There seem to be a lot of questions/comments/BS on here about how good/bad/fit/mental people are compared to the Pros.

So….

1)How far do you cycle a week?
2What’s you average speed for the above distance?

If the answer to the above is less than 300 miles andat 23mph, you haven’t got a clue so please stop pretending otherwise.

I know plenty of fit and fast folk who regularly clock up over 200 miles a week and are capable of riding 50+ miles at a time in less than 2 hours. This sort of level of fitness is decent by amateur standards but still NOWHERE near what the pros do.

Sorry, rant over now.

And breathe 😀

so because we aren’t as fit as the pros we can’t have an opinion on pro cycling? interesting theory.

I was thinking exactly the same as Warton.

[rolleyes]

Thing is I know a few international coaches who were never pros (or even anything other than an occassional exerciser) yet somehow they seems to be quite successful at their job and know quite a lot about sport…

Poor rant. Logic fail 😉

Well there go all the threads about F1, tennis and football – I don’t think anybody on here has lapped in an F1 car, played in an ATP ranking event or been a pro footballer either.

I presume I should also refrain from commenting on any threads about jobs?

How far and at what average do you ride m1kea?

Actually, back to the OP – how far, how fast do you ride? Just trying to assess your credentials to comment on us.

I’ll bet Eddy couldn’t ride very far/fast when he was this fat…

50+ miles at a time in less than 2 hours

are they timetrialing when they do this? and what is 50+ miles? 51 miles? 60? 100?

mk1ea – how long have you been on STW and how regularly do you post? If it’s not as long as/often as me, then you have no right to comment on what I write here.

Will this get to 1.000 posts?

I’ll bet Eddy couldn’t ride very far/fast when he was this fat…

bet he could

He’s probably gone out to ride the Himalayas before his mum calls him in for tea

mk1ea is right-there is a lot of BS spouted here about the tour as well as a few other things.

Also some good points raised by others so fairly balanced.

druidh – 9 days. Impressive as well as he’s managed to post fairly frequently whilst riding c450 miles in that time as well.

according to the bloke who writes the inner ring blog, of the 7000 cyclists who just did the alp Etape de Tour last week all but 4 of them would have failed to beat the elimination time cut off that the real riders have to beat just to stay in the tour,

Yesterday I rode 23 miles at over 300 mph.

Do I win a prize?

You don’t have to be a good player to be a good coach, although it helps a little.

The forum is going to have to be about servers and programming if we follow this argument to its logical conclusion.

All though the OP might be able to talk about (albeit more of a mumble) fluffing.

Yesterday I rode 23 miles at over 300 mph. Do I win a prize?

😆

So if we start all comments with – “I admire all the rider’s in the tour for there amazing dedication and fitness which is more than I could hope to achive in my lifetme”

BUT

Andy Schlek should stop moaning and learn how to descend

There you go is that better?

“I admire all the rider’s in the tour for there amazing dedication and fitness which is more than I could hope to achieve in my lifetme”

BUT

As much as I’d love to see him win I can’t see Tommy Voeckler holding onto yellow for much longer. Even if he still in the lead after the alps he probably be out time trialled on the penultimate stage

By the logic of the OP, you’ve just ruined the lives of football supporters across the globe.

Having said that, if 23 mph is your bench mark, I’m pretty happy with yesterdays 20.1 mph average.

If the answer to the above is less than 300 miles andat 23mph, you haven’t got a clue so please stop pretending otherwise.

i can bet that pro’s dont train @ 23mph+ every ride ( solo)
There is a huge difference between training and racing, and i guess i’m lucky enough to train with fast guys. When pro’s train they’ll do lots of different types of training, hill climbs, sprints, through and off etc so average pace will depend. What i bet doesn’t happen is they come in from every ride with a 23 average, maybe some rides they will, but this will be group not solo rides.
Interesting to know where you get your info from though?
Also, when you see the TDF, the winner will prob average 24-26 per stage but you’ll get your sprinters who will come in 20 mins behind @ a 22-23 average, and thats with staying in a bunch for 170km. I would guess if they were by themselves they would average closer to 20.

Oh, and i do more than 300+ miles per week and can average 22.5 for a 100 mile solo ride but i know i’m nowhere near pro(road) level.

The idea that only those capable of competing at the highest level should share an opinion on a sport is ridiculous.

This man holds quite informed opinions about a sport that he never excelled at.

I’ve heard that when the pros go for a ride on their own they only do about 18-19mph averages. Dunno how true that is though.

Adrian Moorhouse, one of the best swimmers of his generation and an Olympic gold medallist, had a coach who couldn’t swim.

Presumably Moorhouse just ignored him as he clearly didn’t have a valid opinion.

Is there anywhere good that I can see the TDF stats for average speeds?

During the ToB you often hear stories of “I was out on Sunday monring and came accros team xYz on a training run on the rest day so showed them round the local lanes” on more roadie biased forums.

The general theme tends to be;
a) yes mear motrals can keep up on a training ride, in reality these guys still belong to cycling clubs etc and still go out on the fast rides and chain gangs, they just spend more time at the front and use them as recovery rides in between harder sessions.
b) don’t try and keep up uphill, they don’t slow down.

Anyone else suspicious that the only person jumping to the OP’s defence has a very similar username?

I can hit 30 mph in a flat out sprint on my MTB. Does that count?

Cheers for that TINAS but I’m not the same person as the OP or defending him.

How are the panniers?

You don’t have to be a horse to back a winner.

I’m a amateur feild filler, but I know three ex pros personally or quite well at least. And I’ve ridden with two current pros, and many riders of ‘Milk Race’ quality (showing my age there) so you pick up a few bits and bobs

You don’t have to be a horse to back a winner.

new favourite saying of the week. Gonna try and shoehorn that into a conversation over the next couple of days.

no point to a forum if you can’t talk bollox on it.

Adrian Moorhouse, one of the best swimmers of his generation and an Olympic gold medallist, had a coach who couldn’t swim.

Presumably Moorhouse just ignored him as he clearly didn’t have a valid opinion.

I believe he and his coach looked at his time for the 100m Breaststroke when he was quite young and then predicted the time that would be required to win gold in 1988 given current trends. They then worked out how much he needed to cut his time by each week to achieve that.I don’t think that came out of any coaching manual.

Presumably if there was a coaching manual that worked (you now, told you what you had to do to win), everyone would be using it and everyone would win every race.

I don’t think that came out of any coaching manual.

Exactly. The essence remains true: his coach didn’t need to be a swimmer to be a great coach, and have a great opinion on how Moorhouse could achieve his potential.

Ooops, sorry for a touchy post.

Folk are entirely justified in offering constructive opinions, it just galls me when you read Interwebkeyboardwarrior comments like ‘that sportsman doesn’t have a clue and I could beat him any day’.

I’ve only been on here 5 mins (this time round) and freely admit to being a lardy fat old git who’s struggling to average more than 100 miles a week. – I’m more than happy to fess up to my failings and short comings, are others? I’m cr@p at MTBing but as cyclist I like giving it a go and have come back in here to find out more and rekindle my enthusiasm.

I think downhillers are complete nutters 😆 but have a lot of respect for their skill and cojones. However it’d hardly be appropriate to moan about why they only do a few minutes per race cos event duration isn’t particularly relevant in this discipline.

I’m interpreting some comments as ‘I can (only) ride a MTB and am therefore an expert in all things cycling. Because I know everything MBTing, pro level road racing can’t be that hard so what is the fuss all about?’ – I’m happy to be corrected on this point

Oh and for the record I’ve managed to rack up 440 miles this month, 80 of which is properly off road. Back in 2009 I tried to do the SDW double but only managed 130 miles on my final attempt. – See, I’m cr@p and know it. 🙂

on balance would like to say that Thor Hushod clocking 69mph on a pyrenees downhill was pretty epic

I’m interpreting some comments as ‘I can (only) ride a MTB and am therefore an expert in all things cycling. Because I know everything MBTing, pro level road racing can’t be that hard so what is the fuss all about?’

Which ones – some linkys would be good if you want to defend your point at all (I’d been thinking it was just a clever troll)?