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
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@Chris
Cris late in getting back on this but is your coach Ian Cammish?? There is some bloke who has won 11(!) times recently but Cammish was doing it in the 80's and I am sure his bikes were great but not as great and his average times of 26mph+ (and I am not using kph because, well you know, its Blighty) is just mind boggling.
Of course the god of BAR is Ms. Burton if there ever was the definition of HARD she owns it!
And for all you girls out there who do not know what Cris and I are talking about check it out cause these boys and girls are the nuts when it comes to dedication and HTFU on the bike.
@Rob
That's him. Great bloke and no slouch on a bike even now.
The BBAR ranks riders by their average speeds in individual time trials, over 50 and 100 miles (160 km) and 12 hours for men, and over 25, 50 and 100 miles (160 km) for women. Ian won it 9 times between 1980 and '89 with a top average speed in 1983 of over 27mph. His national 100 mile time trial record (3:31:53 - 28.3mph!) set in 1983 is only a shade over 9 minutes slower than the current record despite being set on a regular road bike.
@Chris
Yes! Glad to hear he is going well and I bet you could do no better in a mentor. I used to read about him on stays in Blighty and always thought that the dedication to the bike was astounding. We are (as you know) not just talking about training hard but riding in the dark for most of the year with shit old school lights in all weather. I used to meet guys riding for training and typically they would commute something like 40 miles to and from work to get the miles in.
And I do not care if someone has gone "9" mins. faster that time is just mind blowing. I have done similar with 99 other guys but thats like drafting a truck and my best time for a hilly 10 miler was 27 something... sad I know.
@Rob
I read somewhere that he'd not only commute to work but but go out lunch time for a quick 2 up 25 with a swift colleague . He never looks out of breath when we ride together.
'trained' with the pros today :)
@2000dB awesome! what's the story that accompanies that picture and your ride?
@graham d.m.
The pros were doing recon on the Mont Royal in preparation for the GPCM tomorrow.
Did a couple laps with the Garmin boys, climbed a bit with Sagan, etc. All the teams were pretty much there all at once, it was great.
@2000dB that's pretty sweet!