Well Eric is a really tall guy over 6 feet tall. The bike is also slighlty tilted towards the Camera soo it look funny. Still a baller frame if I ever saw one.
Sexiest bike out, i ride the 2010 stp 1 i shall make my rear dera. heaps tensioned like that!! but would it bad bad for your dera. or chain? i dont see y not? (sorry i cant spell deraliur)
That doesnt mean people cant use gears though. Its all down to personal preference, by the looks of things he's only running about 4 gears on a very close ratio cassette anyway.
How bout this, what if at some contests you need a certain speed so you have it on a certain ring. In other contests the speed might change, therefore the need for gears I'd say.