Mike Woods set to become first ever sub-4 miler and Tour de France finisher... How would today’s distance stars fair?

xvcbvxbc wrote:

Woods had surgeries from stress fractures as a runner and quit in 2007. It was six years later, after he had ridden a good deal before he turned professional as a cyclist. He then moved up very rapidly, to seventh at the Vuelta, 2nd at Liege, and 3rd at the World Cycling Road Racing championship, as well as finishing the Tour de France.

+1 he may have only been a pro for 4 years before the vuelta, but he'd been moving up the ranks for 6 years prior to that.

They go even faster than 60 mph wrote:

In tour of Oman, Aleksander Kristoff had 146 Km/h on a downhill, that's over 90 mph.

Granted it was on a nice wide road, but there were also reports of speeds at over 70 mph at the tour this year.

They just ride crazy fast.

It's definately a trainable skill. Froome used to stink, but got good after a couple of years of hard training on it. Pinot used to suck but is decent nowadays. You have to be a bit crazy in the head to get as fast asthe likes of Alaphillipe, Nibali, Sagan+p though.

Don't think you can go from not having done it to sit with the peloton in 60 mph in just a year though.

2 or 3, maybe maybe...

90 mph on a bike?

Are you sure? wrote:

They go even faster than 60 mph wrote:

In tour of Oman, Aleksander Kristoff had 146 Km/h on a downhill, that's over 90 mph.

Granted it was on a nice wide road, but there were also reports of speeds at over 70 mph at the tour this year.

They just ride crazy fast.

It's definately a trainable skill. Froome used to stink, but got good after a couple of years of hard training on it. Pinot used to suck but is decent nowadays. You have to be a bit crazy in the head to get as fast asthe likes of Alaphillipe, Nibali, Sagan+p though.

Don't think you can go from not having done it to sit with the peloton in 60 mph in just a year though.

2 or 3, maybe maybe...

90 mph on a bike?

Yep, it's true.

Sub 4 miler Woods switched to cycling and won a bronze medal in the World Championships. Fact.

No Tour rider has ever switched from cycling and run a sub 4 mile. Fact.

(or a sub 2:25 marathon, or a sub 30 10K, or a marathon faster than the best middle school little girl.)

Running at an elite level is infinitely harder than riding the TDF. Running at an elite middle school girl level is harder than the TDF. Fact.

Oh Danny Boy wrote:

However, unless you live in Iten, or maybe Boulder, there are not dozens of sub 2:30 runners in your hometown. Prove me wrong and list 24.

I do live in Boulder. I bet I know 50 people who have run a marathon faster than this world class bikie. I also know some TDF vets and none of them can run anywhere near as fast as some of the local 8th grade girls.

From runner to world class biker. It happens, no problem, great runners are that good.

From world class biker to local elite level runner. It has never happened, won't happen, running is too hard for bikers.

Can we all just agree that they are 2 different sports that require different physiology? Great MLB, NFL, NBA, swimmers, soccer, and MMA are all not going to become great runners either. But great runners are also not going to be great at any of these sports.

all sports are hard at the elite level. Woods just happens to have the physiology to excel at running and biking.

Drafting and Coasting wrote:

Sub 4 miler Woods switched to cycling and won a bronze medal in the World Championships. Fact.

No Tour rider has ever switched from cycling and run a sub 4 mile. Fact.

(or a sub 2:25 marathon, or a sub 30 10K, or a marathon faster than the best middle school little girl.)

Running at an elite level is infinitely harder than riding the TDF. Running at an elite middle school girl level is harder than the TDF. Fact.

Case studies of one are fun, but certainly don’t prove any points. By your logic, runners are dogging it since an All-American swimmer switched to running and won the Boston Marathon, but as far as I know, no Boston Marathon winners have ever become champion swimmers. Four troll points to the winner of this trivia question!

Drafting and Coasting wrote:

Sub 4 miler Woods switched to cycling and won a bronze medal in the World Championships. Fact.

No Tour rider has ever switched from cycling and run a sub 4 mile. Fact.

(or a sub 2:25 marathon, or a sub 30 10K, or a marathon faster than the best middle school little girl.)

Running at an elite level is infinitely harder than riding the TDF. Running at an elite middle school girl level is harder than the TDF. Fact.

This, and many posts in the thread, are incredibly misinformed. As someone mentioned above, there's a lot of jokers on here who think they can kick @ass on a bike because they run sub-16 and torch local roadies "when they go for a ride."

Cycling (at the Grand Tour level) is a sport that takes years, usually 5-10, to build up the ability and strength and skillset to succeed in. This is much more akin to marathon racing for westerners than T&F - you dont see 18-20y/o running sub: 2:20, let alone 2:10 in the West.

In pro cycling, you don't have 18-20y/o showing up on the scene and competing after a couple years of training like in T&F. Additionally, it's idiotic and unfair to compare a retired pro cyclist dabbling in running to a 18y/o who peaked at a very different sport then transitioned to an activity that was likely a better fit for their ageing body. A pro cyclist who spent 10-20+ yrs only cycling and then did casual running/racing, after retiring, "only" to run X:XX time in their 30s-40s is irrelevant.

The truth is that some top-end mid-distance guys could, with 3-5+ years of serious, dedicated training and racing, potentially rise to the top ranks and maybe race in a Grand Tour successfully.

Drafting and Coasting wrote:

Sub 4 miler Woods switched to cycling and won a bronze medal in the World Championships. Fact.

No Tour rider has ever switched from cycling and run a sub 4 mile. Fact.

(or a sub 2:25 marathon, or a sub 30 10K, or a marathon faster than the best middle school little girl.)

Running at an elite level is infinitely harder than riding the TDF. Running at an elite middle school girl level is harder than the TDF. Fact.

Taken from a sample size of ??? How many TDF cyclists have ever tried to be an elite runner? Lance Armstrong or any other cyclist that competes in a marathon for basically fun doesn't really prove anything at all

FFS, not only race a GT successfully but finish 7th in the brutal Vuelta a España only 8 mins 27 secs down from overall winner Chris Froome!