My best time up the Madone was 30:15 with a average heart rate of
155bpm and a hematocrit of 42. They should add my name to the top of the record books!! I’m jealous… 
Top 6 times up the Col de la Madone
Richie Porte 29:40
Chris Froome 30:09
Tom Danielson 30:24
Lance Armstrong 30:45
Tony Rominger 31:30
Tyler Hamilton 32:32
http://www.theroar.com.au/…-out-of-the-punters/
I was under threshold too…
You’re my new hero
.
Good stuff.
In all seriousness, what is your purpose in starting this thread? I’ve always regarded you as a standup guy and a standup rider, who rode for a standup team.
Starting a thread in which you assert you were faster than four convicted dopers is puzzling. I don’t think it does you any favors, honestly. Why would you want the world (this online cycling/tri world, at least) to know this?
In all seriousness, what is your purpose in starting this thread? I’ve always regarded you as a standup guy and a standup rider, who rode for a standup team.
Starting a thread in which you assert you were faster than four convicted dopers is puzzling. I don’t think it does you any favors, honestly. Why would you want the world (this online cycling/tri world, at least) to know this?
Maybe if you raced clean, spent time in a coma and spent the next part of your life with the effects of a traumatic brain injury and was just trying to makes heads or tails of life and got into some running and triathlons to get back to a semblance of your former self, then you’d understand where he is coming from. Saul is one of “us” in the sense that he is a triathlete and also very much anti doping.
I for one find this really interesting and did not realize that Saul’s HCT was that low. If anyone would get a boost from blood bags and EPO he sounds like he would get a big boost vs someone whose natural HCT was already really high. But he chose not to go on the “program”.
I say let this thread roll and don’t jump all over Saul.
I have some questions for Saul:
What year did you do this?What phase in the year and before/after what racingWhat was your watts per kilo for that climb if you know thatWas this solo or did you do part of it with teammates before breaking ahead (in others words, did you have domestiques pacing early in the climb)?
Maybe if you raced clean, spent time in a coma and spent the next part of your life with the effects of a traumatic brain injury and was just trying to makes heads or tails of life and got into some running and triathlons to get back to a semblance of your former self, then you’d understand where he is coming from. Saul is one of “us” in the sense that he is a triathlete and also very much anti doping.
I for one find this really interesting and did not realize that Saul’s HCT was that low. If anyone would get a boost from blood bags and EPO he sounds like he would get a big boost vs someone whose natural HCT was already really high. But he chose not to go on the “program”.
I say let this thread roll and don’t jump all over Saul.
I think you’ve got the wrong idea. Slow down a bit and consider what I’m actually writing. I’m not discounting any of what he did or “jumping all over him” in the least. I’m questioning his reasoning for posting this thread which, it would seem, is in response to an article that is essentially questioning how a clean athlete can top some of the most prolific dopers of all time.
That’s what the article is talking about. So why lump yourself into that category? I’m genuinely curious. My thought processing is following a similar line as the author of that article, who states:
First of all, the readers’ ire would be better directed not through allegations of Porte being a doper, of which they have no proof that I am aware of, but rather at the fact that he seems totally unaware – or uncaring – of the reaction many will have to him revealing that he’s smashed the time of the greatest doper of all time.
How about some recognition of that? It so rarely comes, and though it might seem harsh to expect every rider to explain every time they out in a remarkable ride, it is equally as ridiculous to expect the informed cycling fan to not have questions.
There seems to be that lack of recognition, here (42 hct and below threshold!), and I can’t figure out why someone would willingly throw this out there?
My best time up the Madone was 30:15 with a average heart rate of
155bpm and a hematocrit of 42. They should add my name to the top of the record books!! I’m jealous…
Top 6 times up the Col de la Madone
Richie Porte 29:40
Chris Froome 30:09
Tom Danielson 30:24
Lance Armstrong 30:45
Tony Rominger 31:30
Tyler Hamilton 32:32
http://www.theroar.com.au/…-out-of-the-punters/
That’s impressive. Now go ride 100 miles a day for 2 weeks, then do a 4 hour ride to the base of the climb and give it another go. Then report back your time 
Edit: nevermind. I guess some of their published times were done in training 
Where did you start the timer from?
Team sky has used a different location than lance did. Not sure if there’s a unified standard
I started from the first switch back at the bottom. Dr. Ferrari tested his athletes From the second switch back a little further up. At the end of March of 2006, I was invited to get tested up the Madone; so I went out of curiosity. I think every one knows that Dr. Ferrari tested all his athletes up the Madone(this is why I am curious why team sky test up it?). I never work with him. Anyways, I beat the current record up the mountain and I’ll never forget Ferrari starting to jump up and down swearing in Italian. Ferrari asked one of his guys what I was on and they said. “Nothing, he is clean”. Ferrari was blown away, he told me that my number were much better than Armstrong’s.
I mentioned the story in my book “Tour de Life” but never used Ferrari’s name. I had my bad accident a week after beating the record up the Madone. April 4 2006
I was was faster than everyone else clean; I am proud of that…
I never used watts per kilo to determine how fast I was… For training, I used to climb up and down the big Cols in the south of France trying to keep a constant wattage up each climb. When I could no longer hold a certain pace I would end my day of training. At 142lbs I could do five Grande Cols at 400-450watts comfortably. My last V02 max I hit 600 watts and had 3.2mm of lactate acid. My hump makes me a freak and I am proud of it!!!.
Email me your phone numbers if you guys want to talk more about this over the love; I did not mean to open a big can of worms. My email is saul@raisinhope.org
I never used watts per kilo to determine how fast I was… For training, I used to climb up and down the big Cols in the south of France trying to keep a constant wattage up each climb. When I could no longer hold a certain pace I would end my day of training. At 142lbs I could do five Grande Cols at 400-450watts comfortably. My last V02 max I hit 600 watts and had 3.2mm of lactate acid. My hump makes me a freak and I am proud of it!!!.
This hump? What’s the thinking? Distended ribcage and spinal curve allows for greater lung volume? Frankly, it sounds to me a bit like “Lance’s high cadence makes him more efficient than everyone else and that is why he is so good”, but there is no debating that you have a unique anatomy with that hump.
ps - you may remember me from bringing you to the Garrett County Gran Fondo as our headline speaker at the dinner. How is the TBI recovery coming? My wife is at 4 years now and recovery has gone largely very well.
The hump is correct! 8.3 L of oxygen @V02 Max!!! How have you been?
Very well. Especially since Santa Claus delivered me a new Tacx Neo Smart for Christmas, so now I can dial in the Col de la Madone on Cyclops Real Course Videos and see if I can break 30:15. Or 1:30:15, more likely.
My hump makes me a freak and I am proud of it!!!.
OK, Saul, this is your chance to tell ST the story about Jens Voigt and his reaction to your hump!
After I was seventh up Solden in the Deutschland Tour (arguably the hardest climb in all of professional cycling). Everyone can watch it here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhu51WWSkb0
Yens came up to me and patted me on my back and wanted to know what it was? In return I told him that I had three Lungs and he looks surprised and said: It is illegal! It is illegal! Everyone was laughing at him!
If you don’t win the Tour de France you are nothing! Koona doesn’t count!!
I would have won stages of the Tour and had been consistently in the top ten. I have my integrity and never would have cheated to win the Tour. There are more guys out there with their morals than do not. Winning is not everything, most of the time it is all about just doing your best. You can be the best and still get beat by someone that you know is less talented and cheating. Most importantly, you know that you are the best. No one can take that away from you.