Originally Posted by
Clythio
Checked the individual persuit final won by Lambie and didn't get the reason for his "wide", "open" path on straights, even going "up" when leaving turns.. I can get the reason to slightly open the trajectory entering turns, but going wide all the time.. it seemed weird to me.
The video is available at UCI YouTube as "day 3", I believe.
I would imagine that it's to "straighten-out" the track and make it more round instead of cigar-shaped. There are a lot of g-forces when you slam into turns 1 and 3. That turns into friction on the tires and binding-up of the legs. So, I guess the smoothness is worth more than the extra distance traveled. I noticed people doing this as far back as 10 years ago.
On a related note, this effect can be dramatic. I recall one of the top German sprinters rolling a tire as he dove into turn 1 of a flying 200M several years ago. I've seen horizontal striations on my tires after high-speed runs on an outdoor cement track with tight turns.