The Prophet was very clear on how best to ride an individual Time Trial; start as fast as possible and finish as fast as possible. As for the middle, his advice was to ride that as fast as possible.
The same can be said of climbing; as we covered in Part I and Part II of the Sur La Plaque series, the key to climbing well is to hit the bottom as hard as possible, and then move into the big ring as you go over the top in order to finish the climb as fast as possible. As for the middle section; well, hit that as hard as possible and focus on keeping your momentum going.
The trouble is with this pesky notion we have of “gauging our efforts”. Certainly, the perfectly measured climb would result in riding the whole of it à bloc before moving Sur La Plaque over the top, blast down the other side and – just as you hit escape velocity – explode spectacularly, using your perfectly honed LeMond Tuck to recover in time to crush it in the valley to the next climb where you repeat the process. Panache.
Panache is a dualistic thing; almost without exception do we admire it in others, and almost without exception are we too cowardly to hold it inside ourselves. Panache doesn’t speak of caution, or of measured action. It speaks of impulse – compulsion, even – to attack despite one’s better judgement. It speaks of throwing caution to the wind. It weighs heavy with the risk of exploding magnificently and trading angel’s wings for the devil’s anchor.
But those who venture freely into that realm have blown up so many times that it hardly features in their reasoning. Pain and climbing are inseparable; what difference does it make if you blow up and suffer a bit more for a bit longer? And, should we blow up often enough, we will learn how to suffer through and push to the top with grace. And perhaps by that same grace, will we recover enough to try again on the next climb.
Vive la chance. Vive le Grimpeur. Vive la Vie Velominatus.
Exhibit A: The master of Panache, Marco Pantani. And the master of blowing with grace, Richard Virenque. For a prime example of how to blow up properly, jump to 2:00.
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@Steampunk
So I take it you did not bring up the '88 Worlds as well and invite him over for a drink as Criquielion was staying over, eh?
@frank
That data is amazing and so damning but it sure as hell made for a fun ride watching, eh?
@frank
Oh man, excruciating to watch. If you have raced, and I know that you have Frahnk, then you know just how painful it is to be on the rivet and then to completely blow. At least I do. After trying to hang on, praying to the Gods for a slack in the pace, feeling them slowly pull away, pushing back to them again and again, trying to hang on by your teeth and then, all of a sudden, BANG, lights out and they're gone. Such a completely morally soul crushing moment. I can remember even trying to throw my elbows forward more when climbing to try to stick to the front group and not making it. You can almost see Tonkov trying to do that around the 40 to 50 second mark. True study in pain and breakage right there. Awesome clip.
@frank
I think civility and good manners are often lost in the daily bullshit. I try really hard to use proper manners (please, thank you, hold doors open, let other cars merge, etc.) when I can. I'm not always perfect but I try. This is something we are trying to pass along to our daughter as well. So far, so good.
Thank you for the post, frank.
(insert smiley face emoticon with beer can here)
-Dinan
@frank
Interesting the jump in performance from '87-'90... big step change there. Was that when EPO became so popular?
On a related note, I just finished reading Chris Carmichael's latest edition of the Time Crunched Cyclist. Some good stuff in there, but he uses Lance as an example so much that the whole book just fell flat for me- probably not worth the $10.
@Anjin-san
ahhh, that would be, YES.
@Steampunk
shouldn't feel like a tool,that 84 road race is what gave me the confidence to try racing. even though it was still pretty intimidating going out to the first race,now i think about it. do you remember the first time you shaved the guns,or the first time put on a pair of cycling shorts and actualy went outside,lol. but back to your topic steve was/is a "hero" and one of the few along with stieda,brian walton,hampsten and lemond who didn't dope. i would be a fanboy myself if i ever met him,so lets hope spidertech comes back next year, i even bought a spidertech jersey as christmas present for myself and the last team jersey i bought was la vie claire,haha. at least you got to meet him,cheers.
@Steampunk
You can learn just as much (or more) and be just as inspired by people who "lose", just the same as people who "win".
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