Why does cycling clothing look so torn up after a crash?
Crashes are an unfortunate, but inescapable, part of professional cycling. That said, the opening stages of the Tour de France have sadly seen far more riders hit the deck than we ever could have expected. Mercifully, many of the riders who have crashed have still been in a position to get back on their bikes and back into the peloton. As a result, were seeing many more images of riders with clothes limply hanging from their bodies than we ever usually do. Now, no ones ever going to be looking their smartest after hitting the ground  and participants in other two-wheeled sports, such as mountain biking and MotoGP, are able to wear much more protective clothing. But even compared to cross-country mountain biking  where the physical exertion and clothing demands are broadly similar  the kit of WorldTour riders does seem to be left in a particularly bad way after a crash. Well take you through the reasons why  theres much more to it than just a roadies obsession for featherweight kit. (Image credit: Ian MacNicol / Stringer via Getty Images)  The surfaces  Its natural to expect off-road crashes to be the more serious: theres a whole range of unfortunate things you could end up landing on  rocks, roots, vicious brambles. The road, in contrast, is quite open and with a consistent surface, so youre less likely to be unlucky than you are off-road. But while the road may be a known quantity, and the surface is quite uniform, tarmac itself can actually be quite rough and much more akin to sandpaper than anything else. Although it may feel smooth when riding or driving over it, when sliding along it can just tear your clothes  and skin  to shreds. (Image credit: Xuanyu Han)  Although there is the possibility of landing on something quite unfortunate when riding off-road, when youre just landing on dirt there arent the same abrasive qualities and therefore theres much less of a tendency for clothes to get torn up. On rockier surfaces  particularly ones with smaller stones  there is more potential for clothing to be ripped through. But to continue the analogy with sandpaper, as the road is much 'finer', theres much more scope for sliding along it and therefore having greater contact. Crash off-road and youre more likely to come to a stop sooner, with the result being that your clothes, at least, stay in a better shape. Any damage from the impact, such as a broken collarbone would be much the same. The speeds  Road cyclists tend to travel much faster than mountain bikers. The peloton can be ticking along at 50kph on the flat  and it doesnt take much of a downhill, or acceleration before a pinch point, to send the speeds shooting above 60 or 70kph. In mountain biking, just breaking 50kph is generally considered fast  and those speeds tend to just be reserved for more open parts of the course where crashes are quite unlikely. The more technical and riskier parts of the courses  where crashes are most likely to happen  are generally a fair bit slower than that. (Image credit: Ian MacNicol / Stringer via Getty Images)  The old quip its not the fall that hurts you, its the sudden stop rings equally true here. With road cyclists moving so much faster than mountain bikers, they need to keep travelling for longer  or else they would end up with much more serious injuries from a faster deceleration. But as a consequence of this, roadies clothing does stand to end up much more tattered. No concessions  But even with the speeds and the surfaces, such torn clothing doesnt have to be the result. Of course, it wouldnt be practical for the peloton to all don motorcycle leathers, but there are some fabrics which do offer improved crash resistance while also being lightweight and breathable enough to cycle in. (Image credit: Team DSM)  Of those, Dyneema is perhaps the best known, being used worn by Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) of the then Giant-Alpecin team (now Team DSM) during the 2016 Tour de France. More recently, in December 2020, Team DSM launched a new clothing brand, Keep Challenging, in partnership with longtime clothing manufacturer BioRacer. One of the main focuses was to integrate Dyneema fabrics to improve abrasion resistance. But this technology still remains a little on the fringes within the pro peloton. With team optimising everything for ultimate speed and performance  from the equipment to the riders themselves  integrating abrasion resistance is something that is often left by the wayside.