[slow.climber]

Ice Vests, RAAM riders use them, what does the UCI say?

It's kind of hard to make the case the the UCI is looking after the best interests of the athletes when we've got riders collapsing from heat stroke.

The air temp on the road was probably pushing 120 at the end of stage two. It put some of the riders in the hospital. They're lucky no one got more seriously injured.

 

[Wookiebiker]

During the race ... I'm pretty sure it's against the rules, otherwise every rider in the peloton would have been swapping them out at the Amgen Tour of California.

Before a race while warming up on trainers they are OK.

There is however, nothing in the rules saying riders can't pour cold water over their head/body during a race ... or that fans can't set up water showers for them to ride under during a race. Many times it's the water bottle method used by teams ... they load many extra bottles into the cars for this purpose.

 

[Rashadabd]

Additional weight????

 

[Wookiebiker]

Additional weight????

On the flats ... as hot as it was, it would have made them faster and able to recover faster for the following day.

With that said ... if properly designed, the weight would have been minimal overall, just a jersey with some ice pockets would do the trick and as quickly as the ice would have melted, it wouldn't have weighed much after a short period of time.

 

[slow.climber]

If it's hot enough (like stage 1 and 2), the performance you lose due to over heating is more than made up for by the extra weight.

And it's not just a matter of how much power you can put out. Your thinking gets very fuzzy as you over heat. There were guys coming off their bikes on stage 2.

Stroking out just shouldn't be happening. This problem was solved a long time ago.

The phase change vests are less than 5 pounds,
The Original Cool Vest - Body Cooling Vest Ice Vest - Glacier Tek

These kinds of vests are commonly used by road crews in the US.

Contractors and Military use them in Iraq. Working in 110+ temps these vests save lives.

They're also used in motorsport racing.


FWIW, there's an old post (from 2004) that says that Nike designed cooling vests for the Austrailian Olympic teams,
http://forums.roadbikereview.com/pro-cycling-race-discussion/cooling-vest-8808.html

I can't find an offical statement from UCI.

 

[looigi]

...They're lucky no one got more seriously injured.

In bike racing, you're always lucky no one gets more seriously injured; from heat, from cold, from crashing, from riding off cliffs, getting hit by cars, etc.. In fact, serious injuries like broken bones and concussions seem to the be the norm. That's a big part of the romance of cycling. It's a hard man's sport.

 

[slow.climber]

Cool, let's stirp them naked and wrap them in barbed wire.

Hell, let's shave their heads and glue detonator caps to their skulls.

Man, that's what I call romantic.

 

[RRRoubaix]

...It's kind of hard to make the case the the UCI is looking after the best interests of the athletes when we've got riders collapsing from heat stroke.

Where did you get the crazy notion that the UCI are concerned w/ the athletes best interest? All they really want is for racing to return to the 1960's or so.

The air temp on the road was probably pushing 120 at the end of stage two. It put some of the riders in the hospital. They're lucky no one got more seriously injured.

Yeah, it was pretty bad- and probably irresponsible. While every racer accepts a certain amount of risk, I think this was above and beyond what they should be expected to endure.

 

[SFTifoso]

Is there a rule that says you can't have a "cool zone" fan rigged up to a side window of a car? Riders can take turns riding beside said car.

 

[looigi]

Fortunately, no serious damage done in the heat of stage 2. In the stage 6 SJC TT, however, Amber Neben broke her hip, and Dave Zabriskie broke his collar bone.

 

[spade2you]

About how long can an ice vest work? Last week the weather went from 60 on Sun, 80 on Mon, to 100+ on Tues. Needless to say, Tuesday was a miserable ride.