On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 18:39:37 -0400, "32 degrees"
wrote:

I might agree with you Joseph.
We had a young rider here in my town who was on our track running team as a
freshman and sophomore.
He showed no brilliance in distance running ( a sure sign of a simply normal
VO2 max ) and in fact was much slower than some of the other kids. He then
took up cycling. He's amassed hundreds, possibly thousands of hours on the
bike and is now in Belgium competing for a team there. At 20 years of age
he's dang tough. I'd not be surprised to see him in the TdFrance someday
with his work ethic, mental strength, and hard training attitude. Google
Todd Elenz and you'll see his results.

There are at least ten thousand riders competing on a team in Belgium.
And several hundred that are excellent riders. It's quite an
accomplishment for a rider from the US to travel to another country
and to get onto a good team. I see he's on a good team the does
Interclub events -- that's excellent.

And each year perhaps 30 Belgium-based riders "turn professional"
(join one of the approximately 100 top teams in the world -- which
includes minor pro teams in Belgium, the US and many other countries).
It's a big jump to make that step.

And then, to go from that to, say participating in the Tour of France
or even getting onto one of the top 20 pro teams in the world is
another matter entirely.

JFT


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