Pro cyclists are overrated?
There was an interesting race last weekend. An iron athlete against pro cyclists like Matieu van der poel.
The Iron man athlete was the big underdog since iron man athlete are not trained for short and explosive races. But the iron man athlete figured that he has better endurance than everybody else, so he decided to attack early and ride solo till the end of the finish. And that is exactly what he did. The group behind him who were drafting each other was not able to catch him.
Now I know that a top-class world tour rider like Chris Froome had a FTP of 460 watts in his prime. So the iron man athlete would have his a** kicked by Froome.
But here is the thing. The iron man athlete can ride as fast as a pro cyclist. But the pro cyclists cannot swim or run marathons as fast as an iron man athlete.
So overall, iron man athletes are simply superior athletes I would say by a big margin.
The Iron man athlete was the big underdog since iron man athlete are not trained for short and explosive races. But the iron man athlete figured that he has better endurance than everybody else, so he decided to attack early and ride solo till the end of the finish. And that is exactly what he did. The group behind him who were drafting each other was not able to catch him.
Now I know that a top-class world tour rider like Chris Froome had a FTP of 460 watts in his prime. So the iron man athlete would have his a** kicked by Froome.
But here is the thing. The iron man athlete can ride as fast as a pro cyclist. But the pro cyclists cannot swim or run marathons as fast as an iron man athlete.
So overall, iron man athletes are simply superior athletes I would say by a big margin.
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I am not sure. You have no chance.
And Matieu van der poel is no joke. He is the most powerful pro-cyclist in the world right now judging by how he won the Amstel Gold last year.
Alas, they don't, because it isn't.
His FTP is around 380 watts which is pro-level in cycling (I know pro cyclists on big world tour teams who have this type of power. Some pro’s even have less power than this).
Iron man athletes are trained to do 310 watts over a 180km distance at 41 km/h solo while still having enough energy left to perform a full marathon run afterwards. It is long *ss distances were an iron man athlete would be in the advantage.
To give a bit of perspective how pro cyclists race 160km in groups, they only push 180 watts most of the time due to drafting. Pro cyclist do not push as many watts as an iron man athlete during a stage as a result of riding in the peleton.
Is that the same as a short punchy climb like the last 500m of Ventoux?
To give you a perspective how good his solo ride was and why the peleton could not catch him.
The fastest pro-cyclist in the world is Ganna @ Team Ineos / Sky. His 4 minute effort at 61km/h is a little above 600 Watts.
The Iron man athlete did 535 Watts for 5 minutes. That is quite insane for someone who is not a pro-cyclist and an ultra endurance athlete (think about 9 hour races he needs to do)
You might discredit because it was a virtual race, but Watts = Watts.
Sure, the very best of the pro-cyclist would destroy the iron man athlete. But they cannot run marathons and swim as good like he does
That is the same speed pro-riders do in the Tour while they are drafting eachother (which requires much less effort)
So his power numbers are legit.
People love to speak about power numbers but the real test is out on the road.
What virtual race was this, what platform , what distance and who exactly were the riders ?
Racing is more than just watts. Contador used to do attacks early put out loads of watts and then get caught and lose time
Even Team Sky / Ineos rely on it for training, so the power reading must be very accurate. Else guys like Froome and Thomas would be training in the wrong zones.
You'll be telling us he can run nearly as fast as a runner next.
The half ironman World Champion in the 45-49 age group is Alexandre Vinokourov.
The runner-up in the 50-54 age group in the Ironman Hawaii was Laurent Jalabert
If Richie can run and swim fast enough to hold on the advantage he creates during the cycling phase, he could win it.
But some of the Iron man guys are crazy fast runners though. So it will be though for Richie to pull it off.
I am not sure. You have no chance.
Virtual race = not a real race
- @ddraver
Can he produce the same numbers for 21 days in a row ?
1. The Ironman was Lionel Sanders, a former runner-up in Kona, so no mug
2. The race was three laps of the Richmond Worlds course - 27.8km
3. Van der Poel was just there because of the sponsors. He sat up after 7km
4. Sanders attacked with about 9km to go using an 'Invisibility power-up' which makes him invisible for ten seconds. Only Haimar Zubeldia gets to use those in real racing.
5. Three other riders bridged across. By his own admission Sanders wheelsucked a lot in that group, which only had one pro cyclist (from Alpacin)
6. He used another power-up to get away in the last 2km.
7. The peloton almost caught him on the line. I haven't heard of any of the top ten (all Zwift racers apparently)
8. The peloton included Maurizio Fondriest who is 55.
9. The graphics were better than for the van Avermaet race.
The video:
- @ddraver
Or is this GrandTheftAuto?
Was that not in your manual?
- @ddraver