Originally Posted by pedex
Im not sure what the fitness level difference is tween 10-15 hrs a week and double that, but ive noticed that I seem to be able to ride a long long way right at LT compared to the guys that dont, and ive seen Nate and Davey do the same, heck ive chased them riding with my HR redlined most of the time for more than 2 hrs in a race. Those kinds of efforts used to really drain me, enough to where the next day would suck, nowadays its really no big deal.
What you may notice when doing cat-1/2/pro races is you won't have the snap and pick-up that they do. Going from 35-45mph instantly and constantly with just 10-20s recovery in between. Doing 45-50mph sprints after 2-3 minutes of intense lead-outs. To train for those kinds of efforts, you gotta back off on some of the mileage and time. This is what the US crit racers typically do. Your current workout-schedule and conditioning may be equivalent to the European or US road-racers.
