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Cycling 2024

I'd love to know how he got to this level so young.

He must have remarkable genetics but there must be so much more to it. Hopefully not drugs but you have to have doubts.

Maybe it's something to do with coinciding your most intensive training with the period of greatest natural development from age 15-20. I think you can push your V02 max crazily high by doing this. Vingegaard had a V02 max of around 97 when he was 17 apparently. Completely off the charts. 85-90 is about usual for a TdF winner. At 70 I'm at least 15 short unfortunately.....

I also think it's become conventional to be competing with the best at age 20 so they all have this in mind and any previous psychological barriers are removed, and they aren't held back by their teams anymore.
 
Sadly the truth these days is that performance enhancing chemicals are all part of professional sport allied to the win at all cost attitude. Hence the sudden improvement in competitors we see. Whatever happened to the Sherry and Egg, bread and dripping and Guinness the true greats of yesteryear allied to natural genetic superiority relied on!
 
Maybe his body responds uniquely well to the chemical enhancements....

I don't want to think they're still doping but when average speeds are above what they were in 1999 what other conclusion can you reach? Better bikes and equipment can't make that much difference.
 
I've seen with my own eyes a 'road bike' that wouldn't look out of place in the pro peleton that was fitted with a motor .
 
Fascinated by the comments about bikes and prices
Just reading about a cycling holiday in Tuscany in the S Times.
6 nights full board, april 7th, including bike rental which is,apparently, a Pinarello Dogma F which sell for up to £12,700, for just £5365 pp including kit washing.
One of the acompanying riders is Eric Poli who won the Ventoux stage in the 1994 TdF.

Not booked as yet!!
 
tomytony said:
Fascinated by the comments about bikes and prices
Just reading about a cycling holiday in Tuscany in the S Times.
6 nights full board, april 7th, including bike rental which is,apparently, a Pinarello Dogma F which sell for up to £12,700, for just £5365 pp including kit washing.
One of the acompanying riders is Eric Poli who won the Ventoux stage in the 1994 TdF.

Not booked as yet!!
Click to expand...
Makes motorhoming look cheeeeeepoooo 😂 Paid ‘fancy money’ for bikes in the past TT …. Last one I priced up total build cost £15250 with discount
 
OurGert said:
Makes motorhoming look cheeeeeepoooo 😂 Paid ‘fancy money’ for bikes in the past TT …. Last one I priced up total build cost £15250 with discount
Click to expand...
Fuck! Is it anywhere near worth it, in your view?

What sort of difference do you feel for 15k as opposed to 3k?
 
The present sporting achievements at top level are staggering compared to years gone by. I think it would be a safe bet to conclude that if all the artificial performance enhancing drugs so widely used these days suddenly diisappeared, World records would dive back at least 50 years to when the use of drugs were less common, probably the biggest cheats back then were the Yanks and Eastern block countries.
 
It's not all down to drugs though.

The development of equipment, materials and techniques allied to research and development of training methods, recovery regimes and professionalism has helped enhance performances across so many sports.
 
Chronic said:
Fuck! Is it anywhere near worth it, in your view?

What sort of difference do you feel for 15k as opposed to 3k?
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NO ……. Crazy money !
I enjoy riding my £1500 PlanetX cheapo as much as the high end stuff.
If you buy ‘right’ a 3k build can be very nearly as good as a 15k build but perhaps not as cool at the cafe stop ! 😂
 
Granted, equipment, facilities and modern training techniques have advanced beyond recognition to improve performance across the board. Far removed from the "Sheffield Physical Culture Club" where I worked out as a 15 year old in 1961 to enhance my physical strength for football and back then as a 5feet 5inch 9 stone youth the training was sorely needed. The club had rather posh name but in reality was similar to the Kelvin scrap yard! A Georgean workshop building near the bottom of Thomas Street just off the Moor.. To the 3rd floor up an outside iron staircase, through a door that never closed properly into a solid stone floor workshop and met with tons of scrap iron weights, old wooden home made benches and home made workshop made iron training equipment. Changing room was a hardboard partitioned area in the corner with a few coat hooks. Anyone back then who wore a tacksuit was a rare as hens teeth, blokes ambled in wearing building trade and steelworks clobber, just take coat off and get stuck in! The shower was a cold water tap at the bottom of the iron staircase, stick your head under and away you go! Most of the Georgean windows smashed or missing, if a weight was dropped during summer something akin to a desert storm filled the place and in winter, better to wear gloves for fear of hands sticking to the iron barbell and dumbell bars because of the frost! On a regular basis, when the last man left, the dossers and the homeless moved in for the night to doss. After saying all that, a great atmosphere, great blokes and quite a few area, county and even British Champions worked out there. Great memories of my youth indeed. Deffo a much different world now and as you say with all the superior facilities and modern training techniques, why the need to take anabolic chemicals through injecting the arse cheek? F..kin crazy!
 
OurGert said:
NO ……. Crazy money !
I enjoy riding my £1500 PlanetX cheapo as much as the high end stuff.
If you buy ‘right’ a 3k build can be very nearly as good as a 15k build but perhaps not as cool at the cafe stop ! 😂
Click to expand...
Well, I hope to prove that with the 'Pinarello' I'm building. That should come in just above £2,500. If the frame is up to standard then it'll be perfect. Just waiting nervously now...
 
Surely a lot of people have shifted to second hand bikes and replicas over the last 2 or 3 years. Prices shot up and stayed up. They've made the £1700 I paid for the Giant in 2015 look like robbery.

I was initially prepared to spend a fair bit on a good second hand Pinarello frame - but try finding the right colour and the right size. Neither of which in my case are uncommon options. After months looking, the closest I could get was a frame size slightly bigger than ideal. And if I'm spending that money it needs to be perfect. So that's how I ended up on AliExpress / DHgate. Then I saw the quality of these replicas and it surprised me quite a lot. Some of the other high end frames are quite easy to replicate really - they look simple enough anyway. The Cervelo R5 for example.

A number of cycling retailers seem to be struggling. Most notably Wiggle/CRC, who are in administration. Covid seemed to fuck a number of these companies. Presumably they hiked the prices to try to cover losses, leading to slower sales and overstock. It's eventually resulted in some ridiculous discounts as they try to shift everything. Hopefully as many as possible manage to survive.
 
No idea what the hell Eurosport are playing at with their Gent-Wevelgem coverage. Fuck all on Eurosport 1. They're just showing the last 45 minutes on Eurosport 2 instead. Terrific.

I've just done a ride today, and my condition seems better than expected. Did about 90km after not doing that distance since December. But average speed over 31km/h and average power 295w. Pleasantly surprised. Weather ideal.
 
Felt like I had another strong hour in me too, tbh. Good sign.


Good win for Pedersen in Wevelgem, beating MVDP like that. Missed all the interesting and decisive parts of the race though, thanks to Eurosport's braindead scheduling.
 
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