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59 minutes ago, Vetplant said:1.83m
60kg
HOW?!
Dont believe everything you read on Procycling stats with weight and height
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1 hour ago, DieselnDust said:In slow motion like die man van staal
6 minutes ago, Frosty said:I’d imagine it’s more about fine tuning his XCO skills than general fitness. He seems more “ready to race” now compared to previous years.
Yes it would be a small percent of specialisation than actual training to get ready.
On 4/9/2024 at 9:03 AM, mecheng89 said:I'm not in the world of advertising and marketing, but 8 days of exposure versus 2? The audience size yeah is a big factor, but I don't know the viewership numbers for these events.
He isn't doing much MTB-ing for someone who wants to go for gold at Paris tbf. But then again, this is MVDP.
He focuses now on MTB post classics completion
47 minutes ago, Paulst12 said:I know it's hard for organiser to arrange routes for these big tours but surely slow the group down by putting up barriers??
So for me the question is what do all the Tour favorites now do given a lot have serious damage that will eat into preparation time... Do you think Remco and Jonas will be in form and ready to take of Tadej who looks to be the big gainer from this?
Some try recover best as possible and others don’t go to the Tour.
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16 hours ago, DieselnDust said:Roglic also abandon but walked away with just light cuts and abrasions. He’s got to be cursing his luck. He’s starting to worry me in that like Chris Froome, everytime I see him race I have this will he won’t he crash anxiety.
that said, road racing is getting faster at the sharp end and the road they were riding on is in bad shape with broken tarmac due to roots pushing through. The UCI is not looking terribly good this year with poor decision making from ‘22 and ‘23 leading to more crashes and more injured riders. Instead of focusing their energy on real safety it’s directed and brake hoods, socks, pointyness of helmets and other trivial crap.
There were roots under the tar that were pushing up in the corner and this is what caused riders to go down mainly. It was spoken about before we started the stage in passing.
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10 minutes ago, BMCfan said:JohnO, Strings is probably a bit miffed because he cant get his hands on an 8, yet ... 🤪
PS:, i am sure the seals lasts, its just a pro setup and can probably be changed daily if they wanted too
Strings has more Spez bikes than Spez
13 minutes ago, wolver said:No valve caps... gotta be a gram or two saving there!
It wastes time should you have a flat to remove a valve cap.
small things
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31 minutes ago, stringbean said:300k bike and the suspension seals can’t last a week of racing🙈🙈🙈🙈🙈
Not specifically, some riders like specific feedback from a bike, front end etc. some riders are more sensitive than others. Perfect example here in Basque post stage was feedback on a certain set of tyres used and rider has asked for a small change cause he wasn’t happy and confident on the feedback the bike gave him in a certain environment on the road due to the tyres.
for me and you it makes no difference, go up a level or 15 it does.
you are more than knowledgeable to know this!!
Matt likes his bike set up specifically and wants that feeling in a race. He was the same when he raced motocross and his then bike set ups.
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3 minutes ago, Thomo said:Unlikely to get any arguments here. 👍🏻
The comments about looking better but not necessarily being a GT threat were however referring to Bernal. 😊
Hopefully wrong about EB, as the more contenders there are, the better the viewing.!
Apologies my age is showing its face here.
Bernal is the best I have seen him since his crash, I dont think however to win a GT is not an option but a 3-5th looks possible
On 3/24/2024 at 4:18 PM, Thomo said:He gets better with every outing. 👏🏻
Don't know whether he'll be a serious challenger in the GT's, but good to see him back, improving and seemingly enjoying himself.
He will win Giro with his fingers up his nose barring illness or injury and be a threat at the Tour.
If you ok to lose potentially R253 order a set of socks and see if they arrive.
1 hour ago, Wannabe said:John, my perception is that some of the newer "experts" on lehub do not know who or what you are, therefore they are under the fallible impression that they know more about our beloved sport than you. (top tip, if you do not know who John Wakefield is, consult Dr Google)
Matt again said in the interview today that Howie put him in the hurt box and that all he could do was to hang on. (I dunno if that was tongue in cheek/an inside joke) What I saw was that Matt was on the front most of the time, only on the more technical climbs did Howie go to the front. On the long gradual climbs Matt could throw his watt bombs down.
Howie won both his Epics with partners physically way stronger than him (Koolharvy and Matt) but he survived both with relative ease.
But hey, what do I know about Mtb riding, I'm just a armchair critic that only rides in good weather.
You dont need to google, Im not important I found out in November via WhatsApp.
More importantly to answer your questions, Matt had some stomach issues today hence the not feeling tip top and its day 7 of a tough Epic, I cannot believe anyone is tip top today.
With the much shorter steeper climbs it does not suite his 81kg frame compared to a bunch of low 60kg riders so his energy output and also consumption is alot more. It hurts and he will be on the back foot somewhat naturally. Same to say on a drag or flat road when he puts said 60kg riders into the gutter at 50kmh its not fun for the them.
It also shows how much class and knowledge Howie brings to the table, in both epics he has won. For me it's about partner management from the stronger rider, communication between partners. This is something Matt and I are always in discussion about but in fairness to him, I feel he is 1 of the best in the World Of MTB to deliver this service. I dont say this cause I coach him, I say this cause it's factual when you just look at performance and see who he has to partner with to race wins. For Epic he is always with a new partner - 3 wins 3 different partners, many teams are stable team mates and know each other really well.
40 minutes ago, Titleist said:On another note, how does a typical day in the life of Matt look during Epic prep in one of those 25 hour weeks? What does he do for the rest of the day after a 4 hour morning session for example?
Sure there is some things I cannot share but in general it Depends what he has going on. Recovery is key post training then should he have admin to do he will sort travel logistics, we discuss training based on the day sometimes or what is coming up travel, races etc. what is a good plan or not.
he sometimes has sponsor obligations to do and if there is heat training or acclimation then this is post training in some cases.
what is fact and what the general conception is, is that he doesn’t sit and Netflix all day.
20 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:Recovery pancakes and coffee at Knead
seriously though, drop Matt the message on his insta page. I’m sure he’ll reply sometime. John won’t share his athletes routines.
8 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:The relative positioning of team mates isn’t a dead cert in hierarchy. One day you’re the hammer the next day you’re the nail. From what I can tell, Matt likes to ride on the front. There could be several reasons for this; sighting the trail , just a better feeling of comfort could be another. You’d need to be able to hear the dialogue between them to get a better sense of what is going on. Howard seems more comfortable across a broader speed range on the climbs whereas Matt likes a constant tempo. So let Matt sit on the front to set his tempo and Howard follows. You don’t want a faster climber starting to stretch you out when you’re having trouble on the climb. Matt can’t hide behind Howard anyway, he’s a hike head and shoulder taller.
what is apparent is that Bikehub needs to do a podcast with Matt where these questions can be asked. Maybe John can arrange a S2S seminar with some of their top athletes and the audience can ask the milllion and one questions.
just based on the highly variable and sometimes downright weird training and preparation for the epic amongst the back markers there is very clearly still a huge gap in the market for this information
Thanks but I am fully capable of replying with correct info to anyone directly asks me…
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13 minutes ago, babse said:You well respected and obviously well informed. Its still okay for okes to share their views (even if we know as much as Gerald and Neil) and talk smack (Fini chain gate) on this thread.
be lekker 🤌
100% agree, never have said otherwise ever on what people think or say.
what they should do is read your post and know it also applies to them and all.
always lekker.
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2 minutes ago, NotSoBigBen said:What do you know .... I've also seen those numbers you've been posting for the Mullet,I reckon I could take him if I felt like 😎
Apparently nothing or not that much I have been informed this week by some. While I don’t disagree with this, it was just good to be informed with certain this is true.
24 minutes ago, dev null said:Irish is not too bad, depending how high you go. I normally climb it to the 5th contour road. Most riders should be able to do the Jonkers meander in about 90 minutes.
Upper Firehut might catch a few tired riders. I myself never ride the very top of Firehut. Just too rocky and tight.
Every time after doing 6 days of epic and being in your moer with 30-45hrs in the legs?
Different RPE value I would imagine
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18 minutes ago, tinmug said:That's like you saying you can outride that fine athlete that Matthew Beers is (and that is a compliment of the highest order, in case I sound vague). 😎
I’ll outride Matt 8 of the 7 days in a week and he knows that. Well.
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Stages Power Meters lay off entire workforce
in The Bike Room
Posted
It's a shame to see this, I was fortunate enough to work really closely with Stages in 2019 and 2020 from their development and so forth in the USA. Great company of people and the 1 CEO who I worked super close with had a really bad accident and stepped away from the day to day to day for obvious reasons. we always kept in contact over the years.
Sad to see.