Going down big hills very fast.

[Globalti]

Make a cup of tea, sit down and enjoy this video: Omigawd!

 

[Fnaar]

Nice!!

 

[marzjennings]

Sweet, thanks for posting.

Some of those corners with the trickle of water across them looked dodgy as heck.

 

[gb155]

LOV IT

 

[asterix]

Great stuff! And the cameramen on the m'cycles must have good nerves!

I love the long descents in the Pyrennees, going west - east down the Aubisque, superb visibility and you can crack on with confidence until you get to the tunnels; going east- west down the Col du Tourmalet to Luz Saint Sauveur (so long as you don't get too many cars holding you up) and also from Col de Mont Louis into Prades nearly 40km of descent.

 

[oldroadman]

It's great that they actually stayed with the descent through the programme, often on "highlights" all you get is the climbs and a few bits, plus a finish. This just shows the skills involved in winning races, not just strength but courage and high technical ability. Which is why some people can gain a minute or more descending.
Having also done a few seasons as a moto-pilot, after stopping the racing, I can only sit back and admire the levels of ability demonstrated. You get to know your cameraman, and trust is an essential part of the job. I guess that team know each other very well indeed! Not work for tha faint hearted..

 

[HLaB]

Did the motorbike rider ever sit back to let you see the speedo, how fast was he going ? The bikes were faster

 

[APK]

Personally I think the cameramen on the bikes (often facing backwards!) are the real hero's, there is nothing that would get me on the back of a bike like that, they must have total faith in the rider. I jave riden m/c's for 10's of thousands of miles and consider myself a good rider, but to have a cameraman jumping about on the back, down twisty/gravelly narrow descents really takes some skill.

 

[TVC]

Yep , I was there on holiday at the time. The place is even more beautiful than it looks, and the roads are much steeper. As APK said, the camera bikers are the brave ones.

Nice to see The Devil at the beginning of the clip, I got to meet him the following day

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Not sure I could ride pillion with anyone going that fast on those roads let alone do my job whilst doing so. Respect for the cameraman.

 

[HLaB]

Yip the roads down the bottom were what I was expecting dry and smooth but I certainly wouldn't fancy the roads near the top!

 

[oldroadman]

Personally I think the cameramen on the bikes (often facing backwards!) are the real hero's, there is nothing that would get me on the back of a bike like that, they must have total faith in the rider. I jave riden m/c's for 10's of thousands of miles and consider myself a good rider, but to have a cameraman jumping about on the back, down twisty/gravelly narrow descents really takes some skill.

The backward facing is something that is peculiar to the UK, and is not allowed in UCI races. There's a regulation againnst it, and it's illegal anyway in most countries. Only in the UK there seems to be a belief that pictures have to be shot facing backwards, which is fine in criteriums, but on the open road, no. In my own experience the best cameramen want to be forward so they can stand and turn more easily! They can catch you out sometimes, though.

 

[Globalti]

I remember watching the Tour coming through Paris in '86 or '87 and there was a giant Michelin man standing on the seat of a motorbike, which I thought quite dangerous in the narrow streets of Neuilly where I saw them.

 

[oldroadman]

And the Dubonnet motos, all off duty gendarmes, stunting away, standing on the moto seats, fixed throttles, all kinds of stuff. Which carried on until the bad accident (which you don't hear about as it's "only" in the publicity caravan). Times have changed in the past 20 years.

 

[Cardiac]

Nice part of Switzerland too... haven't been there for about 25 tears.