"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - When did you realize you were gifted?

Despite having extra large lungs and heart, my cycling abilities are not much better than average. But some of you on the boards here indeed have very rare abilities. Cheung mentioned in brief that he just hopped on a bike last year and suddenly discovered himself to be very competitive at the US collegiate level -- outrageous. Our wang-displaying man in Bozeman has TT'd at 35mph. WaterRockets used to zip up to 40mph on a steel bike. There's a story about some pro cyclist, forgot who, who discovered his insane aerobic capacity when in a general phys ed class where the teacher saw he was lapping all the other kids repeatedly. When asked how he did this he replied, "I ride my bike."

Gifted cyclists have no immediately apparent physical traits -- they don't have bizarre height like basketball players or exaggerated muscle mass like football players -- so it seems they aren't readily identifiable. [In the voice of Zoolander] When did you discover you were ridiculously good-pedaling?

For some, it may be more of a high resistance to pain. How much can you take before you give up? More than the next guy? It makes a difference.

This should be good.:rolleyes:

For some, it may be more of a high resistance to pain. How much can you take before you give up? More than the next guy? It makes a difference.

yep.

never considered myself gifted, just tenacious, and smarter than the average cyclist out there.

[In the voice of Zoolander] When did you discover you were ridiculously good-pedaling?

:D LOL

I'm gifted in pain tolerance. I build on that strength by comming here and taking painfull quips from Botto:D

I am expecting to discover how gifted I am at cycling in the next couple of years (says the 39 yr. old).

There are riders on this board that are getting good race results, but I doubt there are any that are so talented that they could make it on to a ProTour team, let alone win at that level. It is hard to understand how fast those guys are. Maybe a couple guys (or girls) could have made it as a domestic US pro if they had started earlier.

I could have made it easily as a domestic when I was younger - after all, how hard is it to clean a house?!

I'm gifted in pain tolerance. I build on that strength by comming here and taking painfull quips from Botto:D

believe me when i write that the pleasure is all mine. :beer:

yep.

never considered myself gifted, just tenacious, and smarter than the average cyclist out there. You've just told me you can tie your own shoes and spell monosyllabic words without drooling. :)

What you said about pain makes sense... I was just reading the history of performance-enhancing drugs last night and found amphetamines used to be the shizznit back in 50s and 60s, the primary reported benefit being improved response to the pain of fatigue. I also read last week, that there have been many documented cases of people being born without any pain-receptors mostly in India and Pakistan (it's hereditary). Someone should hand them the wheels of pain!

I discovered it about 13 or 15 years too late.

You've just told me you can tie your own shoes and spell monosyllabic words without drooling. :)

What you said about pain makes sense... I was just reading the history of performance-enhancing drugs last night and found amphetamines used to be the shizznit back in 50s and 60s, the primary reported benefit being improved response to the pain of fatigue. I also read last week, that there have been many documented cases of people being born without any pain-receptors mostly in India and Pakistan (it's hereditary). Someone should hand them the wheels of pain!

:beer: (it's friday after all).

I am not gifted but instead stubborn and hard headed thus push myself all the time.

I discovered it about 13 or 15 years too late.

That doesn't make you gifted - most old geezers like myself have found that we surely were much better athletes than were were when we were younger. Why, I know people who when they were young walked up hill both ways to school through drifts that were 5 feet tall - and this was in July!

Not that I don't believe them, but perhaps they don't remember as well as they think...

+ 1 on the responses about pain tolerance. For me when I am really suffering I have this internal dialogue that says "stop, there is no reason to do this, you are hurting yourself, just slow down, you are more fit than most of your friends anyway so why do this, you are not a real racer just a poseur, etc etc"

I think getting really good results and being able to do really hard training is based on the ability to ignore these internal doubts.

Literally, the top pros become so good at that that they sometimes do harm thelselves or even drive themselves to death.

I am expecting to discover how gifted I am at cycling in the next couple of years (says the 39 yr. old).

There are riders on this board that are getting good race results, but I doubt there are any that are so talented that they could make it on to a ProTour team, let alone win at that level. It is hard to understand how fast those guys are. Maybe a couple guys (or girls) could have made it as a domestic US pro if they had started earlier.

There are many people here who ride competitively at levels where a 35 mph chase or sustained pack movement at 28mph is all in a day's work and probably represent a small fraction of 1% of the population in terms of their abilities. Consider genius level intelligence is a full 2% of the population, much more common. And "very attractive" is something like a ridiculously high 8% of the opposite sex (for college age heteros). These are very rare abilities we're talking about.

And yet they're still way too slow to be pro who can still sprint to 50mph after riding a full century.

When I began winning races at 14.

Literally, the top pros become so good at that that they sometimes do harm thelselves or even drive themselves to death.
* Hincapie getting on his bike and riding many miles to the finish with a fractured wrist that blew up like a balloon post-race comes to mind as an example. That's just crazy.
* Also Haedo being put back on his bike in the TdF and not knowing where he was or that he was riding in the TdF also comes to mind.

Some of this probably comes with lots of cortisone and other drug use by professionals but yeah, high pain thresholds seem to work well.

I've injured myself enough to know that my pain tolerance is either very high or my threshold for shock is very low. ;)

That doesn't make you gifted - most old geezers like myself have found that we surely were much better athletes than were were when we were younger...


huh?

I figgr'd that I wasn't a total piece of crap after I won a RR a month after tearing an ACL...

I don't think I'd attribute most people's success to some kind of 'special' talent, but instead to a simple drive to do well. I'd wager that most reasonably fit 20something guys could ride as well or better than I do if they trained the same way.

Celticfrost - it is called selective memory, as you get older, your memory gets more and more selective.

I figgr'd that I wasn't a total piece of crap after I won a RR a month after tearing an ACL...

I don't think I'd attribute most people's success to some kind of 'special' talent, but instead to a simple drive to do well. I'd wager that most reasonably fit 20something guys could ride as well or better than I do if they trained the same way.

I thought you won that race because Uncle Sam injected you with some super serum to make you a super soldier?

Some of it is genetics, no doubt: some get on the bike and straight away are winning. These are the phenoms. But some others possess a modicum of talent, which through hard work and, y es, pain absorption, they develop slowly to a very high level. This is what I'm hoping for anyway. :lol:

Talent will only take you so far in any sport, no matter how much you have. I wouldn't call being generally talented at a sport a rare ability. It's a nice bonus.

Celticfrost - it is called selective memory, as you get older, your memory gets more and more selective.

I understood that part.

yea being competitive at the "US collegiate level" is actually not very hard...really depends on what category you're racing in.

I thought you won that race because Uncle Sam injected you with some super serum to make you a super soldier?

That's classified.

When I rode a 60K training ride with Tomas Durst from Panasonic in the 80's in MTL on my SS messenger whip the day before his race. Somehow I got a mystery man mention in La Cycliste, appears he was impressed. One of my bestest cycling memories..riding with a pro. :lol:..I was given the gift of cycling by my folks as a child.
http://img396.imageshack.us/img396/6901/zoolander4td.jpg

I'm not gifted - at all.
I just see no reason to quit doing something when I start.

It's called "The Beep Test".

There is a CD player with big speakers, and you all spread out along a line. There is another line parallel to it, 20m away. Then, when you start the CD, it gives you instructions. Basically, every time it beeps, you run to the other side. If you don't make it to the other side by the time it beeps, twice in a row, you're done. You have a partner who is not running, and they keep track of how many lengths you've done. The CD also tells you what level you're on, and each level has a rep or two more per level, and then when you get further along, it adds one every other time. Additionally, the speed keeps increasing with every level, and because of this, you have to both run faster and get a shorter rest before heading back in the opposite direction. It's basically a VO2 max test.

Myself and a soccer teammate beat the highest score from the local college soccer team (perennial D3 contenders) as 16 year olds. It was the 16th or 17th level, I think. I'm going to attribute it more to a high pain threshold than anything else, though, as while I've always been fast, never anything to write home about.

That's classified.

http://www.movieprop.com/tvandmovie/reviews/universalsoldier.jpg

When I was a sophomore in high school my lung capacity tested at 8200 ml.

Yeah, collegiate racing is kind of easy. I've only been on a road bike since December and have begun to win almost every race in my cat, the last one by a huge lead. I'm going to have to start racing with the A's to get in a workout. I didn't realize how much faster the guys I've been training with are than all of my race competition. I guess riding only with Pro, 1, 2 riders will make anyone fast, so I can't comment on being gifted.

Probably the time I bent a spoon with my mind.

Probably the time I bent a spoon with my mind.

http://www.mudmystic.com/spoonn.jpg

when my mom told me i was handsome

http://www.mudmystic.com/spoonn.jpg


I'm glad you weren't in Speed 2. It was bad enough.

Whoa.

yea being competitive at the "US collegiate level" is actually not very hard...really depends on what category you're racing in.

werd.. i got my first mountain bike last year and raced it the next day and got third..

well over 90% of cycling up to domestic pro level is training.. many people on this forum could make it at that level if they could train 8 hours a day and train correctly.

Our wang-displaying man in Bozeman has TT'd at 35mph.



What?

When my VO2 max tested at 70 billion and how my watts per kilogram at LT can only be expresed with a double limit involving P-->infiniti and W-->0.

Or I am just not gifted at all...we'll see

What?
The fastest I recall the cypress saying he's TT'd is 27mph, at like 5000ft. At sea level that puts him around 25mph or so, which is reasonable, considering I've done TT's faster than that without aero gear.

Not taking anything away from the power of the cypress, just defending his royal thighness from the OP.

The fastest I recall the cypress saying he's TT'd is 27mph, at like 5000ft. At sea level that puts him around 25mph or so, which is reasonable, considering I've done TT's faster than that without aero gear.

Not taking anything away from the power of the cypress, just defending his royal thighness from the OP.



Oh, I feel used and underwhelmed now. Thanks.

Oh, I feel used and underwhelmed now. Thanks.


I hate it when I don't read the OP all the way through. I would never have caught that unless you guys spoke up.

Cheers!

Oh, I feel used and underwhelmed now. Thanks.
Cypress, Zabriskie... tomayto, tomahto... ;)

Cypress, Zabriskie... tomayto, tomahto... ;)


I'm more of a Boonen than a Zabriskie.

Despite having extra large lungs and heart, my cycling abilities are not much better than average. But some of you on the boards here indeed have very rare abilities. Cheung mentioned in brief that he just hopped on a bike last year and suddenly discovered himself to be very competitive at the US collegiate level -- outrageous. Our wang-displaying man in Bozeman has TT'd at 35mph. WaterRockets used to zip up to 40mph on a steel bike. There's a story about some pro cyclist, forgot who, who discovered his insane aerobic capacity when in a general phys ed class where the teacher saw he was lapping all the other kids repeatedly. When asked how he did this he replied, "I ride my bike."

Gifted cyclists have no immediately apparent physical traits -- they don't have bizarre height like basketball players or exaggerated muscle mass like football players -- so it seems they aren't readily identifiable. [In the voice of Zoolander] When did you discover you were ridiculously good-pedaling?

I suck at riding a bike, but I did realize by my junior year of college that I was stunningly handsome. And luckily, in 30 years I found one babe who agreed and she married me.

I'm more of a Boonen than a Zabriskie.
Joke on the 35mph TT.

when i started dropping posers on cannondales in full kit with my centurion lemans rs, board shorts, and stan smiths. it was ony for a few blocks. in 1986. but still.

I'm not gifted. I'm "special".