile.

It's very humbling. On the flat, If I give it absolutely everything, I can go for just over half a mile at 32mph, but I'm really suffering and my heart rate is definitely zone 5.9. They're going far faster over a much longer distance, and they've already ridden more than 100 miles to get to that point. It's crazy. The sprinters at the front (in this video) contesting first place would have been faster still.

And yay for Strava data, on-bike cameras and modern technology in general! It's like we're living in the future  1

Avatar
don simon fbpe | 9 years ago
0 likes

Superb images, it all looks so tranquil from the traditional overhead cameras.

Avatar
mrchrispy | 9 years ago
0 likes

Gives me the shivers watching that....bloody awesome.
I think if I could choose I'd be a climber just to avoid that mayhem.
That are bat shit mental

Avatar
NeilG83 | 9 years ago
0 likes

Even if I had the physical talent to be a professional rider, I'm not sure I could do this. With 100kph descents and dangerous sprint finishes are they brave or a little bit crazy.

Avatar
SuperG | 9 years ago
0 likes

Sooooo close and so much pushing and shoving.

Avatar
farrell | 9 years ago
0 likes

The tyre screech on that bend, woah.

 13

Avatar
Simon E replied to farrell | 9 years ago
0 likes

Just watched this, the best one I've seen so far. Amazing to see how many riders move up, get passed, slot into gaps or slide across.

Mad. Absolutely stark raving mad.

farrell wrote:

The tyre screech on that bend, woah.

 13

I thought that sounded more like brake pads on carbon rims.

Avatar
JackBuxton | 9 years ago
0 likes

If i heard Degenkolb shouting "GO! GO! GOOOOOO!" i wouldn't even think about it!

Also, did anyone else's legs tense up when wheels almost touched? No? just me then...  17

Avatar
adrianoconnor replied to JackBuxton | 9 years ago
0 likes
JackBuxton wrote:

If i heard Degenkolb shouting "GO! GO! GOOOOOO!" i wouldn't even think about it!

Also, did anyone else's legs tense up when wheels almost touched? No? just me then...  17

Not just you... my whole body tensed up for pretty much the whole video, and my heart rate went up too. Insane. But just fantastic. What a way to make a living!

Do any of those riders post to Strava? Would be curious to know how fast they were going at various points in the video -- even at the start of the video it felt like they were going at well over 30mph (and those riders on the white line at the edge of the road! Crazy!), but the low camera perspective makes it hard to judge. Makes my legs ache just thinking about the effort they put in to pushing those pedals over such long distances, only to have to ride like absolute crazy at the end.

And this was vastly superior to the Shimano video -- less vibration, different angles, no stupid music. Really felt part of it. This is the future  1 Great job.

Avatar
mikeprytherch | 9 years ago
0 likes

Loving this... more please but with self levelling cameras, its brutal in there.

Avatar
e2_irish replied to mikeprytherch | 9 years ago
0 likes

Would self-levelling cameras not require some kind of weighted/gyroscope mount contraption? Not sure pro-riders would be happy with one attached to their bikes...

Avatar
Scoob_84 | 9 years ago
0 likes

Funny that English now seems to the official language of the peloton.

Latest Comments