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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@Buck Rogers
If the thing was well planned and I felt I could actually finish something that nuts, then yeah I would be game. Maybe we could turn it into the Northeast Cogal for next summer. The location would be pretty central, not far from the mid-Atlantic or Canadian Velominatus.
@King Clydesdale, @Buck Rogers
Whew...I'm thankfully 6 time zones away. But do it and video it. Be sure to have a support truck with the side camper window blown out for easy wheel access. And lots of marshmalo fluff.
@Gianni
Nice one Gianni - happened upon that vid a way back and what struck me at the time was that whilst that Ryan fella looked completely fucked, he still seemed to be pedalling ok.
As for you so graciously mentioning our ride in a story about that one, well I think our average speed was closer to theirs than to zero, but that is about where similarities end.
@Marcus, @Zoncolan
I just found a little more background on Mr R. Kelly, he is a cat 2 road racer, so he is no slouch, and he commutes 70km a day on bike, all year, in New Hampshire. Damn.
Marcus, they didn't nearly drink as much beer as you did though.
Why do they speak in miles, this unit makes no sense to me.
@Steampunk
This. I'd show up.
Two things: One. Stop bitching about rain and then talking about Dump Trucks of Awesome. They are the same thing. Two. Shave off that beard and you wouldn't be so wrecked after that measly little ride.
@Nate
Yeah, never happen. He really does smile like that, the faster you go. Until he pops. Then the reverse effects of the Theory of Relativity set in and Space/Time curve around him to make it look like he's climbing even slower than he is.
@Buck Rogers
I am in seriously, i am in quebec city so vermont is like a 3 hours car ride max.
@Sean from the great white north
I love it; Ted does the most bizzarro calculation to go from Kms to miles for the cameraman; 100 plus 45 plus 15 minus a goat plus a quick release, so that's 75 miles.
@King Clydesdale
Let me think about this one. I'm pretty psyched about it right now. Give me something to look forward to and train for over the winter months.
Not to be too lame, but we could always think about doing the upper 166k's this summer, the lower 166k's the following summer and then the whole bloody thing in summer 2014. Or, let's just HTFU and kill ourselves next summer and see how far we can make it!
Feel free to guess which I want (but this is coming from a guy who ran a 50 mile running ultra on a dare when I had not run for over three months--finished in 9 hours and 20 minutes but was FUCKING CRIPPLED for a week)!
I'm really up for this one and will take the lead if anyone is interested (and my camp is still up for a crashing site as well).