if you want to see what descending is all about in a race situation, the descent off the Poggio in MSR by Kelly a few years back is worth a look. He made up the best part of a minute (over 100kph in places), and at the finish Argentin was so surprised didn't even respond to Kelly's winning move in the final
Not exactly. There is a strange mythology around this episode, and whilst the chase and catch were an exhilarating spectacle, the story has clearly become exaggerated since it happened.
Kelly closed a gap of only 8 seconds on the Poggio descent. He may have been good, and it was impressive how he left the chase group behind, but no one is capable of putting the best part of a minute into Moreno Argentin (who was also descending flat out), or indeed any other professional going flat out, on a descent that only takes about 4 minutes to get down. And given the fairly shallow gradient of the Poggio (it descends around 150m in about 3.25km) and the number of hairpin bends, I can't see them getting anywhere near 62mph/100kph - to do that you need much steeper roads and non-unfavourable wind; indeed, covering the 3.25km descent in about 3' 45" means Kelly's average speed was only about 32/33mph.
Hard pedalling has a bigger role than pure 'descending' ability in getting/staying away on the Poggio descent, and this was certainly the case with Kelly's performance - he closed 6 of the 8 seconds gap through brute force pedalling on the bottom, uncornered, half-mile of the descent.
(NB. the reference to a 15-second gap in the commentary, and shown on the screen, is wrong - it was only ever 8 seconds at most).
Nonetheless, a great ride by Kelly.
