38k and 933m ascent, half on road and half gravel with another 3 segment personal records - I wasn't going for anything so must be getting fitter/stronger without realising it.
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38k and 933m ascent, half on road and half gravel with another 3 segment personal records - I wasn't going for anything so must be getting fitter/stronger without realising it.
watching the giro right now on Eurosport.
Amazing many fans are still today paying tribute to Marco Pantani, who died in 2004 of cocaine overdone. Never proven, but almost certainly he used PED.
I also was a huge fan of him. But hey 17yr is a long time!
17 years is a long time but his was a talent we seldom see in a lifetime. Have we seen the like since?
I still have a Mercatone Uno jersey I like to wear. In my mind I am 'il pirata' but my legs have a different opinion...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marco
I saw Pantani in the '98 Tour on the climb to Les Deux-Alpes. I had ridden from Bourg d'Oisans and I remember the rain even now. And obviously I saw a broken Ulrich. I saw Riis when he broke Indurain on the Hautecam. I watched the Tour for years, normally in the Alps or on the Tourmalet. I met Stephen Roche one year. But I just stopped going to the Tour during the Armstrong years. I was on L'Alpe d'Huez and Armstrong went past - the ugly American - and I thought "why am I here?"
It was a rhetorical question.
However I had always wanted a Bianchi because Coppi usually rode one (I know he rode Legnano as well) and well... it is so gorgeous. Even my (female) neighbour calls it "the pretty one".
Although she might mean me?:)
Cool. I didn't know this.Quote:
Originally Posted by Marco
See if you can answer this, I always wonder....
Say two decent cyclist A and B are same height, weight, strength and endurance. What makes one a better climber than the other, and the other better on the flat...????????
Of the random strangers I meet on the road nobody beats me on a climb. Everybody beat me on the flat. Well, not true of course but I hope it still gives the idea...
Its probably got a lot to do with what's going on in the head!
Even me with my minimal biking experience knows the answer to that: lower gears, a lighter bike, skinny little frictionless tires and mahoosively huge quads 😊Quote:
Originally Posted by Gambatte
People who are worse on the flat are mainly worse because they blew everything they had on the last climb!
My new bike is in the post, at last 👍. Once it arrives I shall purchase some cycling clogs and find out how much easier the hills are on a lightweight road bike. I hope.
Remind us what it is Moley.Quote:
Originally Posted by molehill
I could not disagree more.Quote:
Originally Posted by Fellbeast
Low gears are available to all. Yet there is still big difference, at all levels, between climbers and not.
Weight difference between decent modern bycicles is too small to explain such difference between climbers and not. Percentage-wise, once added the weight of the cyclist, is minuscules compared to the differences in climbing times.
Tires are all the same, almost.
Big quads. If two cyclists with same weight height strength endurance, the one who is a better climber is so because of bigger quads, how come he's slower on the flat?