You're going to have to qualify exactly what this talent is. What talent to do your friends have which ALWAYS gives them an advantage over the competition? They don't bump you up 2 places in a race if you have 'talent'.
Apart from the .0001% of people who are physiological freaks like Armstrong, there is no natural talent that presents a constant advantage over everyone else, all the time.
Bad example. Armstrong is a doper, we have no idea of his natural capability without the juice. Read Faster, by Michael Hutchinson. Explains all this far better than I can.
You're going to have to qualify exactly what this talent is. What talent to do your friends have which ALWAYS gives them an advantage over the competition? They don't bump you up 2 places in a race if you have 'talent'.
Apart from the .0001% of people who are physiological freaks like Armstrong, there is no natural talent that presents a constant advantage over everyone else, all the time.