Interesting article today in the Canadian national paper about a professor in Austin who studied Armstrong…
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050614.wlance0614/EmailBNStory/Sports/
But its his BMI, and his efficiency and his power to weight that makes him superhuman.
Styrrell
Did you notice in the section about his upper body he neatly avoided saying Lance did not lose size?
“According to the Mr. Coyle’s study, just eight-month after his chemotherapy treatment, Mr. Armstrong’s proportions returned to what would be expected from a highly trained athlete during a period of detraining.”
sounds like that says he did, within a range of what would be expected during a time of detraining.
It’s hard to believe that out of so many dedicated pros in the pro peloton, with a burning desires none of them put in the same dedication as Lance. Obviously Lance is systematic about his approach to training and nutrition leaving little to chance. But there is a limit cuz there’s a simple phenomena known as over training. A genetic freak he may not be but extremely genetically gifted I would be very surprised if he’s not. To put him at the same level of potential as any ‘good’ high school competitive cyclist is a bit of a stretch.
“The six-time Tour-de-France champion is not a genetic freak and if he didn’t train the way he does, a high school cyclist could compete against him, according to the author of a new study published in the June issue of the Journal of Applied Physiology.”
Yeah, no shit! It’s his training that makes him Lance. The man is an animal in training and it shows when he races.
it says the he was similar to a highly trained athlete during a period of detraining. the assumption was that b/c of his tri career, he was bigger than most roadies before.
compared to the rest of us, the guy IS a genetic freak. Having said that, so are most of the guys racing with him. pair that with his borderline OCD attention to training, and especially weight loss, an extremely well-run team, and the willingness to try new things that fly in the face Euro peloton standards (sole focuse on the TdF, also see Slowman’s thread on why Disco and CSC rule in tt’s), and, with some luck, you get what you get.
also and IMHO, there’s a secret to stage racing – recovery b/w hard stages, and they’ve figured it out better than the other guys.
there was research done on Lance at either Duke or UT-Austin several years ago post cancer. What the article in the paper did not mention is how Lance’s lactate turnpoint is extremely close to his Vo2max. His LT was above 90% of Vo2max. There was some other head turning points about him physiologically. Couple that with a reduction in BMI and if he loses no power than you have a monster.
Anyone can go and try be an animal in training. Whether the body can take it is one thing and how much one can improve from it is another.
All them serious pros, I’ll bet almost everyone of them would be willing to put in the same LA training intensity (many probably do, some maybe more) to get 6 times going for 7 times TdF champion.
I would say Lance is pretty unique and the results speak for themselves.