Hey, newfound celebrityman! Great race! Can you believe the wave of interest that's been generated about you here? Many people are genuinely impressed...I am one of them.

In light of all this conjecture about what you can and cannot do, do you think that in a long TT, like an Ironman, you would hold up better against top road-race pro short TTers? I know there's really no way to know unless you all lined up and did the race, and I'm not trying to make you brag or be self-disparaging. Just wanted to know how you honestly feel about your long-course TT compared to pros that are used to short-courses.

Look forward to hearing more about you over the next decade, or two! Congratulations again...

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Quid quid latine dictum sit altum videtur
(That which is said in Latin sounds profound)

[reply]Hey, newfound celebrityman! Great race! Can you believe the wave of interest that's been generated about you here? Many people are genuinely impressed...I am one of them.[/reply]

Thanks! I guess it's a slow month..

I think I'd definently hold up better the longer the TT is but as i said in another post most pro cyclists are just at a different level.

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BA coaching http://www.bjornandersson.se

Hey bjorn, what race is this?



looks like you're dismounting with Craig Walton, pretty cool.

And also, what race suit did you use in IMNZ? Your site says Briko, but I didn't know they made racesuits.

Good point Jonas. I recall reading in Lance's book that the reason he became so good after chemo was because he had lost all the upper body muscle he had from his swim days. He's not going to be anywhere near as good a swimmer as he used to be.

If he bulks up enough to get his old swim speed back it's going to negatively affect his bike.

Lets see if we can get this thread to 100 replies ;)

First, all that upper body mass only slowed him down on the climbs and accelerations, it would have little or no effect on the flats or a TT, which is what most triathlon is about.

Second, I hope you are not suggesting that in triathlon it is better to have great upper body mass in order to gain 5 minutes on the swim even though it might result in losing 20 minutes on the bike. Both the bike and swim benefit from Lance's build and those events constitute about 85% of the race for most people. Why would he even worry about the swim (assuming he could do it in less than an hour) other than he has to worry about the bike handling skills of all the age groupers he would be flying past (most of whom would probably be looking backwards trying to get a glimpse of Lance so not riding in a straight line).

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Frank,
An original Ironman and the Inventor of PowerCranks

No, I'm not suggesting that he bulk up for the swim, merely that while he has previous history in the sport, he's likely to be quite a bit slower on one leg. Having said that, that's the least significant leg, and he's gotten a lot faster on the bike to make up for it.

Are you telling me Bjorn got his P3 two weeks before the race? Is this true?

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

I'm not a bike spotting pro, nor do I know how many bikes one takes to Epic Camp, but this picture is Bjorn on something other than a P3:

http://www.epiccamp.com/EpicNZ04/pix/D12_bjorn2.jpg

Yep. Two weeks. I currently live in ChCh. There aren't too many Cervelos around here!

The day it arrived I rode with Wy and she told me about it.

Guess it worked well for him,eh?

i don't think anyone's mentioned this on this thread, but lance did go and win a dirty duathlon last year(dec 02).
http://www.duathlon.com/articles/2514

Lance Armstrong

2 18:57.9 0:45.1 2 55:28.6 0:37.9 1 20:16.0 1:36:05.5

beaten on the bike even! i don't know what he'd do at an im. but it sure would be fun to watch.

darrell

Incredible. This only adds another dimension to an already incredible story.

What a coup (again) for Cervelo. They have to be doing backflips!

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Tom Demerly
The Tri Shop.com

Why are you so excited he got his Cervelo two weeks ahead? He could of gotten it 2 days before, set it up properly, had a short ride to get the feel for it, and got check in. If it's set up similarly to his training bike then he shouldn't experience any big differences in performance (?)

Also, Lance was super fast at that off road du he did in Texas last year. He ran low 16 for a hard-sounding off road first 5k. He was with the leaders in T1, got beat on the bike, and ran down the leader to win. No doubt Lance can run. I also heard that he occasionally swims with the Univ of Texas team. I have no doubt Lance would swim around 50 minutes.

When he was a kid he routinely lead out of T2 and ran circa 36 minutes for 10k, getting beaten (not by much) only by the top pros. Lance would be faster than Larsen right away. I also wouldn't doubt he could win Olympic distance races. No reason he wouldn't come out of the water with the main group and no one would be able to stay on his wheel if there is the slightest incline. He would put 4 minutes on the fastest guys and hang on to win. Just too fast on the bike.

First off I'm not so sure Lance would come out with the leaders in an OD race. Second, if this is a World Cup race then he isn't going to be able to put so much time into them because they'll all be psyched to be racing LA and won't let him get away. And finally if he did put that much time into them, one of those 30:30 runners will track him down on the run. I don't think he'll be able to run 34:30 after such a strong ride without any run training.

I never thought he could do that without run and swim training. It would require a solid lead up. I'm with you on that one. I don't think he would win any remotely high powered race without swim and run miles under his belt. He's talented, but not that talented.

Thats what I have been saying! People keep comparing Lance to Larsen, Chann Mcrae and I even saw one comparison to Udo Bolts? Come on people, this is Lance Armstrong I am talking about. Lance was a triathlete and a pretty good one. He has obviously lost some swim speed and he probably has lost a little running prowess but he is so far ahead of the rest of the triathlon world on the bike that he doesnt need to be as good as he was in the other disciplines to win.

I love triathlon and love the fact that we get to compete head to head with the top guys in our sport in the same events, but I believe that the top pro cyclists in the world are just better athletes than the top pro triathletes right now. The money at the top of their sport is much bigger and the talent pool at the top level is much larger. To even become a pro cyclist you have to move up to the top of the amateur ranks and then hope to be selected by a pro team to get a license. To get your triathlon pro card you need a resume with a few top tens on it in decent sized regional races. A couple years ago at Mrs. T's, the race was full and I asked if there was anyway I could race since I was in town working the expo. I was told to go get a pro card at the USA tri table since there were still slots open in th pro field! If it wasnt for the $200 fee I would have jumped in with Waldo, Macca etc, no questions asked? judging by some of the "pros" I see at races thats exactly what some people do. Can you imagine showing up in France in late June and saying, hey where do I sign up for this Tour DEE France thing?

People can argue with me about whether or not Lance would win the first time out in Hawaii but no one doubts he could compete and be a factor. What pro triathlete could even finish a a race like Liege, never mind the Tour?

read my post earlier in the thread about how Lance would win the Olympics. Your kidding yourself if you think the ITU guys could do anything to stay with Lance on the bike, no matter how "psyched up they were to be racing him"

He will be waiting at the finish to sign their autograph books for them!

You americans and your LA god. He is unhumanly good, but he wouldn't be anywhere near where he is now with a lesser team. They break the wind for him on the flats and carry him up the mountain until he's ready to attack. His main advantage over Ulrich this year was in the TTT. He wasn't as dominate as he was in past years, and this year will be really interesting.

"this year will be really interesting."

I agree. It should be his toughest year ever, but if I was a betting man, I still wouldn't wager against Lance.

"They break the wind for him on the flats and carry him up the mountain until he's ready to attack."

sounds like perfect tactics? Maybe Ulrich/Telekom should try it. Or Telekom could go get some more GC threats like Botero and Salvadelli. Or maybe teach Cadel how to ride without training wheels so he can keep it upright for more than a week. They were all very usefull to Vinakourov last year :0

I'm just saying - he's probably super talented, but he's not that much better than the rest of the star riders in the peleton. If you want a truely amazing rider search up Eddy Merckx.

the post by HCSwede indicates he went barely below 19, not "low 16" in that du 5k. I've heard that run course is very difficult, though.