Cycling thread

[davek]

Yet the number of people using their bikes is at an all time high (according to British cycling figures), and indeed government figures suggest it is considerably higher than ten years ago, albeit from a pretty low base as so many people in Britain do no exercise at all (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/walking-and-cycling-statistics). It's not just Olympic/Tour success of course. The cycle to work scheme was introduced in 1999 and has been a success, as have the introduction of Boris Bikes and schemes like them around the country (world). Even before Sky was created, the numbers attending the Depart in 2007 was amazing. I was on Parliament Hill for the prologue and there were huge numbers there. Granted, I was also at the stage to Portsmouth in (I think) 1994 and that was busy, but the numbers on the roadside do appear to have gone up considerably. Granted, it could very well be argued that MAMILs make up the bulk of that rise, and indeed there are a new breed of rider that you could argue don't really get it (as @Armel says) but that's kinda inevitable whenever a sport becomes more popular.

Of course sheer numbers of cyclists will have risen to an all time high: if the % of the population using bikes remains the same (42%) that rise in numbers is just a reflection of UK population growth - it's risen from 61 million to 66 million in the last decade.

 

[Black Belt Jones]

Of course sheer numbers of cyclists will have risen to an all time high: if the % of the population using bikes remains the same (42%) that rise in numbers is just a reflection of UK population growth - it's risen from 61 million to 66 million in the last decade.

See all those lean and fit people out and about on the British High St? Nah, I can't see them either. Obviously 42% of people in the UK are not USING a bike with any regularity - you just need to leave your house and walk down the road to grasp that, no analytical data required [if you are interested in the data, it's more like 10% of people ride once a week or more].

Clearly ownership and usage are not the same thing, but cycling miles are up 23% from traffic counting stats in the last ten years. 3.5 billion miles in 2016 [down from a whopping 14.7 billion miles (!) in 1949], but a small but steady increase in recent times.
I would guess that participation in more competitive cycling is very significantly up on that just on the basis of the boom in amateur sportive events - there's one every week nowadays catering for all levels whereas it used to be just rock-hard audaxes that 10 people would enter.

https://www.cyclinguk.org/resources/cycling-uk-cycling-statistics

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Amid all the hullaballoo about Wiggins, I'd almost forgotten to post the photo I've been dining out on ever since of me just about to overtake him over the top of the Passo Sella last summer.

I never saw him using an inhaler either, although strangely he was quite a bit less out of breath than I was.

 

[Wizard]

Amid all the hullaballoo about Wiggins, I'd almost forgotten to post the photo I've been dining out on ever since of me just about to overtake him over the top of the Passo Sella last summer.

I never saw him using an inhaler either, although strangely he was quite a bit less out of breath than I was.

His arms look quite a bit bigger there than they did during his Tour days. Isn't that why Landis says he was taking the drugs, to help cut weight as he was too big to win at his natural size?

 

[Bruce Wayne]

His arms look quite a bit bigger there than they did during his Tour days. Isn't that why Landis says he was taking the drugs, to help cut weight as he was too big to win at his natural size?

To be honest I don't think any pro cyclist is their 'natural size', and certainly not the GT riders. They're incredibly thin, but that's par for the course imo as you're doing extreme amounts of endurance activity and your diet will be heavily monitored by your team.

Not sure exactly when he started rowing either but the photo of me and him was last June, so fairly sure he'd have been training for that during that time, so it's not surprising he's a bit bigger. I seem to recall him saying he put on a few kilos when he returned to the track, so seems logical that he'd add a few more when rowing properly.

 

[orly]

Amid all the hullaballoo about Wiggins, I'd almost forgotten to post the photo I've been dining out on ever since of me just about to overtake him over the top of the Passo Sella last summer.

I never saw him using an inhaler either, although strangely he was quite a bit less out of breath than I was.

But you've already gone past the finish line???

 

[davek]

See all those lean and fit people out and about on the British High St? Nah, I can't see them either. Obviously 42% of people in the UK are not USING a bike with any regularity - you just need to leave your house and walk down the road to grasp that, no analytical data required [if you are interested in the data, it's more like 10% of people ride once a week or more].

Clearly ownership and usage are not the same thing, but cycling miles are up 23% from traffic counting stats in the last ten years. 3.5 billion miles in 2016 [down from a whopping 14.7 billion miles (!) in 1949], but a small but steady increase in recent times.
I would guess that participation in more competitive cycling is very significantly up on that just on the basis of the boom in amateur sportive events - there's one every week nowadays catering for all levels whereas it used to be just rock-hard audaxes that 10 people would enter.

https://www.cyclinguk.org/resources/cycling-uk-cycling-statistics

Yeah, I can accept that. The people devoted to cycling as a means to become a top amateur or enter elite cycling (or have pretensions to such) might well have increased dramatically. But overall the Sky/TeamGB success has not seen a shift of the dial toward making Britain like Holland or Belgium or some other country where the bike is an integral part of everyday life for a large proportion of the population, which I believe was the claim.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

But you've already gone past the finish line???

That was a banner marking the top of the 3rd climb (of 7 on the course). I overtook him at some point over the rest of the course. I can't tell you where as I had no idea he was there tbh. The route splits after 55km or so, and we did a different route, but at that 55km point I was 20 minutes faster than him. I was dying and he was out for a Sunday pootle like, but that's not the point.

 

[Frang]

If you're winning at that sport, you're juicing. It's as simple as that.

Common sense tells you that, because a clean cyclist wouldn't be able to compete with a juicing cyclist of roughly the same ability. So for the likes of Wiggins/Froome to be clean, they'd have to be superhuman in comparison to their peers. Not just a bit more talented and have a bit better genes and raw athleticism; they'd have to be literally superhuman.

I mean look:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_doping_cases_in_cycling

... and these are just the ones caught, and I'm hazarding a guess that's only about 5% of those that do it.

No problem with those who enjoy the sport; but don't try and defend it as legitimate competition. It's faker than WWE at this point.

defo.

Froomes time for the last 7.1 kilometres up mount ventoux was 20 odd minutes in 2013.. which was about 3 mins quicker than supped up lance Armstrong did in 2000..

go figure!

 

[Frang]

That Wiggins interview last night, what an actor the boy is. "I've been through hell"....yeah, I'm not surprised given the amount of gear you've had down you and in you.

Contradicted himself time after time and even resorted to saying that the asthma drug he took before three major races was down to the exact type of pollen occurring just at that time on each occasion.

Wiggins and Brailsford. No credibility, no chance of extricating themselves from the mess they placed themselves in.

absolute BS and he even bought his kids into it.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

defo.

Froomes time for the last 7.1 kilometres up mount ventoux was 20 odd minutes in 2013.. which was about 3 mins quicker than supped up lance Armstrong did in 2000..

go figure!

Risky business comparing segments like that, as anyone with Strava can tell you. All sorts of factors can influence your time, from the weather to the kind of stage it is, to whether you're riding alone or in a pack. Taking across the board however, times are generally a bit slower now than they were in the EPO era.

For instance, if you look at the quickest times up Alpe d'Huez, none of the current crop come close to the 'leaders'. The quickest rider currently in operation is Quintana, but he's nearly 3 minutes slower than Pantani's record, and comes in at 23rd fastest of all time. The only other current riders in the top 100 are Froome and Valverde, who are 4 minutes slower than Pantani and 76th and 77th respectively in the top 100.

 

[Frang]

To be honest I don't think any pro cyclist is their 'natural size', and certainly not the GT riders. They're incredibly thin, but that's par for the course imo as you're doing extreme amounts of endurance activity and your diet will be heavily monitored by your team.

Not sure exactly when he started rowing either but the photo of me and him was last June, so fairly sure he'd have been training for that during that time, so it's not surprising he's a bit bigger. I seem to recall him saying he put on a few kilos when he returned to the track, so seems logical that he'd add a few more when rowing properly.

when I saw the skeleton race advertised at the winter games I was expecting to see froome and wiggins in a bobsleigh

 

[Frang]

Risky business comparing segments like that, as anyone with Strava can tell you. All sorts of factors can influence your time, from the weather to the kind of stage it is, to whether you're riding alone or in a pack. Taking across the board however, times are generally a bit slower now than they were in the EPO era.

For instance, if you look at the quickest times up Alpe d'Huez, none of the current crop come close to the 'leaders'. The quickest rider currently in operation is Quintana, but he's nearly 3 minutes slower than Pantani's record, and comes in at 23rd fastest of all time. The only other current riders in the top 100 are Froome and Valverde, who are 4 minutes slower than Pantani and 76th and 77th respectively in the top 100.

the overall race time is down tho isn't it, obv different routes and weather etc etc, but its still a good baromter of where the 'fitness' levels are at

 

[Frang]

interesting and the most honest bloke you will ever here from regards cycling


http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-...david-walshs-team-sky-coverage-live-on-radio/


@Bruce Wayne @davek

david walsh has profited from a book 'inside team sky' that he wrote, praising the team for being super clean and transparent. I think this book needs to be destroyed.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

the overall race time is down tho isn't it, obv different routes and weather etc etc, but its still a good baromter of where the 'fitness' levels are at

The overall distance tends to change quite a bit. I remember some tours from the 80s and 90s would have 250km stages. The famous Ullrich stage to Andorra in 97 was 252km with a crazy amount of climbing (6000m or something I think). They don't tend to do that so much now, with a general trend towards shorter mountain stages to encourage more attacking racing.

Of course the Giro and Vuelta are still fond of their crazy stages, with perhaps the pinnacle being stage 15 of the 2011 Giro that had a crazy amount of climbing in it.