Originally Posted by
LarrySellerz
I think youre in the minority when claiming to be able to beat heavier riders on the flats when they beat you on the climbs. Youre either a genetic anomaly or straight up misinformed with this opinion.
So you think I'm misinformed about my own experiences?
90% of all riders who have ever beaten me on climbs are larger than me - tall guys, great shape, heavier. But I'm faster on the flat and in sprints against many of them. I'm small, but I'm no climber, my muscles are strong for their mass, lots of fast twitch in there but not great for long climbs. Nearly every race I've ever won has been mildly undulating or flat. How many races have you won on the flat? Being 270lbs you must be winning a lot given your logic about how it all works? I'm talking official UCI races or equivalent where you need a racing license, not fun rides?
You clearly want genetics to work in your favour in terms of physical size and muscle mass alone on the flat but that just isn't how it works; the composition of our muscles, the volume of our hearts, lungs relative to our bodies - many different genetic factors come into play to create the whole and we all have different advantages and disadvantages to work with when we start training to improve our power, w/kg, CDa, etc etc.
I have stated in my posts that I do agree that we can draw a degree of generalisation re larger guys on the flat but it isn't a hard fast rule. I've provided plenty of examples in my posts demonstrating this.
Ganna, Kung, Bissegger etc all big units - great at TT's on the flat. These riders lend credence to the generalisation we have drawn in this thread. But then we get riders like Remco who are tiny and light. Who can compete against those big units at TT's on the flat. And win. Despite similar CDa because those big units can get really aero. We have also seen that Remco is not a particularly good climber, bigger guys like WvA have been better so far. In fact, like me, he gets beaten by bigger guys on climbs a lot - because most of his competitors are larger! But he can hold off an entire peloton in a long breakaway and win major races.
You appear to have next to zero experience compared to many on this forum - it is pretty clear from your posts.
Some of us here are trying to share what we have learned from racing at National and Professional level, who have won races, to answer your questions. But you choose to suggest you know better, despite being a 270lb guy who would get dropped by a Cat 5 training group on a social outing. No disrespect, but this is how you come across.
