Training with the Pros

Ryan Kelly on the 200 on 100 photo: Chandler Delinks

Training with the Pros, it sounds like fun but it can’t be. Pros are genetic freaks; they put more kilometers on their bikes than any of us civilians do on our cars each year, they ride around whole countries at an average speed greater than 40km/hour and they can dish out such Rule V style day-after-day-after-day. We all dream about it but we don’t have it.

In an earlier life I came close to landing my dream job in Monaco with the IAEA. Serious people counseled me not to take the job, they said it was a bad career move. How could I explain to them I didn’t give a shiet if it was a bad career move, the chance to live, and more importantly to be a cyclist near San Remo and La Madone was all I cared about? Yet I knew if I even saw Tom Boonen or one of the many Aussies who call Monaco their home out on a training ride, I would only be seeing their lycra-clad asses disappearing up the road. Could I at least catch up to Stuart O’Grady to chat him up for a minute before my inability to talk and breathe would force me to lie and say I was turning right HERE? Maybe I could drink beers with the Aussies, I could keep that professional pace, actually no, I would get dropped there too.

Oh that job fell through and my dreams of commuting into work on Merlin on the Cote d’Azure disappeared like those watery mirages on a hot highway, but I digress. I have some good and funny direct video evidence why training with the Pros would be a cruel lesson in our mortal failings. One such Pro is Ted King, an American racer living the dream; he is based in Lucca, riding for Liquigas, riding in support of Ivan Basso and Peter Sagan. He is tough, he has finished every Giro d’Italia he has started. He broke his collarbone this summer racing in Philadelphia when his front wheel dropped into an inexcusably lame drain grate (thank you very much, oh third-world infrastructure that defines the USA).

To bring his training back up to speed he did the 200 on 100 with fellow Pro Tim Johnson and amateur racer Ryan Kelly. The 200 on 100 means 200 miles on Route 100, riding North to South from the top to the bottom of the state of Vermont, the Green Mountain State. Unless you are Marcus, 333 km seems like an impossibly long ride to do at once, I would be in broom wagon long before the end of such madness.

And by madness I refer to the 338 km at 34.1 km/hr average speed with 3,197 meters of climbing thrown in for good measure.

Video credit to Chandler Delinks

Gianni

Gianni has left the building.

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Jeff in PetroMetro says:

Oct 26 2011 at 8:33 am

@cycloWHAT?
Please, please, please make a Ryan Kelly tribute video of just his delusional psycho-babble. Please put it in chronological order. There is nothing like watching another cyclist devolve into mental pudding over a long ride. Pure awesomeness!

Fantastic video, btw! Strong work.

@Buck Rogers
Wouldn't "Dumptruck of Awesome" look good etched into a V-pint? I'm gonna have to get up to Vermont next June.
MJMoquin says:

Oct 26 2011 at 8:52 am

@Buck Rogers

@MJMoquin

This looks absolutely AWESOME!I now have all the motivation I could possibly need this winter. Just threw away half my breakfast since I seriously need to HTFU as I'm more like 6 months from peaking right now. Gonna be a brutal winter on the trainer!

Amen, Brother! LOVE it. Can we count you in for the June, V-sponsored Dumptruck of Awesomeness?

You can definitely count on me for this sufferfest. How can I possibly not show up for a "V-sponsored Dumptruck of Awesomeness"?
Steampunk says:

Oct 26 2011 at 8:59 am

@Jeff in PetroMetro
V-Cogal
Dumptruck of Awesome
Vermont 2012

That is all.
Buck Rogers says:

Oct 26 2011 at 9:59 am

@Steampunk

@Jeff in PetroMetroV-CogalDumptruck of AwesomeVermont 2012
That is all.

Ohhhh, the V-tingles are hitting me again.

Cannot believe how AWESOME this is going to be!

(We'll have to make sure that Ryan Kelly does not trademark his Dumptruck of Awesome phrase before we use it next summer!)
frank says:

Oct 26 2011 at 10:18 am

@LA Dave

Good stuff Gianni, thanks for posting. Ryan's look when they are stopped with 6 miles to go is very familiar to me...
Made me laugh out loud at the very end when he says "...oh chocolate milk"

Exactly. How badly have you craved something while on a ride like that? Like after the Whidbey Cogal, when we went into that join for some pizza. I'm sure that pizza sucked ass, but it tasted like it was the best pizza ever.
frank says:

Oct 26 2011 at 10:22 am

@Gianni

@scaler911

True that. However, tempo for me (and most of us mortals, even Cat II's) is very different than tempo for Ted King, or anyone that's finished Giro's.

Oh yes, I'm talking 33km/hr tempo. I wouldn't last at Pro tempo for three minutes.
And yes, Rollers will give you the magnificent stroke, tedious as they may be.

I think we'd be surprised at how slow they go on a ride like this; faster than us, sure, but they're WAY below their thresholds, riding easy even if it feels fast to us. Ask any coach what the primary difference is in the way amateurs train versus Pros, and the answer is "Amateurs don't go easy enough on easy days and don't go hard enough on hard days."

I read somewhere that Museeuw's average speed on a long training ride was in the low 30's.
frank says:

Oct 26 2011 at 10:34 am

@mblume

Question for my fellow Velominati:
Is there a Velominati approved equation that one can use to compare meters climbed to absolute distance to attempt to compare the relative difficulty of 2 rides? (For simplicity, assume the rider applies the same level of The V on both rides and the weather is constant)
Ride A: 200 on 100: 333km with 3200m of climbing
Ride B: Stage 18 2011 TDF 200 km with 5000m of climbing over Agnel, Izoard, Lauteret/Galibier
Which ride requires more V to complete (mentally and physically)?
For me I would look much more favorably on Ride B as there are incremental goals along the way in the cols. Ride B seems like a true mental test in addition to the signficant physical challenge.

Good question, and I think we'd have to do some tricky math using calculus and imaginary numbers (eleventeen, thirty-twelve, etc) to come to a reliable formula that works for everyone.

That said, per Rule 68, vertical elevation gain over time is king over anything else. A flat 400km ride into the wind? Brutally hard, of course. But a 200km ride with 5000m of climbing will make you question whether the sun will ever rise again.
frank says:

Oct 26 2011 at 10:38 am

@cycloWHAT?

Hi everyone, as the man behind the camera and wheel of the truck, I have to thank all of you for sharing this video again. Look out for a feature on it in an upcoming edition of Bicycling Magazine.
A few things I noticed on that day:
1. Tim Johnson did a proper CX remount at mile 206.
2. Ryan Kelly said many more odd things in his delusion that couldn't make the "cut"
3. These guys rolled in a paceline the ENTIRE day, trading pulls every few minutes. On the flats they were going anywhere between 25-30mph and didn't slow down much below 20 on the hills...
4. Ben and Jerry's ice cream at 9am is still delicious
5. Ted King's face was a little round because he was just coming off a broken collarbone, so he wasn't quite "race weight."
and finally...
I see some of you discussing doing this ride. We have been discussing the same, and we have been discussing involving other groups, so maybe we can all do something together. cdelinks at gmail dot com
Thanks again for all the shares and comments, it was a blast to do this project and we can't wait to do it again.

Thanks for stopping by, great video!! I second @Jeff in PetroMetro for a compilation of the babble in chrono order!!

Excellent work, and let us know what your plans are for the ride; it would be great to try to synchronize efforts.

Cheers!
Jeff in PetroMetro says:

Oct 26 2011 at 10:42 am

@Steampunk

@Jeff in PetroMetroV-CogalDumptruck of AwesomeVermont 2012
That is all.

V-ermont. Has a nice ring to it.
Gianni says:

Oct 26 2011 at 11:13 am

@cycloWHAT?
Dude! Chapeau on the movie, it has made me giggle every time I watch it, it's very well edited too. I can't believe there are so many of my friends who think this is a good idea. And yes please, on the idea of the censored Ryan lines, he is a funny one.

@Buck Rogers
Regarding support vehicle: bribe someone into driving one, a ride that long is deserving of one. Some spare wheels and lots of accessible water and food will make the whole thing roll faster.