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Old July 1st 03, 09:45 PM
Aaron Daniel
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Default Skier Maier to lead out Tour de France

"Robert Chung" wrote in message
...
Top poster "Aaron Daniel" wrote in message
. com...
I don't see that information being put forth. If you have information to
counter what I've put forth please do.


Not to put too fine a point on it, but since your understanding in this

area
is stretched thin how would you know?

FWIW, contributors to this thread have included: 1) a widely-published PhD
in exercise physiology who specializes in time trials, has studied elite
cyclists and their performances, and is probably working on what will be
*the* book on cycling power; 2) a guy who has held the US championship
jersey in the pursuit (and not just once); and 3) a guy who's been in

about
600 races. (There are others in this thread whose experiences are
considerable -- it's just that I don't know their bona fides off the top

of
my head). If you think that good and accurate information hasn't been put
forth in this thread, then I'd suggest you reconsider.



If you look back about 7 years you will notice that I was a frequent poster
to rec.bicycles.racing. While that does not make me an expert in the world
of cycling my small background in cycling does allow me some insight into
the sport.

I have about 7 years of experience riding with more than a few Cat 3 and 2
racers as well as a few similarly qualified triathletes. I have also been a
training partner to some as they have crossed over into the opposite
discipline. During that time I sought information about what physiological
results those guys were going through as the triathletes started doing
interval training and road races and as the road racers started aerobic
threshold training.

What we found at that time was that maximum aerobic capacity does not equate
to maximum lactate processing capability or ability to work in an anaerobic
state for extended time periods. In our reading and our training we found
that the triathletes were extremely capabale of maintaining an extremely
high heart rate for an extremely long period of time (extremely high aerobic
capacity). On the other hand they were unable to maintain a heart rate just
a few beats higher for very long at all (not much anaerobic capacity).
Further they required a relatively long period at a low heart rate before
they could retrun to their maximum aerobic heart rate (not much ability to
process lactate).

On the other hand we found that the road racers were incredibly good at
extended anaerobic stints (near maximum heart rate) and required little time
slightly below their aerobic threshold heart rate to be able to do the same
thing all over again. At the same time these road racers were not able to
maintain the same steady state speed or heart rates as the triathletes.

Through event specific training some of these athletes were able to
transform their capabilities. Thus some triathletes were able to increase
their ability to sprint, attack, accelerate out of corners, etc. When they
trained to gain those abilities (with no mileage reduction) they lost some
of their aerobic capacity as measured by the ability to maintain their
former aerobic threshold heart rate for extended periods of time. At the
same time the road racers who trained at a steady state (lactate threshold
heart rate) lost their ability to easily reach a heart rate near their
maximum and recover from those efforts.

These athletes were also able to go back to training for their "original"
sports and be able to regian the event specific capabilities they had
trained themselves out of.

When trained to a state characteristic of a road racer above we all referred
to each other as "strong" because of our ability to sprint, attack, climb,
etc and when cross-training in the gym we were able to move the most weight.
When our training had us most mirroring the triathlete as depicted above we
referred to ourselves as "aerobic monsters" since were able to do long
steady stae workouts on the road and in the gym but maximal efforts were
extremely short lived. Since some cyclists (like Miguel Indurain, Lance,
Sean Kelly, Johan Museeuw, etc) were rather frequently referred to as
"strong" in VeloNews, Winning, CycleSport, etc articles and by Phil Liggett
I assumed you may have a point of reference there.

Anyway, I am no research physiologist, the documentation I read on the topic
was written to a layperson level and my experience with it was long ago.
However, I do believe that the same training specificity remains today. As a
matter of fact I believe I read an article within the past three years in
which Chris Carmichael stated that Lance's VO2Max is reached in the off
season and that it falls slightly as he peaks for the Tour. They do this on
purpose to ensure that Lance has the anaerobic capacity to respond to
attacks and accelerate out of corners during technical time trials.

It is from the knowledge above that I drew my previous posts. Anyway, I
apologize if I caused this thread to devolve into a "turf war" or a name
calling session. It was not intended.

Aar


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