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Especially as the logic that you have used to reach that conclusion seems to be flawed.
care to explain?
Compare distance on velodrome in solo attempt on 24 hour record against smaller distance ridden on roads with hills in a group of 4 in 27.5 hours. Factor in knowledge that rider is a medical student. Reach conclusion that it is likely rider is doping.
Not sure if the logic is merely flawed or absent completely.
He is a very strong rider but still has 700k to go. The winner isn’t as strong a cyclist as him. The difference is he has decided to cycle 200miles a day and sleep at night in a bed.
So… er… how are you defining "strong cyclist" in the context of a single-stage 4000km endurance race?
person who has no idea of the subject nevertheless feels free to offer their learned opinion
Where did you get that idea from? Don't know who those characters are but that does not make me clueless. Ex GB athlete in my younger days, specialising in long distance TT (and ironman, but don't hold that against me!). Former 1st cat roadie and a few bits and bobs on the track. Different sport but marathon des sables too. I know about hurting myself and holding it there for hours. Spent enough time around the sport in the 90s/00s and been offered enough 'enhancements' over the years to be pretty cynical. My suspicion was mainly because the numbers look bloody impressive in comparison to known track achievements, which are about as good a baseline as there is.
Anyway - look at my first post again....'It is very sad but burned by the sins of the fathers my first reaction to this story of a 24yr old medical student knocking these performances out is…..not normal.'. It was as much a comment on my predisposition to not trust after years of what I've seen and in the media as it was a qualified rebuke of her achievements.
You've seen stuff with your ears? Now I'm bloody suspicious of you!
As for the GBduro watch this and decide how Gnarr it was. It was bloody brutal and not in a mountain bike kind of way!
When you're in a hole stop digging.
\sarcasm Should we be suspicious of Mark Beaumont, I mean come on the guy rode around the world, 240 miles a day for 80 days with 4 hours sleep a day he's got to be on it, hasn't he? /sarcasm
‘It is very sad but burned by the sins of the fathers my first reaction to this story of a 24yr old medical student knocking these performances out is…..not normal.’. It was as much a comment on my predisposition to not trust after years of what I’ve seen and in the media as it was a qualified rebuke of her achievements.
You know what "subordinate"—as in "subordinate clause"—means, right? 😉
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person who has no idea of the subject nevertheless feels free to offer their learned opinionWhere did you get that idea from? Don’t know who those characters are but that does not make me clueless.
i'm afraid to say it does, the world of ultra-distance racing is very different to any other kind of cycle sport. for starters there's nothing to win (we could argue the toss about the meagre sponsorship deals and whatnot but that's by the by) aside from crossing the line first and up until this weekend the quiet plaudits of a very small amount of like-minded cyclists, so the temptation to take any kind of enhancement isn't there, or if there was it would be a futile and purely egotistical gesture
an incredibly large part of this kind of riding is bound by a code of honour. if you wanted to break the rules it would be incredibly easy to do so and bar a very few examples no one does, there is level of mutual respect and trust here that doesn't exist anywhere else in cycle sport. Fiona took the self-supported rule of the TransContinental to such a degree that she refused someone putting her rubbish in a bin for her
the people that are good at these things are not normal, they're very different, both mentally and physically, they can knock out mile after mile consistently on very little sleep and live on shit petrol-station food for days, i know because i'm friends with quite a few, i've raced against them, and done badly
So… er… how are you defining “strong cyclist” in the context of a single-stage 4000km endurance race?
Stronger as in absolute power. The young lady in question’s strengths are in her ability to keep going so to clarify stronger for shorter efforts, she is obviously stronger in the ultra endurance world. The tortoise and the hare is a great analogy.
I now run more than ride and I'm amazed at the performance of the older women in ultras , a fair number in my club are 45+ and they do some great runs my ultra training partner in crime is 57 and can seemingly run forever and cycles a fair bit to
...for starters there’s nothing to win...aside from crossing the line first...so the temptation to take any kind of enhancement isn’t there...
That argument doesn't really stand up, because crossing the line first is the primary motivation for a competitive athlete. There are examples of 3/4 cat riders doping. I don't think they were driven to that by the temptation of £20 at the local chipper!
I'm not casting aspersions on the TC winner. As pointed out above, endurance racing is about trundling along for long hours with little sleep, so it's the sort of event where a rider with that specific talent can come from nowhere and suddenly achieve spectacular results, in a way that would be difficult in other disciplines.
It would be unrealistic to believe there is no doping going on in unregulated events, but that's all you can say, if there is no testing going on.
There was suspicion of doping at HT500 wasn't there with Tramadol being found on the route when only the top ten had passed through and Jay Petevary is the oft mentioned example of cheating in ultra's, so of course it goes on but I don't think there is any reason to suspect people by default. Pretty much all the winners of TCR have gone from unknown to limelight, James is probably the only one who didn't as he was known for being the guy who got shermers and had to withdraw but still wasn't some star of the sport with a long pedigree of ultra's competition. It is just the nature of a emerging sport and people who have often been riding impressive distances in their own time/ audax and then enter events and turn out to be better than everyone else which doesn't really happen with more established sports.
I am as suspicious of this as I was of Jasmine Paris. Which is not at all.
Anyway, I read that she's now doing PBP. After riding 600km from Brest to the start...
National 12H TT this weekend (not entered this year). Comp record may fall (321 miles set last year - 40 miles better than my own PB!), but the weather looks poor. Doesn't have the climbing, but the riders will be putting down impressive power (3 W'kg) for half a day. The team comp record for the 24HR TT fell this year, with a lot of riders going over 500 miles. Yes you read that correctly.
There is less of a gap between men and women in extreme endurance events.
Good mate off mine completed the Sky Race last week. 121km and over 7000m of ascent. On foot.
He's a ****ing freak.
The winner completed it in less than half the time he took. He was 33rd.
There are many freaks out there.
The only questionable thing about these people is "why?".
Blimey that Jay Petervary doesn’t come out well does he!! 😳
The only questionable thing about these people is “why?”.
I wanted to be good at road racing, but it turned out I was much better at long distance medium-paced efforts! Discovered it by accident really, and really enjoy the strategy and achievement.
A good analogy would be in vehicle engines. Ultra distance athletes are basically diesels, generally not a lot of top end power but some might have a turbo mode. Keep them fuelled and they'll just trundle on day after day after day.
After that it comes down to strategy and being time efficient. Neil Beltchenko took 3 days 10hrs for the HT550, I took 5 days 2hrs. Neil's riding time was 72hrs, mine was 80hrs. His total stopped time was 10hrs mine was 46. You might begin to see why I wasn't at the front of the field!
Stronger as in absolute power. The young lady in question’s strengths are in her ability to keep going so to clarify stronger for shorter efforts, she is obviously stronger in the ultra endurance world. The tortoise and the hare is a great analogy.
I assume you mean dominic.
He was still pulling off 20min 10 TTS relitively effortless 2/3 weeks prior to going off to the trans continental.
Nails. But sticking in 200 mile days day on day is hard even if you get a bed.
Probably says something about me...but loads of my YouTube feeds feature audax/ultra rides. I’m looking forward to following a few for pbp.
“Just cycling”- sounds great.