Professional Cycling For the Fans - Is Michael Rasmussen a corpse?

Anyone catch him at the finish line today? Dude is so thin he looks dead. Yuck.

Mark


http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39331000/jpg/_39331506_cycling.jpg
props to the BBC.

No corpse rides like he did! Great job Ras! He'll be slower tomorrow I would imagine.

He'll be slower tomorrow I would imagine.

Alot slower....
;)

He's probably glad they aren't riding tomorrow.

He sure has big cajones for a corpse!

Haha another guy named Rasmussen I knew was tall and really thin like that too.

now that I think about it, it's not that he's thin, it's that his cheeks are so hollow and he's so white. He's the racing dead I tell ya!

Mark

He definitely does look like he's dead. He also looks like an old woman.

Hell of a rider, though.

you want lean.....check out Robbie.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2005/tour05/?id=tour059/hirobbie

Thin, yah, but then maybe he's got the perfect cyclist body and athletic furnace (for lack of a better word) - able to burn large amounts of food and calories and turn that into raw energy. Did you see how he got off his bike at the end? Beyond exhaustion. Perhaps the ride of his life? I can't imagine him doing that again, especially as the climbs get tougher.

What the hell are you people so fixated on his thinness. He blew the doors off the whole effing peloton - that's all that counts. There's some pretty ugly mofos that inhabit this place (I know I am one of them). :D

He'll be slower tomorrow I would imagine.

Especially since it is a rest day. :D

dead or alive, he could kick all your butts with on foot clipped in.

They all look thin and and ashen, especially nearing the end of the race. Lance is no thicker. They do this on purpose. You want to lose as much extra weight as possible, such as fat, and maintain as much lean muscle mass as you can. This way the riders' power-to-weight ratio will be as high as possible. For example, Jan Ulrich is a big guy and can produce a more total power (Watts) than Armstrong. However, Armstrong is much lighter than Ulrich and has a much higher power-to-weight ratio. Therefore, Lance will go faster. He is also more quick and nimble. Think of a big SUV with a 350hp turbo-diesel engine vs a super-light Mazda RX-7 with say, 200 horsepower. That big diesel makes enough power to haul a boat, but the Mazda will be quick, nimble, use less gas, and get there much faster.

LOL, SAB, your points are good ones but your examples aren't so hot. Lance's weight is 75kg, Jan's is 73kg.

And Mazda RX's were never known for having good gas mileage!

He sure has big cajones for a corpse!


You mean cojones.

Corsaire ;)

You mean cojones.

Corsaire ;)

That I did! :D

you both mean donkey balls.

you both mean donkey balls.

Hey, I would have a set implanted if I could lead a breakaway from the TDF peloton for over a hundred K (or a hundred kays as numbnuts Roll would say).

Hey, I would have a set implanted if I could lead a breakaway from the TDF peloton for over a hundred K (or a hundred kays as numbnuts Roll would say).

And the skinny bloke was still turning over a 53/13 for the last 10 K @ 25 MPH right to the very end. Incredible.

They all look thin and and ashen, especially nearing the end of the race. Lance is no thicker. They do this on purpose. You want to lose as much extra weight as possible, such as fat, and maintain as much lean muscle mass as you can. blah ... blah ... blah


Compare Rasmussen to Voigt and tell me that Michael doesn't look like the undead. Even some of the "climbers" look 100X better than Michael (namely Basso, Vino, Simoni ... I know, Simoni's not in this tour).

Mark

Mr. Rassmusen is a Dane, we aint built for sunshine... He has more of a tan than I, (Im 1/2 Scotts, so that helps with the Pallor :D)

Not coprse, but ghost, I can't believe anyone could run away from peloton for 171km, it's unbelieveable, not to mention that was not flat stage.

Easy people, no one's trying to discredit his obvious ability- but he does look... gaunt, those cheeks are more conspicuous by their absence than any presence they have.

And quite the opposite of Steven Gerrard, too- same haircut, but with huge forehead expanse.

Easy people, no one's trying to discredit his obvious ability- but he does look... gaunt, those cheeks are more conspicuous by their absence than any presence they have.

And quite the opposite of Steven Gerrard, too- same haircut, but with huge forehead expanse.


Easy, people, but let me add a negative comment about his looks! LOL

Come one folks, bicycle racing is not about how you look. If you are interested in that swill, watch America's Next Top Model.

If it takes looking like a chemo patient to be a great cyclist... I'd rather suck. :p

No corpse rides like he did! Great job Ras! He'll be slower tomorrow I would imagine.

Oops! Forgot about the rest day. However, I was still wrong in my estimate after watching Raz's performance during stage 10! Considering his position in the GC...Lance should seriously keep an eye on this guy. How does he Time Trial?

I'd like to lend Rasmussen around 20 lbs. I'd climb a lot better, and he'd look like the rest of the peloton.

Of course he has skinny little girly arms. You don't become King of the Big Hills by hauling up Hulk Hogan's 26-inch pythons.

He held his own at the end of that break...hr lost 3:14 on the opening stage but may not have ridden all out as his initial goal was the polka-dot jersey.

He held his own at the end of that break...hr lost 3:14 on the opening stage but may not have ridden all out as his initial goal was the polka-dot jersey.

If my main focus was the polka-dot jersey, I would sluff off on the TTs so that the peloton wouldn't see me as a GC threat and let me go on the breaks and get mountain points. Maybe that is Ras's plan too.

pretty poor plan if the guy can actually TT and has a shot at the top of the podium

If my main focus was the polka-dot jersey, I would sluff off on the TTs so that the peloton wouldn't see me as a GC threat and let me go on the breaks and get mountain points. Maybe that is Ras's plan too.
not his plan anymore

Is Michael Rasmussen a corpse?

Yes, you didn't know that? He's the 'ghost with the most', the 'stricken chicken', the 'dead king of the
mountains', the 'polkageist'... George Romero apparantly has plans to film a biography of Raz next year.

No, seriously, he's just a strict weight weenie... :D

they said that he won't even carry water bottles up the mountain due to the extra weight.

and that dudes arms are scary thin. i was watching the stage two days ago with a bunch of non-cyclists and a few cyclists and nobody could believe how skinny that guy was.

very impressive today though. if he had beaten lance and got the time bonus then things would have been really interesting!

pretty poor plan if the guy can actually TT and has a shot at the top of the podium

He lost 3:14 in a 19 km TT. If he can actually TT, why give up that much time over such a short course if he thinks he has a shot at the podium? I am guessing his plan is not poor and knows that he can't win the GC because he can't TT as well as Lance. Personally, I would rather win the king of the mountains than be the first or second loser in the GC.



not his plan anymore

I haven't seen the stage yet, (tivo'd it) but what about today's stage leads you to say that he is going for the GC and not just trying to get maximum points on a climb where points are double? He may be trying to place as high as he can in the GC, but I still think his primary focus is the Polka Dot Jersey.

Easy, people, but let me add a negative comment about his looks! LOL

Come one folks, bicycle racing is not about how you look. If you are interested in that swill, watch America's Next Top Model.

Or become a member of the OCP :D

If your ribs don't show, then you probably arn'et a good climber.

P.S. my ribs show when I raise my arms. My muscle shows otherwise.....

If your ribs don't show, then you probably arn'et a good climber.

P.S. my ribs show when I raise my arms. My muscle shows otherwise.....

So are you only a good climber with your arms up?

Basically. When I stretch my arms toward the handle bars, my ribs show hehe...

When i'm riding my bike with no hands on the handle bars, then my arms are down and im a terrible climber.

I'd venture most people are much worse at climbing with no hands. At least putting out any kind of serious power. Some guy told me he could sprint, standing up hills with no hands. He has yet to prove it, I think its impossible, if only by the sheer fact that sprinting implies using your arms, but whatever.

the 'polkageist'... :D

Brilliant!

If he is a corpse he must have gone to heaven because he climbs like he has wings.

I'd venture most people are much worse at climbing with no hands. At least putting out any kind of serious power. Some guy told me he could sprint, standing up hills with no hands. He has yet to prove it, I think its impossible, if only by the sheer fact that sprinting implies using your arms, but whatever.

Well maybe he could 'sprint' if he kept proper balance. As in going anaerobic with the legs. But his speed most likely would be tiny I assume ;)

I'm sending that boy a side of beef and a brontosaurous burger like what Fred Flinstone had on the side of his car that made his car tip... and ordering him to eat it!

That boy is headed towards osteoperosis by 40 for sure. :eek: :D

Koffee

not his plan anymore

But it definitely was at one point, I remember reading on cyclingnews.com- I think it was either the day before his breakaway or two days before- where Rasmussen said that he'd been hanging on the back of the peloton for a few stages to hopefully lose a bit of time so that he'd be allowed to go on a breakaway. Seems like all the planning has been perfect up to this point, but certainly the Polkageist and Rabobank must be pleasantly surprised that he's in second.

Compare Rasmussen to Voigt and tell me that Michael doesn't look like the undead. Even some of the "climbers" look 100X better than Michael (namely Basso, Vino, Simoni ... I know, Simoni's not in this tour).

Mark

looks don't make it go. there was a mustang in my neighborhood that hadrust holes in the floor board pass as air conditioning. fastest car around.

I think Bram Stoker predicted this! From "Dracula" there is this line spoken by a local as Jonathan Harker travels to see COunt Dracula:

"Denn die Todten reiten Schnell."

And the dead travel fast.

Damn fast!

I think he is a great rider. But, he totally looks like Skeletor.

I think he is a great rider. But, he totally looks like Skeletor.

Yeah, but Skeletor has big muscles:

http://www.geocities.com/edinger03/images/KOM_skeletor.jpg

Yeah, but Skeletor has big muscles:

http://www.cedmagic.com/featured/he-man/skeletor.jpg


True... but maybe he's let himself go a little bit :D

He might look something like this:

http://free.imd.it/masters/newart/ag_skeletor_by_alessio_dimarco.jpg

Gotta love Google.... ;)