Recumbents in the TDF?

kdelong

I was riding the local bike trail with my lady friend over the weekend and we kept seeing (and getting passed by) a lot of recumbents. My lady friend brought up a good question, "When will they allow recumbents in the Tour de France?" This got me thinking and I would like to pose a question to all who are interested. Imagine that you are a member of the governing board of the TDF and a discussion is coming up about possibly including recumbents in the race. Would you be for it or against it, and why?

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TheDarkLord

How do recumbents compare to regular bike when it comes to speed? Naively, I expect recumbents to be left to bite the dust in the top pro-event. Moreover, there are probably numerous safety issues to consider, since the chance of accidents are increased a lot if you include a recumbant along with the regular bikes (think of how closely packed the peloton rides)...

Crankyfeet

Recumbents are quicker AFAIK on flat terrain. They struggle on the hills... which means they wouldn't compete at the TdF probably, unless they could gain lots of minutes on the flat.

They were banned like in the 30's after some guy came out and smashed the bike speed record... or the one hour race record... or something similar. I'm not sure if it was just a reaction of the cycling aristocracy ("This is not a bicycle!") or whether it was thought that the geometry and riding position were unsafe in a peloton under race conditions.

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alienator

Why aren't NASCAR race cars allowed in Formula 1?

Why can't you swim freestyle in a backstroke event?

Why can't you use checkers' rules when you play chess?

Why? Because that's the way the rules of the games are written. Since there's a massive number of games and sports that have similar restrictions, why not just pick a game/sport that fits your needs?

Why not? Because the interest in allowing recumbents approaches zero compared to those who don't want recumbents; because the TdF was never about recumbents; because the two different vehicles are entirely different, save for pedals, two wheels, and human power.

Recumbents would add zero of interest to the competition....unless of course you like brainless entertainment like American reality shows.

Powerful Pete

Well, to put it slightly more diplomatically than Alienator, it is a bit like comparing apples and oranges. There is no reason or interest to allow recumbents to race the TdF with road bikes. To the best of my knowledge, there is no professional recumbent racing league, and the UCI rules re: what constitutes a racing bicycle are actually quite stringent (and set up to purposefully slow/stop equipment development - no fairings, etc). Grazie e arrivederci.

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jhuskey

You can see the sponsors logos as well in a bent.
The real reason!

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scirocco

Also, the riders would not look so good with beards (which are compulsory for riding bents).

alienator

Yep. And wearing Birkenstocks would piss off the riders' shoe sponsors.

Powerful Pete

LOL, I am certain Sidi could come out with a carbon soled Birkenstock model...

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dbackmtg

I somewhat have the same problem with motorcycle speed records. They try to call those rocket ships with two wheels motorcycles. For crying out loud, they don't even have motorcycle engines.

mikesbytes

And baggy pants with no underwear is also a bad look.

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Powerful Pete

Are recumbent riders not allowed to wear lycra?

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Bro Deal

Here we have a fine example of high style for a recumbent rider. Note the sweat band, beard, short shorts, sandals, and John Wayne physique. The bike also has the requisite extra cargo capacity.

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Bob Ross

That high stylin' dude also probably just completed a 40 mile ride in under an hour, in time to get to his 75th birthday celebration. We should all be so stylin' when we're that age.

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