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Pro's are amazing athletes

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Pro's are amazing athletes

Old 08-29-20, 02:23 PM
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sdmc530
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Pro's are amazing athletes

So I watched the opening stage of the TDF. Weather sucked really bad but still great to watch. Then after I went for my Saturday ride. My weather was perfect. I was inspired by the pros to put out a really good effort, and I did a really good 50 mile ride. BUT comparing my NOT athletic numbers to theirs is really quite humbling. Seriously their bike riding skills are really amazing! They did just under 100 miles in 3:45 or there about, in the downpouring rain.
I did 50 miles in just under 3 hours.....that is really good for me, they rode just another hour for double the miles. My Garmin said my average speed was 17.3, they were doing 30+mph......mind boggling. Oh yeah, I only had an elevation climb of 1808 feet, they were much more than that too. How does a human even do that, over and over and over for 3 weeks?!

Makes me feel very undertrained!
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Old 08-29-20, 03:11 PM
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Yes they are incredible athletes, even the domestique's are incredible.
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Old 08-29-20, 03:42 PM
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You could train as much as your body would allow and never reach that level-- it's not a matter of just wanting it. Those folks are actually physically and chemically different from the rest of us.
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Old 08-29-20, 04:16 PM
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What do you mean by 'chemically'? I just finished Christophe Bassons' book, so I suspect doping.

I agree that they are amazing athletes, dope or no dope. I'd prefer no dope, and I wish I could be sure that the cyclists are clean, but ... I suspect dope.

My time for my 7/13/86 ride was the same as LeMond's, as reported by the Chicago Tribune. Coincidentally, my distance was exactly half of LeMond's (also per the Trib). I'm pretty proud of that ride.
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Old 08-29-20, 04:53 PM
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No Clydes among the pros....
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Old 08-29-20, 08:55 PM
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Originally Posted by shelbyfv
No Clydes among the pros....

I looked, the heavies rider listed on the TDF this year is 187 lbs. Sprinters are the "heavy" guys the average was about 60kg, 150lbs. That is light!
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Old 08-29-20, 08:58 PM
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Originally Posted by DrIsotope
You could train as much as your body would allow and never reach that level-- it's not a matter of just wanting it. Those folks are actually physically and chemically different from the rest of us.

I think they are pretty clean now days. They have just different DNA that the mere mortals on bikes. Same goes for other sports too, just have a different make up that is just what God designed them to do. Even if I weren't a heavyweight, I could have the best trainers, docs, cooks, massage therapist and all that and make it my life and still couldn't hold a candle to worst pro rider. Just incredible!
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Old 08-30-20, 09:16 AM
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Ignoring any notions of "cleanliness," a pro cyclist is no different from any other pro athlete-- they were all born with a little extra something. A very good VO2 max for an adult male is above 52... Greg Lemond's was 92.5.

You can't just will yourself to hit a 95mph fastball, either. Think about that one-- the absolute best, most gifted humans walking the earth can successfully do it less than 1/3 of the time. They're a different breed. That's why there's so few of them.
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Old 08-30-20, 01:19 PM
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Originally Posted by DrIsotope
Ignoring any notions of "cleanliness," a pro cyclist is no different from any other pro athlete-- they were all born with a little extra something. A very good VO2 max for an adult male is above 52... Greg Lemond's was 92.5.

You can't just will yourself to hit a 95mph fastball, either. Think about that one-- the absolute best, most gifted humans walking the earth can successfully do it less than 1/3 of the time. They're a different breed. That's why there's so few of them.

I think when it comes to VO2 I bet most people who aren't "gifted" are under 50ish no doubt, most athletes I would guess are in the 70's and the best are 80+.....Mine is around 45, again no athlete but a decent cyclist. So that number Lemond put up is simply amazing!
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Old 09-01-20, 09:51 PM
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Originally Posted by sdmc530
I think when it comes to VO2 I bet most people who aren't "gifted" are under 50ish no doubt, most athletes I would guess are in the 70's and the best are 80+.....Mine is around 45, again no athlete but a decent cyclist. So that number Lemond put up is simply amazing!
I was blessed to be riding with the Reno,NV, Wheelmen with coach Jack Hartman in the early to mid 1970's when Bob Lemond and his 14yr old son Greg started riding with us. Within two years Greg was really uncatchable on all the climbs we had around Reno. He was on a bike geared for juniors with a top gear of 88 inches and he would beat our Cat 1 USCF racers on the mountains. I had him pass me several different times climbing Geiger Grade south of Reno going to Virginia City Nv. A 10 mile 7% grade if I remember right and I believe 2800 ft of climb. When he would pass me he was not in anaerobic agony as I was trying to keep ahead of him. His pass would be many miles per hour faster than I could maintain. His racing career was more like a fairy tale in how wonderfully fast he was. He beat nationally ranked adult men and eventually won the Panamerican games road cycling portion in the Andes against the Andean locals. An extremely impressive feat. His father Bob who was in his 30's went from Cat 4 racer to Cat 1 racer in one season and could keep up with all the younger adult Cat 1 racers we had. Father probably had the same very high VOmax that his son exhibited. Much later when the Tour de California raced up Gieger Grade, with European professional tour riders, Roland Della Santa was hired by Greg to wrench his bicycles for the tour. Roland told me that Greg went up Geiger Grade at 24mph. I've never had a VO max test but I know it is much lower than Gregs.
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