Pro-cycling thread

Tell me more about this mean world athletics stuff.

highly talented (and succesful) athlete

are usually a combination of mad genetics and mental dysfunction. There's usually some reason that these people find out about their genetic ability and it's often shit like escapting abusive familes, misfits that can't fit in anywhere socially, all that kind of thing. Dig a bit and there's often trauma somewhere at the top level.

It’s bang average

solely by outworking everyone else

A great example until this editorial. From this one article it looks like to me he didn't 'fill out' until he left school. However already he had amazing results for his region. "Based in Cambridge since 2006, he believes the quaint town offers "the most centralised rowing system in the world".

I take this as preternatually gifted youngster blooms late developing developing the muscle mass required, then goes to one of the best place in the entire world to become a winning rower. His ancedotal evidence ('I worked the hardest') of how hard all rowers work compared to how hard he worked is spurious at best, delusional at worst.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/rowing-skinny-teen-went-on-to-mine-olympic-gold/P3AHPL55TWCHHEICYJNXSY666A/

and i'm the opposite: I put in fucking huge hours on the bike, spent my time off the bike looking into all kinds of aero gains, etc and then I get my arse handed to me as soon as an actual fast person turns up. No amount of training offsets genetics unless you're talking about skill sports like snooker or archery where you could feasibly train more than the next guy to win.

Better spending your life on a couch, drinking beer and eating pizza

Now you're getting it.

But there are other achievements you know. A gold medal isn't the only thing worth aiming for. Goal setting is one of the big factors for any athlete. Set unrealistic goals, get sad, quit. Set achievable goals, maybe get them, set more goals, continue life of progress.

Knowing how to set process goals vs. outcome goals is why I'm still racing bikes after 30 years of being shit at it.

had mediocre physiological parameters.

Doesn't mean he didn't have the genetics to support improving them though.

You don't break rowing world records without being born a freak, whether you know it or not.

Work harder mate and the tour will be yours.

+Tour de zwift obese south Asian champs

told by his then coach that he didn't have nor the height or the wingspan to "make it"

Coaches can't see genetics and preconceived notions of physical traits required to win are what hampers some coaches. Compare Anna Meares with UK's Victoria Pendleton. If you put Pendleton in front of a sprint coach in the 90s they'd have fucking laughed her out of the building. Turns out you can be really successful without being able to deadlift a bus.

I failed on my SR this year which was quite dispiriting, but next year I'm going to come back even slower! But with shorter stops so I still finish :)

Hamish Bond was a late developer. To say he just worked hard than anyone else is just bonkers and an insult to the other rowers.

EDIT what YAL said innit.

Vingegaard never won as a kid and was never spotted as a talent until he hit an age where small weight and high output started to matter.
When doing a test on the u23 team they realized his heart was 15% stronger than the average in the group.
His first major accomplishment was when he set the time trial record on Coll de Rates… and then he signed with jumbo visma.

Stay fit most of your life, rinse the other dads (I’d say mums as well, but let’s face it, dads are the ones who care about this shit with their weird values) in your age group at sports day. Unless they’ve been training harder than you.

What did you "fail"? The season isn't over. Get out there and get it done!

When doing a test on the u23 team

How did he get to be doing testing for U23 teams if he was never spotted as a talent? Someone must've spotted him at some point.

Don't win anything, just frame everything you do as a success and then post more about it than everyone else on a bike forum.

No one can match your output on here. You’re clearly a genetic freak.

everyone on this page has 'talent' .. not a talent worth getting a contract maybe, but a talent nonetheless so stop this circle jerk unless your HR is 170 and your average speed is 13.4mph.

Definitely more comforting to blame it on that.

pls dont appropriate my culture

his heart was 15% stronger than the average in the group

This is how all good romantic comedies should start

@hippy my two young kids fuck with my sleep too much that I didn't feel confident I could do a 400 or 600 without getting hit with the major dozies. When sleep is more even I think it should be totally fine

Even @Chalfie ??

Wow, saying that he is delusional just because he claims that he worked the hardest, is way beyond what I thought could be said about the guy.

What you are saying is that, although he was preternaturally gifted, his talent only magically appeared as he hit puberty. Didn't we start the discussion by saying that if you don't beat 15 yo by the time you are 8, you don't have the "it" factor?

The fact that he had some of the best results in his region doesn't really mean anything. Maybe everyone else that came before him was just shit (not unusual in a sport where you need to have a technical understanding of how to practice it vs blindly putting down power like in cycling).

"most centralised rowing system in the world" doesn't equate to "best place in the world to become a winning rower". It just means that everything is closer together

yes, even Dov ;)

I mean I for one was shocked at this sweeping statement.
The only talent I’m displaying at the moment is schooling everyone at the all you can eat buffet breakfast.