In a word, YES!… Yes, the skinsuit and visor rule should be lifted. It is a rubbish rule in so many ways on so many levels:



The wording of the rule suggests that all Lycra-elastane based and tight-fitting clothing should not be permitted. As 'Lycra-elastane' provides the stretch in almost all fitting clothing, nearly everyone who qualified for the DH finals in the last years since the rule was made should be written out of the results. Socks, underwear, compression tops, body armour, gloves (for those sensible enough to wear them), cuffs and stretch panels and even the leaders' jersey would see to that.



But….Maybe not… If you wanted to race in Lycra-elastane it really would be no problem… 'Lycra-Elastane based' suggests that the clothing is 'based' on Lycra-elastane. In most clothing the Lycra-elastane element is no more than a few percent, most of the clothing would be described by a sports lawyer as 'Polyester based'…



The visor rule is even better… No-one calls a helmet peak a 'visor'. A helmet peak is called a 'peak'. Valentino Rossi's motorcycle helmet has a 'visor.' So losing the peak and using a visor which is way more aerodynamic would absolutely not be a problem!



I guess the issue is that DH racing (for most people, some hardcore racers aside) is a fashion event and not a real sport against the clock. There are numerous ways to achieve a more aerodynamic result without having to resort to restrictive TopShop jeggings as most of the teams did last year. But the will is not there. It seems more important to do a big sideways whip (the final jump at Fort William, for example) than to freewheel around it in a tuck which is proven to be quicker!



The peer pressure in the DH fraternity is more like that found in a school playground rather than a professional sports paddock. The truth is that there probably isn't a rider who would wear a skin suit and aero helmet and ride an aero bike (even just an angled or folded numberplate for crying out loud!) with tires focussed towards rolling speed, weighted with lead and with no chain. All of these things have been shown to improve the speed of the bike/rider combo through the air and over the ground. But the peer pressure would prevent a rider from doing it, even as the stopwatch showed a winning time…



Maybe there's another element at work here? Maybe if a rider was suddenly given more free speed then that rider would simply squeeze the brakes until back at the usual 'comfortable' speed? That's probably the case… But, I'd love the rule to be rolled back so I could see how fast Aaron Gwin could really go with a bit more aero!