Monday, October 29, 2007

Me ride 299km? What, in a week?

Even that's doubtful these days. In my heyday I rode Sydney (ie Surry Hills) to the Blue Mountains (ie Katoomba) and back (that's 200km) for fun and 200km races for the jolly experience of it all, but 299 in a day? No, not ever. So to finish - let alone win - the Melbourne to Warrnambool (the 'Warnie') is simply miraculous, and these guys pulled off exactly that miracle.

I do wonder about the physiology of it all. I found that doing 500-700km a week gave me great endurance but knocked my pace down a notch. Which is to say I suffered in crits something fierce. But 200-300km a week was just perfect for club A-grade crits and my sprint came back. Occasionally I'd do 500, but anything above 200km was a bonus.

And come the track season the big winter road miles (Aussies do their road racing in winter) had built my strength up, so it was a case of simply dropping the miles back and sharpening up.OTOH if I'd had a slack road season I needed 400km a week and maybe some weights to get up to speed.

Even when doing those almost-slack 200km weeks I could still jump on the bike and ride Sydney to the Central Coast and back in a day (200km) with my time each way almost exactly the same. I had 'endurance memory' locked into my legs, I guess. But I seem to have lost it in the last 7 years or so. Back then I was knocking over 100km in 3 hours or less on my own, now I'm cramping after 50 and crawling home. Could it be my age? Nahhh. I've just slacked off the miles, haven't I?

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Evans leads the CQ rankings

The what? The CQ rankings, for Cycling Quotient, a la IQ. Hmmm. Well it's designed to plug a gap that the UCI left when they opted for the ProTour, anyway. And now Aussie Cadel Evans leads both the ProTour and the CQ standings.

The CQ is comprehensive and gives us loads of stats on every pro race, all year long. Can't be bad, eh?

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

ProTour winner Evans on his season

Cadel Evans seems the least-rated contender no matter where or when he is racing. He's generally acknowledged as one of several contenders but always with a qualification of some sort. Either someone else is stronger or has won more recently, or Evans is tired, or perhaps injured. It never seems as though the guy is really likely to win, like Armstrong, Ullrich or Basso were and Bettini, Contador and Di Luca are now. Yet he's so consistent, when he gets the chance. Perhaps it's his quiet demeanor. After such a great 2007 maybe 2008 will be different for Cadel.

Interesting overview of his season, here at Cyclingnews.com.: Cadel Evans won the ProTour classification on Saturday after a consistent stream of steady results over the past four months. Before the Giro di Lombardia, he talked about his performances in the Vuelta a España and world road race championships, the Tour Down Under's graduation to the ProTour calendar, his plans for the months ahead and his Olympic aspirations.

Friday, October 19, 2007

Yes, that's quick

The 2007 Masters World Track champs are being held in Sydney right now, and I have to say (as a master myself) that's damned quick...1 David Le Grys (GBr) 0.34.14 (52.73 km/h)

I've done just one timed 500m run on Sydney's Tempe velodrome, a 40.09sec effort. I reckon I could get below 40 with some practice... but under 35secs?? Yikes!

Monday, October 08, 2007