airbrake

Sunday the 13th on discovery HD there is a show about two "regular Joe" cyclists who train with the Discovery team, then ride one of the stages of the TDF. (not during the race) The previews looked like it will be good.

BSLeVan

Thanks for the heads up.

airbrake

Bump...tonight's the night.

George

I just looked at the TV guide and I cant find it in the listings for Houston. Anybody have a hint?

airbrake

It's only on the hd discovery channel...for now

George

Thanks for the update airbrake. I wish they would put it on a channel that would be more accessible to more people, oh well.

solveg

I can't see it, either.

My HD Discovery channel is showing a bunch of templar knight stuff....

What's the name of this show?

solveg

OK, I found it. It's on HDT, which is "Discovery Theater". It's on tonight (central time) at 10, tomorrow at 3, and next sat and sun in the afternoon. The show is called, "Riding the Tour de France: Livin' the Dream".

Tom Bombadil

Watching it now on HD Discovery Theater. That one guy is a bit on the heavy side for this type of riding.

solveg

Yeah! I can't believe those guys were recreational* riders... I was expecting a hard core roadie type.

The skinny guy rode 15 miles/day, and the Clyde only rode 3 times/ a week, was it 15 miles each ride?

I'm finding it very inspirational, so far. We'll see what happens, though.

countersTrike

AHEM.... Science Channel: Inventers Nation- bamboo bikes, veggie oii, solar, steam; but it is on as I type- some sort of marathon, I think!. Unfortunately for me- no recumbent trikes

countersTrike

Tom Bombadil

Solveg, you need one of those 3-D fittings!

solveg

That was pretty cool, wasn't it....

Now that the show is done, I think it was a pretty crazy concept. It would be like taking me* to France and trying to get me up a mountain. I'm amazed they did as well as they did, especially the Italian one.

I wish they would have spent more time on how they prepared instead of the long Trek commercials.

Were any of those riders we saw dopers?

Hermes

Velodiva and I watched it. The pictures of the route were cool. Our take away was that we have climbs that are similar here - Mount Hamilton, Mount Diablo and Skyline. The Tour of California is climbing Mount Hamilton this year. The one thing that would make that ride difficult was the length of the ride plus the climbs. I guess it made sense to pick cyclists that had little mountain training (or any training) to add some drama to the program. If they picked one of our cyclists who do repeats up Mount Diablo, there would not be a story. Although, the one fit cyclist did pretty well with coaching and training.

BluesDawg

+1

Neil_B

How heavy? Athletic heavy or middle-aged out of shape guy heavy?

solveg

He started out 6'2 at 225 lbs (if I remember right) and lost about 25 lbs before the climb.

RockyMtnMerlin

I thought it was alright. The younger guy did a really good ride, especially for the amount of miles he had been riding and even the "heavy guy" did a great job getting up a climb that had some sections over 10%. I would have LOVED to have tried it. I did have to smile at the comments on altitude. Those guys were complaining about it when they were at 3500 feet. 99.9% of my riding is above 7000 feet elevation. For you flatlanders, is 3500 ft really that much harder than sea level? And finally, who the heck is Levi "Leepheimer?" Seems like they could have at least pronounced the name of one of the best American racers correctly.

Hermes

I did not get the 3500 feet elevation comments either. I time trialed at 5000 feet and cannot say that I felt the elevation. I am sure it had an effect on performance but there was no buzz among the athletes at the race about elevation - wind yes. Likewise when I climb Mount Hamilton, 4400 feet, the last 7 miles are challenging but that is because you have just climbed 9 miles. I basically live and ride at sea level.

I thought the heavy guy 6 - 1, 225 pounds did great. I would have liked to see him complete the ride. However, he was riding 14 miles per day on flat terrain to and from work before he started serious training. He lost 22 pounds after his meeting with Coach Bruyneel (spelling). He needed another month of focused training and I think he would have made it. Both riders looked to me to be in their 20s.

Edit: I also gathered that Carmichael gave them a training program which I am sure helped a lot.

Baftap

I just watched it tonight (taped it the other day and just got to it). Not a lot of detail, but a pleasant way to spend an hour. Those guys were pretty young (compared to this group) - the thinner guy (Joe) was 23 and the clyde (Adam) was 32.

If you haven't seen it or don't get Discovery, the commercial for it is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwbaxKw05Oc

Also, I found this article with a little more background: https://www.takoma.com/archives/pdfs/...0_00_032_c.pdf

Nermal

For what it's worth, RockyMtnMerlin, a naturally aspirated car won't start feeling the altitude till around 4,000'. Back in the days when I was backpacking, I believe I felt the altitude starting somewhere around 7,000', but it may have just been hills in the San Juan Mountains. My home elevation (Farmington, NM) is 5,000', so maybe I was less sensitive than some.

Centaur2007

Good show but just about every time they put the heavier guy on camera he was filling his pie hole. Hmmmmmm.....I wonder how come he wasn't able to make it over the passes ?

Big Paulie

That's probably an editing thing...they had miles of tape of everyone eating, but chose to show the heavy guy eating on screen more often to make some kind of insulting point.

I've done a fair bit of documentary film and tape editing, and believe me, what you choose to show can color a person or a situation any way you want.

Pat

The show did have its problems. It seemed to be quite a bit from the "experts". Our two bicycle everymen were advised by Team Discovery experts. There was a big deal made about the 3,500' altitude. As mentioned above, 3,500' does not have a significant effect on performance. The reason they were out of breath is they had just done a long climb and were not used to it.

They were given new bikes by Trek and that effort emphasized weight savings. The bikes shaved off a whole 1.5 lb when the stouter of the two riders could have easily stood to lose 30 lbs. It was sort of an endorsement for weight weenies everywhere.

On the good side, they did do a fit on both riders. Both riders had their seats a bit low. Emphasis on proper fit is a good thing.

The heavy guy was advised to lose weight before the big event and both of them were advised to put in significantly more miles.

Both guys were quite young being in their twenties. So they were able to get in shape fast and the heavy guy did lose 20 lbs.

There were 3 climbs. The larger guy was done after two but two long, steep climbs make a pretty good day. The lighter guy did all three and finished the ride.

I would have liked to have seen more on just how impressive cycling is. They did not go into the amount of work that a hard stage is. They also did not go into the fact that the pros do this day after day after day (OK not all are mountain stages but still).

The final thing I would have liked seen emphasized is just how impressive a performance a well conditioned recreational cyclist can turn in. I think we all know that what seems like a pretty moderate ride transcends belief to our friends.

Centaur2007

I'd say you're probably right, perception is reality in most cases. However, there was some evidence under that Disco jersey !