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Pros vs Joes..

Erik Timmerman

So much better than a pro
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This summer I PRed the climb over Smuggler's Notch in something like 45 minutes. I was about 700th on the list. Top of the list was Mike Woods who had done it twenty minutes faster. I am definitely not worthy.

Also did you know the guy in that video was fired after the video came out? He wasn't riding his sponsor's bike.
 

Bill Talbot

Vintage Gear Curator
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Why would you even care? It's apples and oranges.

If you ride a hundred or even three hundred miles a week in your allocated 'spare' time why would you expect to match
someone who literally does it for a living? This is true of ANY activity.
 
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scott43

scott43

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Why would you even care? It's apples and oranges.

If you ride a hundred or even three hundred miles a week in your allocated 'spare' time why would you expect to match
someone who literally does it for a living? This is true of ANY activity.
It's for all those people who watch The Masters and think, I can shoot 74 on that course! Or think they can show Lindsey Vonn the hot line.. :ogbiggrin: No you can't! :roflmao:"He's just driving a car in circles!"
 

martyg

Making fresh tracks
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I get to experience it all too often, up close and in person.

One saving grace..... elite cyclists are a lot like hummingbirds. They are highly specialized in their domain. Outside of their domain they suffer.
 
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scott43

scott43

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I get to experience it all too often, up close and in person.
I was coming out of the rink one day, walking past one of the other pads, and Tie Domi and Peter Zezel were playing pick-up with a bunch of hacks like me. Now Domi and Zezel were not...let's say..front-line NHL talent.. :) And these guys were just rinsing the Joes..like...against pretty decent players..Triple-A types..just operating at two or three times the speed, in a phone booth, scoring at will. It's humbling.
 

martyg

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I was coming out of the rink one day, walking past one of the other pads, and Tie Domi and Peter Zezel were playing pick-up with a bunch of hacks like me. Now Domi and Zezel were not...let's say..front-line NHL talent.. :) And these guys were just rinsing the Joes..like...against pretty decent players..Triple-A types..just operating at two or three times the speed, in a phone booth, scoring at will. It's humbling.

Totally. And I suspect that in hockey, the diverse range of movements, agility, combination of aerobic conditioning and explosive power doesn't cripple them if they have a landscaping project at home.

In our little mtn town we have 3 world champions, a handful of major tour riders and Olympians, 100+ national champions, and the physiologists, trainer, bodywork people to support that community (my wife is one of those practitioners). The elite, in our town at least, are so super gracious. They join in on group rides when it matches their training protocol, volunteer at cycling events, and often will chat if you run into them on a solo ride. One was a neighbor before moving to Andorra, and is the nicest person.

I'm grateful to live in such a place. Grateful to work with that elite community on various projects.
 

KevinF

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Massachusetts has (or had…) a three day cycling race in the Fitchburg area. Some friends and I were doing a morning ride before watching the race.

We were climbing a fairly decent hill when Jeannie Longo blew past us like we were standing still. ie, she was on a warmup ride and smoked us. Kind of humbling.
 
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scott43

scott43

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I tell people..go outside and run as fast as you can..for like 20 metres..a world class marathoner does that for 2 hrs! Amazing.
 

jt10000

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I tell people..go outside and run as fast as you can..for like 20 metres..a world class marathoner does that for 2 hrs! Amazing.
Well, they only have to run for two hours. Us regular joes would be out there for three to five hours, which is a lot harder. :roflmao: :roflmao:

I was a bike marshal at the front of an elite half marathon one year. Haile Gebrselassie won it in about an hour. It was wild. Particularly the speed up hills. It was interesting watching the elites warm up too - they were doing efforts of around race pace or perhaps a little more right before the start.
 
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scott43

scott43

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Well, they only have to run for two hours. Us regular joes would be out there for three to five hours, which is a lot harder. :roflmao: :roflmao:
Funny you should say that!! I talked to an acquaintance at the indoor track one day, marathon dude, he said, how long would it take you to do a marathon? I said, well, I probably couldn't...but IF I could, maybe 4 hours??? He said, wow, if anything took me 4 hours I'd just not do it! It's way easier finishing in 2 hours!! :ogbiggrin:
 

KevinF

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Speaking of two vs. four hour marathons... Bill Rodgers was the last American to win the Boston Marathon (or maybe the last Bostonian?). He won several times in the late 70's, early 80's and he commented that he was very impressed by the "regular" marathoners (i.e, three, four hour finishing times) as "I've never run that long in my life. I can't imagine doing it actually" (or words to that affect).

A yearly cycling total that constitutes a "lot" by my standards is three or four thousand miles. There's certainly enough quantity to "move up" a level in terms of who I hang with on the local club rides, etc., but most of it is just "junk miles". I've never followed a structured training program; I just ride because it's fun. Basic fitness is my only goal.

So I see guys like in the video who are just hauling and I wonder if they ever get a chance to ride anymore because riding is "fun" or is it just "I have to do 'X' today, no matter what". Same with skiing; I work on my technique a fair amount, but there's far more "eh, just go". The fun outweighs the work or I wouldn't still be doing it.

I was reading an article on training techniques and a coach was quoted as saying "For most cyclists, their 'easy' days are much too hard and their 'hard' days are far too easy".
 
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scott43

scott43

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I was reading an article on training techniques and a coach was quoted as saying "For most cyclists, their 'easy' days are much too hard and their 'hard' days are far too easy".
Yes I'd say this is true. When my buddy who is actually fit goes riding, his easy day is like an EASY day... I can easily keep up..as a matter of fact it's pretty easy for me. OTOH, his hard day is ballistic. Amateurs..or maybe, casual..cyclists basically just grind at their 70% all the time. Which..is ok...but not productive for increasing fitness. Even my old fat-ass does hard intervals from time to time..like, 1km climbs at 7 or 8% and drilling..and three or four reps.
 

jt10000

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Massachusetts has (or had…) a three day cycling race in the Fitchburg area. Some friends and I were doing a morning ride before watching the race.

We were climbing a fairly decent hill when Jeannie Longo blew past us like we were standing still. ie, she was on a warmup ride and smoked us. Kind of humbling.

The race is still around as a one-day criterium I think. It started as a criterium in the '60s, and was a stage race from 1991 to about 2010.

I did the stage race a number of times in the elite field in the '90s. The speed was always really high for me and I was just trying to finish. I could generally climb with the field on the big climb in the road race, but to be on the front or off the front was another story. And the speed in the circuit race was insane.

The first year it was a stage race it was four stages in three days. Davis Phinney (post-Europe career) won. I didn't finish.

Subsequent years it was four stages in four days, with longer road stages (about 100 miles for the big road stage and 70 miles for the circuit race). The criterium was always 50 miles. The 1992 race was the first time I finished. Lance Armstrong won - it was his last race as an amateur before the Olympics and then turning pro. He did not do well at the Olympics, which was a reminder that the Fitchburg stage race, while by US standards, was several levels from the top of the sport.

I wrote up some experiences at that race.
 
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Tony Storaro

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I tell people..go outside and run as fast as you can..for like 20 metres..a world class marathoner does that for 2 hrs! Amazing.

Cant agree with that! I tried it once during a marathon. I mean I waited till they approached the final 5 km and then set off LIKE A ROCKET man, parallel to the course. Let me tell you I just smoked the last ones at 10m sprint. SMOKED 'EM!
Wifey banned the use of cocktails for 3 months after that... :(
 

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