sky riders today training on a mountain

dcj
dcj Posts: 395
edited May 2012 in Pro race
there i was today waiting for a car lift to watch my friend race this afternoon on a certain spanish island, when 5 sky riders happened to cycle past riding easy pace, with bradley wiggins at the back :shock:

about 7 minutes later my friend arrived by car.
he'd seen them starting the bottom of a steady climb with very little traffic, while he was on the way down to meet me.
we decided to postpone his race route recce and instead see them ride up the mountain. normally the climb takes me about one hour riding steady to the next town. after 20 minutes driving up there was still no sign and we began to scratch our heads. maybe they turned off somewhere. after 25 minutes driving we saw the first 2 guys riding steady tempo and we clocked them riding at 13-14mph (this is where i would be doing 8mph on a good day). it was siutsou and another guy i didn't recognise. we were surprised and shocked just how long it took drivingup this mountain to catch them. further up we saw ritchie porte looking hot but relatively comfortable, then after another 5 minutes we saw chris froome briefly. he was only out of sight for a few seconds. then when we saw him again he was much further up the climb than seemed possible, accelerating out of the saddle on the opposite side of the valley 100 meters away and one hairpin above us. he must have been doing 18mph up an 8% gradient but it looked speeded up, just awesome and definitely riding hard. then round the next bend ahead was bradley who even allowed us a wry smile.

our estimate is that chris and bradley would probably have reached the next town in around 40 minutes which is hard to compute how good the level is of a top rider.

i know the guys don't really need to be pestered on a training ride, but i hope they didn't mind getting a thumbs up from 2 english guys completely and unexpectedly privileged to witness sky in a full on training session. good luck for the tour.

Comments

  • mididoctors
    mididoctors Posts: 16,805
    what no pix?
    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm
  • dcj
    dcj Posts: 395
    i know, we should have - but it already felt like we were gatecrashing a private party
  • Tusher
    Tusher Posts: 2,762
    What a wonderful surprise though! And I'm sure they were chuffed at getting the thumbs up from you.
  • No_Ta_Doctor
    No_Ta_Doctor Posts: 13,310
    If I'd driven past Wiggins I'd have been leaning out of the window singing Small faces songs at him.
    Warning No formatter is installed for the format
  • Tusher
    Tusher Posts: 2,762
    I'd probably be too star-struck, and end up driving over them.

    Whereupon I'd have to go into hiding for killing one of Britain's best cyclists.


    BTW, whatever happened tot he French television car driver who took out Hoogerland and Flecha?
  • liquor box
    liquor box Posts: 184
    any signs of a haircut yet??
  • No_Ta_Doctor
    No_Ta_Doctor Posts: 13,310
    liquor box wrote:
    any signs of a haircut yet??

    Let's hope not.
    Warning No formatter is installed for the format
  • TMR
    TMR Posts: 3,986
    No tA Doctor wrote:
    Let's hope not.

    Because looking like a tool is so 'in'?
  • alwaystoohot
    alwaystoohot Posts: 252
    Great stuff, go Bradley !!
    'I started with nothing and still have most of it left.'
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 72,612
    It's easy to forget with all the race tactics that the reason they're famous and often earn a fair amount is because they cycle bloody fast.
    _
  • Gavin Cook
    Gavin Cook Posts: 307
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    It's easy to forget with all the race tactics that the reason they're famous and often earn a fair amount is because they cycle bloody fast.


    This is so true, I couldn´t believe how fast Froome and Wiggo were climbing. They were touching 30kph near the top of the climb. I have done this same section in a race and was near on vomiting after climbing it at around 20kph.
  • Abdoujaparov
    Abdoujaparov Posts: 642
    Froome was saying on his website he's come out of Romandie feeling good and is getting back into some good form. Great news! He, Brad and Porte could be pretty formidable in the mountains in the tour if they're on top form.
  • dcj
    dcj Posts: 395
    on tuesday we did an epic 5hr 30 min mountain bike ride up over the forest tracks on the south side of the island, then back down into the outer crater joining the tarmac road for the trip back home.
    coming the other way solo was chris froome going impressively fast on a downhill bit. whats more he even bothered to shout a quick hello to us even though we weren't on road bikes.

    what a top bloke. i have been coming to tenerife for 4 years and never seen many top riders. only rumours they are here. this time i've seem Sky out twice in a week :D
    i really hope Sky can be a force at the tour this year.

    tenerife really is a great place to get the miles in, although temperatures hit 41 degrees in the mountains last week which was abit too much of a good thing.
  • TMR
    TMR Posts: 3,986
    dcj wrote:
    tenerife really is a great place to get the miles in, although temperatures hit 41 degrees in the mountains last week which was abit too much of a good thing.

    How do people cycle in that much heat? That would completely kill me :(
  • simon_e
    simon_e Posts: 1,706
    dcj, you might be interested in this article by Will Fotheringham:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/ma ... -de-france
    Aspire not to have more, but to be more.
  • ocdupalais
    ocdupalais Posts: 4,231
    dcj wrote:
    coming the other way solo was chris froome going impressively fast on a downhill bit. whats more he even bothered to shout a quick hello to us even though we weren't on road bikes.

    what a top bloke.

    tenerife really is a great place to get the miles in, although temperatures hit 41 degrees in the mountains last week which was abit too much of a good thing.

    Well done for getting a response.
    I saw old Laughing Boy, Jurgen Van Den Broeck, riding the other way up a climb in Tenerife in 2010 and didn't get the merest hint of a greeting from the grumpy git: although, to be fair, I had been suddenly and inexplicably overcome with camp-ness - shouting "coo-eee" and waving like a moron.

    Also saw the Katusha boys staying at that hotel where Sky were at. It's fairly centrally located, so riders can take in rides to most parts of the island (albeit with a climb up to 2000+ metres at the end). It's on its own in the middle of a lava-field, so DSs will be confident that riders aren't sloping off getting up to no good.

    Tenerife and Gran Canaria are great cycling destinations: but recently discovered Cyprus, which tops them both, IMO.
    I find it difficult to get an accurate feel of some of these places before going; trying to gather info from here and there...seeing past the sales pitch, etc - there should be a nice glossy website (objective and independent) with info on European islands for cycling holidays/training: photos of the terrain, key climbs, info on gradients, road surface quality, prevailing winds, etc,
    Maybe that's a project for next Winter...
  • dcj
    dcj Posts: 395
    dcj, you might be interested in this article by Will Fotheringham:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/ma ... -de-france

    thanks Simon - i enjoyed reading that.
    how times change that nowadays an english newspaper sends its writer abroad just to report on a training camp.

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