bleedToWin

I was about to give a much harsher assessment of her commentary, but you summed it up well. 👏 Perhaps someone with a podcast can bring her on as a guest and change my opinion of her... 😏

Agreed on Lefevere. The LR interview gave me a lot of insight into Remco's journey from football to cycling and how crazy rapid the progression actually was with skipping neopro etc, and Remco's current loyalty to Lefevere makes a ton of sense in that context.

To win the greatest achievements requires utter commitment which cannot come without 100% self belief. If you believe you can win why are you labelled arrogant when saying so in an interview? "Can you beat Pogacar and Vingegaard at the 2024 TdF?" If your answer is not yes then you've lost already.

I used to be Remco neutral. Now I'm a fan. His YouTube channel and his extended interview with LR did it for me. He is a great guy, and not arrogant in the least. That interview was so positive and the "traditional media" pulling sentences out of context, or specifically focusing on the literal English meaning of the words from a non-native speaker just to create sensation when his intention was so clearly otherwise was so bizarre. `Remco would "normally" stay at Quickstep` with an article implying Remco doesn't believe normal applies to him because he's special and deserves special treatment. What garbage. He gave a straight answer to say he is staying because he has a contract. You and I might have chosen to say "Naturally yes, I am staying. I have a contract, and I will for sure honour my contract." Using "normally" instead of "naturally" only changes the meaning if the speakers body language and the pacing of the answer and emphasis on "normally" also says "my situation is not normal".

I think the hype is on-point. 🤷‍♂️

Sepp said in his interview that they all agreed to change the plan after how things played out on the Angliru. Nothing wrong with changing a plan, it was the right call. What some of us were saying is that the plan going into the stage yesterday might have been sound, but once all three were isolated up front the plan should have changed already. But yes, pish posh, all's well. 😀

Serious climb, but some serious climbers in the break. Still 100km to go!

Staying with Kuss when a rival attacks to pull him back would be gifting him the tour, that's not what anyone expects. Keeping your three podium riders together once all rivals are dropped is not a gift. It's just sensible team riding. Letting the break go today to remove the incentive for GC riders attacking for stage wins so that the top 10 remains as is would be sensible tactics. Allowing a GC showdown today so that "the road decides" is pandering to the two leaders. Suggesting that a rider who has beaten ALL of his rivals should now defend alone against his own team mates before he "deserves" to win is ridiculous... Yes they are stronger. Yes Kuss got his lead from a break raid not from outperforming against them. Yes, if the rivals were stronger and able to put JV under pressure they would have needed Kuss to revert to his usual role. The cards fell the way they did and it's a team sport. Kuss deserves the win.

You have to go defend your title!

Latest socials says R5k, but it still says if you break the record you are in with a chance at the cash prize... Maybe you have to roll a double six or something? 🤷‍♂️ 🎲

Thought that only happened in the Vets categories. I asked if they would rather comp an entry for the next event, but no dice...

You have to go faster than 38.23km/h for 12h (probably only possible if it's a windless day) to stand a chance to win a cash prize of unknown amount. I know 100 Miler prize money is not great, but sure that's the better event to target?

Been giving further feedback in DMs and iterating through some plans. Algorithm is spitting out some decent training structure. 👏

Yeah, with a little common sense I can tweak the output into something sensible. Do the intervals immediately because I'm fresh and that allows me more time to recover for the hills, replace the one recovery ride with zone 2, replace the zone 3 with more zone 2, do hill repeats instead of "ride hard on the hills", do a proper long ride, replace the other recovery ride with a rest day... Things is, if someone said "do VO2max intervals early in the week, hill repeats later in the week, all other rides zone 2 with a long ride on Sunday" I could also use a little common sense and end up with something sensible... Either way. It's a good project, and it could very well grow into something powerful that empowers more people on their fitness journeys, so good on you! 💪

Feedback on the summary: A nice little breakdown. Average speed of 25.6 reported, but the slowest ride was done at 27.2 It reports elevation gain, so is taking that into account somehow, but IDT rides (for me) have no elevation. Not sure how much this will affect things. Feedback on the programme: Day 1 - 2h z2 Strange to recommend this coming off of a rest day and 2 days 90min z2 in the last 3 days. Day 2 - 3min intervals with 1:1 work to rest ratio. A good session for sure, but doesn't specify number of repeats. It says to do until the end of the ride meaning only 3min of cool-down and probably too many repeats. Workout is specified as 40km with 10min warm-up. Day 3 - 1h recovery ride Not what I would have went for, but not terrible. Big problem though is that this is Saturday and I have time to train, so what a waste! Day 4 - 50km hilly route doing hills hard. Not a very specific specification and the execution (in real time and post analysis) is not very measurable. Not a good session. Two days after doing VO2max intervals, eish I would not perform well... Also, it's Sunday I have more time than this! Day 5 - 70km tempo Hell no. Adding fatigue the day after hills with very little training stimulus. Also now you throw a longer session my way now that it's a work day? Day 6 - 80km endurance Longest ride of the 7 days. Hard to fit in on a Tuesday. It's also not long enough to get me into long ride benefits. My data (which the algorithm didn't look far enough back to see) indicates I need to cross the 4h mark. Day 7 - 40km recovery ride Mate, I came into this 7-day programme with 2 days training logged, you need to schedule a day off! General feedback: I assumed Day 1 is tomorrow since I already did a ride today, but the programme should specify when to start (or if you haven't done a ride today ask to confirm if you want to start today or tomorrow). It needs to schedule at least one rest day per week. It should space out intensity days more. It should be calendar aware and use weekends wisely. A rider with power data should be given power targets for intervals. It should require me to input training hours available and/or look further back to see how much I actually train. It prescribed 20% less than my regular active week training volume. Honestly, this might sound overly critical, but it violated quite a few basic fundamental training principles. A universally applicable one sentence piece of advice would lead to 95% of people self selecting better sessions to fill out a week.

Curiosity piqued. Signing up to see what it'll spit out. Does it pull Strava profile configuration for HR and power zones? My last 5 rides are: Recovery ride Intervals with mid-distance mid-distance z2 90min z2 on trainer after a rest day 90min z2 on trainer

That's less than a week's worth of training sessions for a semi serious rider. For a cyclist that also commutes by bike that might be 4 commutes and 1 training session. Surely you need multiple key sessions and multiple weeks to detect training trends...

Current weather predictions say the rain is shifting away.

I'm sure there will be at least two bunches, so wont have to start with the cat 1 guys.

Venue has moved back to Wellington (or Windmeul actually). It's now Hels after 35km and Bothmaskloof after 123km.

PPA sure has a strange approach in their attempt to try to stay relevant...

Not even One Tonner? 😱

Depends who shows up. An expensive 86km featureless race a week after One Tonner and 13 days before DC feels like it's an easy one to skip.

Hard to find anything about this event to get excited for... I know it's a "funride" so I'm not the target demographic for this one, but still. Also, since I'm featured in the promo image I feel torn about skipping it!

But to get back on topic. Tour de Worcester is a great race, and the more people enter the better!