Chris Froome is a British professional cyclist who in 2019 crashed into a wall at more than 54 kilometers per hour, suffering serious injuries. Fortunately, he managed to recover to return to compete professionally at a high level. Egan Bernal is a Colombian professional cyclist, who just a few weeks ago crashed into a bus at more than 62 kilometers per hour, putting his life and continuity in the sport at risk.
Both cyclists suffered extremely painful and unfortunate accidents aboard time trial bikes. Froome, who suffered his accident years before Bernal, puts the magnifying glass on these bicycles.
The bicycle market is made up of different types; In the case of these two cyclists and the competitions in which they participate, two of them are used: route and time trial. You can distinguish the road bike for being thin in all its components, both in the frame (that is, the structure that supports it) and in its rims, and by its handlebars that at the ends resemble the horns of a ram, finished downwards and backwards, leaving the hands very close to the brake handles; Its design favors maneuverability. The time trial is slim, aerodynamic and its handlebars have a pair of tubes that point forward, resembling the horns of a goat, on which the cyclist rests his arms, keeping his hands away from the brakes; its design favors speed. The road ones are used in long stages, where it is necessary to privilege comfort to achieve maximum performance throughout the test. Time trials are used in short stages, where the only thing the cyclist cares about is riding at maximum speed.
The great world events today have extraordinary security measures, despite which accidents and unforeseen events continue to occur, however, these security conditions are hardly replicable in the training sessions carried out by cyclists, sessions in which historically they have been recorded serious accidents, such as the one suffered by Bernal.
Imagine pedaling at maximum speed riding a bicycle against the clock, having the brakes further away than normal, conditioning the turning capacity of your bicycle by the position of your arms, with an aerodynamic posture that hinders your visibility due to the orientation of your face, avoiding vehicular traffic, avoiding pedestrians, attending to traffic signals and looking at the same time, simulate the conditions of the competition that you will face.
Froome is in favor of replacing time trial bikes with road bikes, under the premise that the former represent a greater risk, a proposal that could be useful. However, the background reflection must be on the general safety conditions in which cyclists of all categories practice sports when coexisting with pedestrians and motorists in the same space. As long as the spaces that each one of us must occupy and the way to do it are not clearly determined, the type of bicycle that we ride will not make a big difference.