Originally Posted by patentcad

WhatEVER. I've been doing this for a VERY long time, talent is talent, training is a factor, a considerably lesser factor than genetics. Make no mistake, credit where it's due, Gary trains harder than anyone I've ever known, and his success is largely due to that, but if he had been born with my (lack of) sprinting ability, he wouldn't win races. On the other hand, even with his considerable talent, if he didn't train so hard, he'd have 1/10 of his results. It's both. But without the talent it becomes next to impossible in my view. Could I train hard enough to be a potentially effective domestique? Perhaps. Is it worth living like a monk and training like a zealot to me? Hardly. It becomes more like a job, not something I love to do.

Hey, that's my view borne out of 20 years in and around the sport. But you'll have to form your own opinion. None of that matters of course. We all do this because we love it, for one reason or another. No matter how much we snipe at each other, we do share that, Fred and Road Nazi alike. That's the Big Picture. Which so many of you are incapable of seeing. Don't worry, Uncle Pcad will show you the Way.

None of you are friggin worthy of course, but that's a whole other thread.