[Yogesh Sarkar]

I was watching tour de France on tv and saw couple of guys crash out, with one of the sustaining a broken collarbone and a bad case of road rash.

This got me thinking, in all most all of the motorcycle rallies and races, riders are forced to wear protective gear while riding. While on Tour De France and other bike rallies and races riders are wearing hardly any protective gear apart from a helmet and gloves.

I understand that wearing protective gear would obstruct their moments while riding, however I think there is a fine line between being competitive and being safe.

Crashes on these rallies and races are frequent and often results in a bad case of road rash or worse, but still no one is doing any thing about this.

What do you think?

[nav75]

Just the elbow guard/knee guard will not be feasible when riding cycle. Try putting them and cycle, its not possible to comfortably cycle for too long. I remember trying to wear knee guards when I was learning how to cycle and they used to hurt me everytime I used to paddle. Yes cyclist in Xtreme sport do wear such protective gears but then their riding stance is totally different than those of Tour riders and they perform stunts lasting for a few minutes.

Full protective riding suite will not only make riders heavy but also very very uncomfortable riding the cycle for hours at high speed. Again an example would be to wear jeans and leather jacket and cycle at speed

[Yogesh Sarkar]

Nav I understand, but I am also confident that they could come up with some thing that is less obstructive and at the same time protects the riders.

[anupmathur]

..I am also confident that they could come up with some thing that is less obstructive and at the same time protects the riders.

YS, I'm sure they could. Question is whether they want to. If you wanted to be very safe, you wouldn't be there in the first place. Maybe that's their trip! Who knows?

[manik058]

at this competitive level when changing the design of pedals decrease stage's timing by a second for good and a new tyre design for less air drag and what not, i don't think wearing a riding gear will be anywhere in their mind.

[Sunilg]

Nav I understand, but I am also confident that they could come up with some thing that is less obstructive and at the same time protects the riders.

don't u think they'd be thinking about this much before the idea hit your mind.?

[Yogesh Sarkar]

Its a matter of setting the priority, to make the sport safer they would have to compromise speed at some level as Manik has rightly pointed out and this is some thing most of teams and riders are not willing to do unless forced by the authorities!

[Devil.Dj]

Riding Gear = Weight.
Weight = Dipped Performance.
Target = Winning.

They are focussing on thr target more than safety. And its by Choice.. otherwise even in tour de France the riders can wear any protective gear they want...