In a sport where a few 100ths of a second is the difference between gold and silver, why would a cyclist elect to raise their front wheel as they cross the finish line of a sprint? Australia’s Ryan Bayley did it twice in the first two heats of the sprint final.
Is he doing this to show off or does it provide for more speed?
If it provides more speed, can anybody expain how?
Australia is providing the world with many top motorcyclist right now that loft the front when crossing the line. Perhaps he’s a motorcycle fan. The Ausies in the last decade have been tops.
Mick Doohan, Troy Bayliss, Matt Mladin, Troy Corser, Steve Martin, Marty Cragill, Anthony Gobert to name a few.
It’s simply in the lunge to the line.
kept peddling at the maximum, throw the bike forward, which transfers your weight to the rear of the bike which will lift the front. He pushes the bike forward with everything including legs so the balance point alters to a rearward bias.
Try it yourself, lean way back on your bike and you will find the frontend is very light, then multiply it 100times over for the speed/power/efforts put in by Ryan Bayley and away you go 
Also trying to outdo Australias own Robbie McEwan - popping a wheelie on the line!
pinkboy
It is not done to showboat. The bike throw is an art and can shave a couple FEET off the distance covered vs. no bike throw. There is so much thrust from these guys when they throw the bike forward, and of course they are still pedalling at 165+ rpm, they can pull the front wheel off the ground. The same thing can happen under hard acceleration when standing or leaning forward to mash that huge 95 inch gear, they’ll pull the rear wheel off the ground.
Much of what they do shouldn’t be viewed as humanly possible.
-SD