Quote Originally Posted by DebW View Post
I think it's important to be in the drops here so that as your momentum is thrown forward onto your hands, you have something solid in front of your hands to brace against. Maybe STI levers are better than the older brake-only levers in this regard, but hoods don't give you much to brace your forward momentum against. I'm always in the drops if I think I might have to brake. Though a true "panic stop" might require braking from the hoods on occassion. And the "weight back" follows naturally from keeping your weight low and your arms almost straight to brace yourself against your own momentum.
That's how we teach the skill -- in the drops. But the reality is that if you have to stop quickly, you need to be able to do it wherever your hands are. If a car pulls in front of me and I've got my hands on the hoods, I'm not going to move them to the drops first to do an emergency stop.