from professional sports? I was just looking over the results of yesterday’s US Professional Cycling championships in Philadelphia and what do I see…
108 Steve Larsen (USA) Webcor Cycling Team
The word I had heard from someone up in Bend is Steve has been training like he wasn’t retired.
Which proves that the press-release of his retirement was just a stunt in order to try to get sponsors. Not professional at all but not surprising either.
I am not so sure it proves anything regarding the intentions of his announcement. Perhaps he was asked by Chris Horner to come help out on this one race or two and he missed the challenge so agreed and was simply trying to get up to speed.
Yes, this is what I heard last night. Horner asked, Steve said yes. And, I also hear he’s pretty darned fit.
clm
Of course he’s fit. Even if he rode his bike once a week he’d still be faster than 90% of us. I have a buddy who raced for a couple years as a pro with Navigators and he’s nearing or at 40 with a family, rides his bike once or twice a week and still kills us on group rides.
No $h… sherlock. The person I was talking to said he was high level racing fit, probably fitter than he’s ever seen Steve.
He can’t be that fit. He finished 108th, over 9 minutes down, and the race couldnt have been that hard because over 40 guys were sprinting it out for the win.
He can’t be that fit. He finished 108th, over 9 minutes down
That was meant to be a tongue in cheek right reply correct - grin?
Apparently you don’t understand the role of a domestique. Just finishing that race puts him in the upper reaches of fitness. Finishing 9 minutes down shows he did his job for his team leader.
The person I am getting my information from (probably the same person irnclm is) should recognise high level fitness when he sees it.
Also, if asked, I would expect SL to help Chris out at the SF Grand Prix later this year.
I suppose it’s all relative, but he looked pretty fit when he and Macca cruised past me on one of the climbs up Mt. Bachelor last weekend.
We crossed paths a few times over the course of the weekend. In fact he stopped and helped out a training partner with some mechanical problems one day.
I understand he’s been putting in a lot of miles, but not sure how much of it is “training”.
I believe he’s entered in Pacific Crest 1/2IM and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him at other venues on occasion. I don’t think that concludes that he’s “out of retirement” and pursuing racing as a full time gig again. Just my $0.02.
scott
i was checking the entry list for pacific crest half ironman in 3 weeks. larsen is on there.
He can’t be that fit. He finished 108th, over 9 minutes down
That was meant to be a tongue in cheek right reply correct - grin?
Of course it was tongue in cheek. It was my reply to the smartass answer I got from Ironclm
Perhaps you can use him as a rabbit for the swim 
or for any other part of the course you choose, should you be there. Since, when I heard about your race in AZ awhile back the first thought in my mind was “SL” it would be exciting to see the two of you in the same race, not that I would expect equal bikes out of the two of you but you should be a better runner.
BTW, I just read where the field averaged 30mph for 3 hours!!!
The way I saw it Horner made a move with about 4 miles to go and did not have enough of his team up front to sustain the move. The peleton covered the move within two minutes. So whatever Larsen was doing there is role as domestic was not overly successful.
Who knows how succesful he was. Larsen and Horner against U.S. Postal and CSC…Forget about it. Not even close. Not even in the same ball park. Larsen could have been the strongest guy in the race and CSC and Postal would have buried him.
All that said I sure hope he comes back to triathlon. He’s good for the sport and a guy that every time he shows up for a race he makes headlines and sparks interest in the event. That can’t be said for the a lot of the other Pro’s out there.
I agree with your analysis save for the fact that Postal and CSC did not have their big guns there. Postal was represented by Antonio Cruz, Michael Barry, Max van Heeswijk, Damon Kluck, Guennadi Mikhailov, Jonathan Patrick McCarty, Robbie Ventura and Dave Zibriskie. Hardly the A-Team.
No doubt Postal had the B/C team there as did CSC but I guess my point is even the bottom 6 riders on each of those teams is going to chew up and spit out the top 2 American riders working together. Needless to say Larsen and Horner never stand a chance if the bottom riders from CSC and Postal get organized. The same could be said about teams like Fassa, Euskatel, T-mobile, etc.