Can Cadel Do it?

[Daddles]

What a joke the whole thing. Why do they bother?

As I said before, legalise performance enhancing drugs and let them have a fair contest.

So the bloke with the most money wins and we'll just forget about all those athletes dying early with buggered hearts. Bloody stupid idea Wongo. At least cycling is trying, not like the gAFL that puts on a show and pretends and blusters.

Richard

[bitingmidge]

Good on Rabbobank I say!

They could have taken the easy route, and won the thing.

Don't forget, they didn't fire Rasmussen for doing dope, (they had no evidence). They fired him for lying!

Should be more of it.

Let's hope a couple of media companies are taking notes, or maybe a couple of political parties!

Cheers,

P

[Sebastiaan56]

Gotta say, it is compulsive viewing. I find the racing fascinating and always exciting when it gets to the end of a stage. My 11yo has dreams of doing the tour. He's learning what the ethical standards are.

I reckon Cadel will do it.

Sebastiaan

[silentC]

My 11yo has dreams of doing the tour

He needs to start now!

I used to ride a lot and I was no slouch. But I would go to Centennial Park on Tuesday afternoons and ride with the pack. Man, that was tough going. You'd take your turn up front for half a lap and you had to sit on 35kph+ and a good third of that course is uphill. At the back, you get sucked along so it's easier. It makes you realise why it's so hard to break away from the pack, so to watch these guys sprint away and then have to keep up the pace, they must be so fit.

If I went for a couple of days without going for a ride, my legs would ache. I just can't imagine what it takes to ride at that level.

[Daddles]

For a common or garden type rider, they reckon riding with a group is worth about 5km/hr to your average speed. My son reckons drafting me is fantastic. Mind you, I'm large, cuddly and have a reasonably high riding position - he's much smaller, skinny and rides a true racer's crouch. He can draft me but I'm still out in the open when I follow him.

I've got a lot of respect for blokes that can make a solo breakaway or cross from one group to another - dat's tough riding.

And the way these blokes go up hills I climb slopes like that at about 10km/hr (often less, love my granny gear), they're averaging 30 and more

Boo to the cheats. Even with them removed they've ruined a good race because the clean riders have had to work harder and longer to keep with them.

Richard

[Sebastiaan56]

He needs to start now!

I used to ride a lot and I was no slouch. But I would go to Centennial Park on Tuesday afternoons and ride with the pack. Man, that was tough going. You'd take your turn up front for half a lap and you had to sit on 35kph+ and a good third of that course is uphill. At the back, you get sucked along so it's easier. It makes you realise why it's so hard to break away from the pack, so to watch these guys sprint away and then have to keep up the pace, they must be so fit.

Well he keeps winning at the Mountain Bike Club and just ran state cross country so we will see. We are looking for a raod club but they dont want him till he's 13, fair enuff, they are riding on the road,

Sebastiaan

[boban]

Take him to the track Sebastiaan.

When I was in year 11 and 12 I used to ride 50km's a day with a group from school on weekdays and race on Saturdays that didn't clash with soccer.

I have never been fitter and it made playing soccer so much easier as I could run all game.

The thing that sticks in my mind is every second day we went up Old Bathurst Road and ended up at Blaxland. Now that was hard work. Going up the GWH and down Old Bathurst Road was so much easier (80kph downhill).

Go Cadel

[silentC]

We used to ride every Saturday from Centennial Park to Kurnell and back. Then we'd do a few laps of the park just for fun! Oh, to be so fit now.... One of my mates used to go to the races at Bankstown (I think) but I never went.

I remember doing some mountain biking in the Blue Mountains and we just rode and rode all day, camped over night and road back again. At some points we had to carry the bikes over one shoulder to climb over rocks, fallen trees etc., and that's with front and rear panniers, 4 litres of water, food, tent, clothes. Couldn't imagine doing that now, would probably drop dead.

[boban]

Couldn't imagine doing that now, would probably drop dead.

You're not wrong. I started playing soccer again this year after a long absence from the outdoor game. Boy did I know about it for the first few months. Burning lungs and that taste in your mouth....

[Daddles]

I got back on the bikes just over twelve months ago. There was a hope I'd get fit and lose some weight. Well, I got fit and didn't lose any weight. So I messed with my diet. Now I'm fit, eating differently and haven't lost any weight. I could get serious and study the CSIRO diet and have a proper training program and stuff like that, but as Dad pointed out, both sides of the family (but especially Mum's on both side) developed big tummies in middle age and never lost them, despite some of them being very active.

Ten minutes of soccer against the lad and I'm buggered.
When at uni, I played footy and my nickname (well, one of them) was 'Ribs'. I trained three times a week and played two games on saturday, now I can't manage ten minutes with the lad.
In recent months, I've knocked off a couple of 100km rides.
I regularly ride longer and further than I ever did when younger.
Yet the weight doesn't want to move and I can't run around to save meself. Aerobic fitness? Yep, that's improved - my resting heart rate is now 55 instead of the 72 it was a year ago.

I'm doing something wrong, and it's probably that I'm thinking about it at all

Fitness and weight loss. Bah humbug. I'll have the large, economy sized coffin thanks mate.

Richard

and yes, Cadel can win.

[boban]

Hey Daddles, I may be telling you to suck eggs, but when we trained, we didn't use the gearing to our benefit. The idea was to keep the legs moving quickly. In a race this did not apply.

I didn't quite know the science to this, but the guys I rode with were really committed to the sport and I pretty much accepted what they said. From memory I think it was designed to improve your fitness/endurance.

I can't remember the target cadence, but I think it was over 100. You never know this may help. I don't think you should accept the genes argument though. You should speak to some fitness gurus to get some tips on targeting the area if that's what you want to do. You obviously have the drive if you are cycling.

[woodbe]

He can do it...

[Daddles]

Hey Daddles, I may be telling you to suck eggs, but when we trained, we didn't use the gearing to our benefit. The idea was to keep the legs moving quickly. In a race this did not apply.

I didn't quite know the science to this, but the guys I rode with were really committed to the sport and I pretty much accepted what they said. From memory I think it was designed to improve your fitness/endurance.

I can't remember the target cadence, but I think it was over 100. You never know this may help. I don't think you should accept the genes argument though. You should speak to some fitness gurus to get some tips on targeting the area if that's what you want to do. You obviously have the drive if you are cycling.

Mate, I have two bikes I ride regularly. One is a touring bike, the other is a fixed gear bike - ain't no way you can coast on one of them and with the gearing I run (a bit low by fixie standards), a downhill run at 40 km/hr has me spinning at 145 You either feel like you're part of a turbine or you're bouncing up and down on the seat. Mind you, it's not so much fun climbing UP hills.

I aim for a cadence of 90, but my natural cadence is in the eighties - as we get older the cadence drops. I refuse to ride lower than 80 because my knees don't like it and climb hills (in my beloved granny gear) at over 90.

The fixie is really good. It's a lot more satisfying to ride than the geared bike because you are so much more a part of what's happening. You brake with your legs (yes, I have brakes and use them), you can't relax up a hill. You never get a break because the wheels drive your legs if you don't drive them, which is a real bastard after just climbing a steep rise and all you want to do is coast and gasp but the wheels won't let you. I regularly do 35km on the fixie and it's a good choice for trips to the shops - if anyone tries to ride it away they're in for one hell of a shock , but the longer rides are still done with the comfort of gears. I'm aiming for 'fit', not 'stupid', though many would argue I've lost that one.

I suspect my weight is a combination of eating too much (much reduced on earlier times), drinking too much (self medication doesn't work but it's still a popular option ) and not riding enough ... though I've done 1,400 km so far this year - not huge but not relaxing in the comfy chair either. My take on it is that I'll try to eat healthy but won't stress about a pie and chips if I want one, I'll drink as much as I feel comfortable with and try to avoid relying on it as a crutch, I'll ride when I want to and but push it sensibly, and keep a note of my weight but not stress about it - I'm the size and shape I am and that's fine if I'm not doing anything else to excess ... but it would be nice to be lean again

If nothing else, my son has someone to draft behind ... and good parents always provide for their children so by providing a BIG hole in the air, I'm just being a good daddy

Richard

[corbs]

Well he keeps winning at the Mountain Bike Club and just ran state cross country so we will see. We are looking for a raod club but they dont want him till he's 13, fair enuff, they are riding on the road,

Sebastiaan

Sebastiann,
Keep him in the MTB doing cross countries, Cadel was originally one of our great MTB riders and only moved over to the skinny wheels professionally 5 or 10 years ago.

I got back on the bikes just over twelve months ago. There was a hope I'd get fit and lose some weight. Well, I got fit and didn't lose any weight. So I messed with my diet. Now I'm fit, eating differently and haven't lost any weight. I could get serious and study the CSIRO diet and have a proper training program and stuff like that, but as Dad pointed out, both sides of the family (but especially Mum's on both side) developed big tummies in middle age and never lost them, despite some of them being very active.

Daddles,
Training for fat loss is a much lower intensity than training for fitness. Fat requires a lot of oxygen to burn so as a guage of intensity, if you can carry out a comfortable conversation while training you will be predominantly burning fat. If you are huffing and puffing and making any sort of legible sounds then you will be burning mostly carbohydrates. A resting HR of 55 is pretty fit though. Although weight training does not directly burn fat, an increased muscle mass will also increase the bodies ability to burn fat.

Corbs

[Daddles]

Daddles,
Training for fat loss is a much lower intensity than training for fitness. Fat requires a lot of oxygen to burn so as a guage of intensity, if you can carry out a comfortable conversation while training you will be predominantly burning fat. If you are huffing and puffing and making any sort of legible sounds then you will be burning mostly carbohydrates. A resting HR of 55 is pretty fit though. Although weight training does not directly burn fat, an increased muscle mass will also increase the bodies ability to burn fat.

Corbs

Yeah, I know all that mate (thanks for the thoughts though ). I try to mix up my rides - love my heart rate monitor, best toy I've bought for the bike. Sadly cycling isn't a really efficient method of weight loss because you need to do so darned much of it. The genuinely lose weight and keep it off, you need to address everything in your life. Rather than making radical changes, I'm tinkering around with every aspect of my life but making sure every change takes me in the right direction. I'm definitely overweight but not gross. Obviously it's enough of an issue for me to be aware of it but it's not something I'm stressing about. I reckon a long term healthy but happy lifestyle will achieve more than anything else.

Back on topic - Cadel's only 1:50 behind now. He can do it, but not by a lot. We're in for a last minute gun fight in Paris

Richard