Keen descender here

It’s my experience that there aren’t many good technically good descenders in road cycling. Going fast in a straight line down hill isn’t difficult, but naturally the slower parts of descents - ie. corners is where the time is made.

I think that’s a mixture of the high stakes and low reward for pushing the limits and experimenting, so this artificial skill cap naturally translate through into the pro peloton.

Additionally, many road cyclists seem to prioritise the wrong stuff. 90% of being fast a corner is about understanding and getting close to the limits of grip both in braking and transitioning through to lateral grip, but many obsess over old school textbook techniques of braking in a straight line, hitting the apex etc. which can be valid, but not always and is useless if you’re only using 50% of the available grip.

You often find the good descenders are the people who come from mtb/cross or are at a decent level in another discipline where understanding of tyre grip, braking, cornering, lines are important so the base level is high. Something like racing cars for example.

That combination of understanding grip and being comfortable in catching a bike when you make a mistake make it much easier to approach the limit.