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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Legendary
It's always humbling watching a fellow human disintegrate before our eyes
@scaler911
Vawesome fundraising effort - bet they loved you when they found out how stubbornly determined you were!!
@frank
hear hear - what an awesome dude your Dad is - I reckon there is no reason we shouldn't all ride until our deaths in our late 90's - therefore, every good reason to practice dying on our bikes in the interim
Shall come to review this video in a couple of weeks time when I take on what will be my first "proper" century. 100k organised ride that starts at least 10k's away (there's my warm up) and finished about 55k's (and one solid set of hills) away from home.
Will easily be my longest ride so far & a little research has shown that over the past 4 years the lowest temp has been 34c. If I survive I shall provide a report.
Nice piece Gianni. I wonder who the fourth rider was who came and went so fast. And Ted King, similarly to Floyd Landis, has the face of a chubby kid but rides like a stud.
I love the question at the end. Had I seen this video before I would have asked Cyclops the same thing last weekend.
Ryan alluded to this as well in the video but it needs to be said that long rides like that are not that difficult if you don't kill the pace. Once you start driving the pace up over 35kph (at least for me) for longer than the average evening group ride (2-3 hours) is when the trouble begins.
@Godsight
Done! This is going to happen next June. At least, I am going to ride it next June and will be happy to try to put something together with King Clydesdale to get this set up for anyone else that wants to join in.
My longest ride this year was 177 km's with 6.2 k feet of elevation gain. Rode it solo in 6 hours.
I imagine this ride taking me well over 12 hours next summer. While the daylight will be with us at that time of year, still will want to be rolling no later than 0600, maybe even 0530.
Logistics will be interesting as we meet at one point (Canada) and end at another (Mass). Have to see about getting a van and some sympathetic drivers to help out that day (I might know a few suckers who'd be willing to help out a bit).
I have a wedding that I have to go to on the 16th so will be in VT prior to that. Also heading to France sometime after the wedding for two weeks. I'm taking four weeks of vacation that month. For me, the 9th or 10th would probably be best, but maybe even a weekday would work better, but not sure about everyone else's schedule.
Let me know what you all think and start training if you're coming, this is going to be EPIC, BABY!
@King Clydesdale
Hell, that mapmyride link is great. Don't have to worry about route planning. Just dates and support.
Early June it is! I guess I will have less of a lay off over the winter now! I am 3 hours away south in NY so a buddy and I could come in 2 vehicles and leave one (a truck) south to take a bunch of bikes back up north...
I did 200+ km (3,000+ meters) in August and the ride time was 7.5 hrs but overall with stops/mechanical/flats it was 9+ hrs. So 12 hrs seems doable with some Rule 5 thrown in. My vote is early start that way if all goes to plan there will be more light for liquid recovery time.
I wonder what traffic on Rte 100 is like weekend (Sunday, quieter?) vs week day. Do we have any Velominatus local to the area who could give a report?
This will be epic and with some good weather and a good group could be the ride to remember. Otherwise I am not even going to think about it!
@All Also anyone who is interested can enter the UCI Golden Bike World Series event here in the UK. I am pretty sure the tickets sold out in 24 hours this year. It goes without saying that Velominati entrants will be wanting to look at the Grand Fondo route of 206km. Wiggle Dragonride UCI Golden Bike
@Buck Rogers
Buck, King, that is fricking EPIC at 163 miles the real climbing starts in East Jamaica VT. Yea baby I hope the locals are selling something to get me over that 11 miles!