Cycling Runner wrote:
LM I just looked him up on Strava and the guy looks like he just started riding this year. If you look at some of his rides on the Blue Ridge Parkway he's ranked on like 20 of the climbs. If he really did start riding this year that's pretty impressive considering there's over 1,000 people on those segments. Especially since most of the guys are pros or cat 1/2 guys in the top ten like Ben King who's a world tour rider.
If he was in the top 20-40 or so for some of those climbs then it's likely he's close to a pro or Cat 1 level cyclist. He may be Cat 5 but it might just be that he hasn't raced, just does a bunch of high level training. That's not implausible at all, someone who is very fit with low running economy could make that jump in a year or two.
Claiming 28:XX 10K about as extreme as it gets without any support to back it up though. Isn't the Olympic A standard 28:XX? So basically, claiming a 28:XX is claiming to be an Olympic caliber athlete in all but maybe 4-5 countries.
That said maybe the guy just doesn't race and actually is in that shape. You don't need to try to ruin his life. Didn't Abdi Abdirahman run 14:XX in jeans and converse sneakers off zero training when he was in college?