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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I just got on an actual racing team and we're having a training camp in St. George, UT the first weekend of February. I'm pretty stoked. It's about as close to "being pro" as I'll ever get.
@Cyclops
Congratulations @Cyclops! That's fantastic. What's the race calendar looking like? Should we keep an eye out for you at RVV and PR (peaking in 2 months...)?
@Bianchi Denti
Don't think I'll be making it across the pond but I'm pretty excited for 2012 as far as racing goes. Frank wont like this but since I just turned Cat 4 and I had some extra cash I hired a coach - Kai Applequist of the Continental Pro team Exergy out of Boise Idaho. It's pretty cool being coached by a pro racer that was racing right next last year's Tour podium in the USA Pro Cycling Challenge a couple of months ago. I'm the kind of guy that just needs somebody to say "do this" and I'll do it. I can already tell a big difference in just a little over a month.
@Cyclops
Awesome, training camps! that's pretty pro.
Don't tell @fronk but there's a small financial agreement between my sensei/coach and I. Mine's a nine times British Best All-Rounder. The difference in the short period of time I've been riding with him is amazing. Unfortunately work doesn't allow me to get out with him as much as I'd like but even just having the phone and email contact is great.
@Cyclops
I'm he same way. I am really disciplined about things that effect others. But if and when I have time to get into racing I would want a coach at a certain point. Can't wait to hear how it goes.
I enjoyed this video very much. I may have to try this ride this summer, but there is no way I'll do it in the rain. Nope.
@Calmante
I'll be in VT in June if you want to give it a go... that said, VT in June you are pretty much guaranteed a cold rain most days!
@Calmante
Check out the 200 on 100 Cogal that we have set up on the Cogal page. It is in June so it is hard to find unless you page the calendar ahead to Jue nd click on the link on that months calendar.
@Cyclops, @Chris
Why would I not like getting a coach? Getting a coach rocks! What I'd be against is getting a HR monitor, and wattage meter, not understand the numbers well enough to get them right, and then base your training on flawed data.
Getting a coach or a trainer is brilliant. Rock!
@Buck Rogers, @Calmante, @Anjin-san
More on the 200 on 100 Cogal.
By the way: Pronounce it Correctly: Kog'all. It is not - I repeat NOT - pronounced Ko'gol. Bicycles have Cogs, not Koghes. This is a time when understanding the language comes at your own detriment.