How much is a pro cyclist riding?

Really with training you're looking at a few things, whether that be daily KJ's burned, TSS, Accumulative fatigue, or many other numbers. Regardless, this is all possible because of technology in power meters and heart rate data.

This year I'll race in Europe in the spring and late July while also focusing on the UCI america's tour. With a traditional build (with hopes of a June peak), December-March is your base month, where you focus on developing your pedal stroke, riding bigger mileage, and gaining some threshold. In season I will race 100+ miles daily, but typically it's 3.5-5 hours of racing. So as long as I'm training consistently at that timeframe, whilst burning bigger KJ's on certain days, I'm preparing myself for the ability to race long distances.

In the peloton you move much quicker and cover much larger distances than when by yourself. The only time you will see 300+ TSS days are single day race classics or a day in the breakaway. These days are not every single day, therefore you won't train with that type of intensity.

To the posters bringing up past cyclists, that's totally a mute point. You cannot compare what riders did in the past, a clean cyclist will never recover at that ability. I have a theory that a lot of pros ride just to ride because they have the time. With correctly periodized training, you can easily get away with 20-28 hours of training from world tour to conti. The massive 6 hour + 5000kg really only happen at world championships and spring classics.

The Overexplainer wrote:

...

I just got my Annual rankings issue from TaFNews. In it I realized that Mohammed Farah was 2nd fastest for the year in the 10k and fastest on the year for 5k, he was 7th in the 3k and he broke 60 min for the Half-Marathon once. He also won two Olympic titles. Pretty impressive year right?

He only raced 5 times on the track and 1 time on the road. There is a world of difference between distance running and cycling.

That's actually a pretty nifty piece of information. That sub 60 half was in the half WC too, bad conditions.

Farah should either be in the consideration for GOAT distance runner, or he is at the Armstrong level.

"... December-March is your base month ..."

"... In season I will race 100+ miles daily ..."

" ... The massive 6 hour + 5000kg ..." 5000kg is 11,000 lbs!!

" ... So as long as I'm training consistently at that timeframe, whilst burning bigger KJ's on certain days ..."

Do other people refer to producing watts as "burning kilo joules"? You burn calories, you PRODUCE joules.

What team do you ride for? I applaud you for having the ability and drive to be a pro cyclist, but you sound like an idiot.

You may be a clean rider, but nearly everyone else is still doping. And your 20-28 hour estimate is just what I said for both Classics riders (a light trainer) and Stage Racers (25-30 hrs) if they were at the ProTour level (which is what we were talking about).

The Overexplainer wrote:What team do you ride for? I applaud you for having the ability and drive to be a pro cyclist, but you sound like an idiot.

They love to talk "trainese." There are a couple of SUPER scammy coaching businesses that rely on randomly abusing science to pretend what they are doing is "scientific." One is Carmichael doping systems, the other training peaks.

Like the IAAF, if you can convince the federation your brand is very valuable to them, then doping is no problem. I'm certain there are clean athletes at the elite international level. Who they are is anyone's guess.

The Overexplainer wrote:

"... December-March is your base month ..."

"... In season I will race 100+ miles daily ..."

" ... The massive 6 hour + 5000kg ..." 5000kg is 11,000 lbs!!

" ... So as long as I'm training consistently at that timeframe, whilst burning bigger KJ's on certain days ..."

Do other people refer to producing watts as "burning kilo joules"? You burn calories, you PRODUCE joules.

What team do you ride for? I applaud you for having the ability and drive to be a pro cyclist, but you sound like an idiot.

You may be a clean rider, but nearly everyone else is still doping. And your 20-28 hour estimate is just what I said for both Classics riders (a light trainer) and Stage Racers (25-30 hrs) if they were at the ProTour level (which is what we were talking about).

Obviously, he meant kJ, not kg. Also, joules and Calories are just different units that can be used to measure energy.

Pretty sure as a pro cyclist he has a much better idea than you about how many pro cyclists are doping,

Landis:

"On the second occasion, the transfusion was performed on the team bus on the rider from the finish of a stage to the hotel during which time the driver pretended to have engine trouble and stopped on a remote mountain road for approximately an hour, so the entire team could have a half liter of blood transfused,” court documents read. “This was the only time that Mr. Landis ever saw the entire team being transfused in plain view of all the other riders and bus driver. … The other USPS riders receiving transfusions included José Azevedo, Manuel Beltrán, Viatcheslav Ekimov, Benjamín Noval, Pavel Padrnos and José Luis Rubiera."

With or without dope, what made him great was his work ethic, nothing more.

One of the greatest wrote:

With or without dope, what made him great was his work ethic, nothing more.

It was the drugs that allowed him to train so much. You too can train like this if you take meth, EPO, and testosterone.

Join Strava, you can track the ones who post.

A lot of riders like Dombrowski, Phinney, Ten Dam, etc. You won't see their watt numbers, or heart rate numbers, but you will see their distance and times and speed of course.

They do amazing stuff.

And if you are a Zwift rider you'll occasionally find that you are on a ride with them. At least until you aren't. Talansky etc, a lot of the Orica guys.

Great fun of any on line game. And for the treadmill guys, you can even run the courses now

from Frankie Andreu diary:

"The next time your wife tells you that playing golf takes up too much time, tell her to be happy you are not a professional cyclist."

TOTAL RIDING PER YEAR

1997 19,264mi - 961 hrs - 269 days

1998 21,130mi - 1,054 hrs - 297 days

1999 21,785mi - 1,078 hrs - 290 days

RACES

1999 10,492mi - 458 hrs - 96 days

1998 9,110mi - 385 hrs - 85 days

1997 10,189mi - 479 hrs - 98 days

Danny Chew, 'The Million Mile man' had a cumulative log of 800k miles before an accident that paralyzed him last year.

His peak year was 27k miles with 134 centuries.

He is a multiple RAAM winner

The Overexplainer wrote:

"... December-March is your base month ..."

"... In season I will race 100+ miles daily ..."

" ... The massive 6 hour + 5000kg ..." 5000kg is 11,000 lbs!!

" ... So as long as I'm training consistently at that timeframe, whilst burning bigger KJ's on certain days ..."

Do other people refer to producing watts as "burning kilo joules"? You burn calories, you PRODUCE joules.

What team do you ride for? I applaud you for having the ability and drive to be a pro cyclist, but you sound like an idiot.

You may be a clean rider, but nearly everyone else is still doping. And your 20-28 hour estimate is just what I said for both Classics riders (a light trainer) and Stage Racers (25-30 hrs) if they were at the ProTour level (which is what we were talking about).

Thanks for The name calling. I put in kg instead of kj because I was typing on a cell phone and it auto corrected. But who cares. As for the other parts that I mentioned, how exactly do I sound like an idiot?

In the United States racing with a summer european schedule, December through march is the base month. Pull up a UCI americas tour calendar and tell me when the first race is in North America. I'll race oversees in 7 different countries once summer hits. Sure some euro races start in February. But not for me.

Along with you thinking I'm an I diot, the 20+ athletes I coach, alongside being a pro cyclist also must agree I'm an idiot.

Is there doping in the sport. Absolutely there is, but I don't want to hear some lecture from some internet message board poster about how everyone is doping. I just hop on here because I enjoy talking cycling from time to time. I'm not going to say watts because a watt is only relevant to your weight. Whereas a KJ burned is a unit of measurement that you can consistently compare to what you would need to get through a certain day.

I could tell you it took me 260 average watts for 4.5 hours to finish a UCI race in the top 10 last year, but you don't know my weight, it's irrelevant. But if I told my coach it was a 5000+kj day we can replicate those training loads in practice in different ways. I'm never going to replicate that type of "breakaway" power solo in practice. It just doesn't happen. But we can work on burning high kj to prepare for the work load. When it's "intervals" we use strictly watts if that makes you happy to hear.

Thanks for being the reason why I post anonymously. If there's any spelling errors or if I sound like an idiot. I'm on a cell phone, so I thoroughly apologize to you.

So is it possible to race and win clean any major races?

Yes

Depends what you consider a major race. I'd say yes, for sure. Cycling also has a lot of luck, skill, etc. involved. A lot of different people can win on a lot of different days. Now can you win the TDF overall? I don't know the answer to that. I suspect pretty rampant TUE abuse, and some other undetectable drugs at times are still being used. But American racing is mostly clean in my opinion.

Pass me the Kombucha wrote:Now can you win the TDF overall? I don't know the answer to that.

No. Grand tours are the perfect opportunity to dope. The UCI controls the results, so no one that matters is testing positive.

If American competitive cycling is clean, it's because there isn't enough money to buy PEDs OR pay rent.

pop_pop!_v2.2.1 wrote:

Pass me the Kombucha wrote:Now can you win the TDF overall? I don't know the answer to that.

No. Grand tours are the perfect opportunity to dope. The UCI controls the results, so no one that matters is testing positive.

If American competitive cycling is clean, it's because there isn't enough money to buy PEDs OR pay rent.

If anyone were controlling the results, it would be the ASO and Bardet would've won the tour last year.

Pass me the kombucha wrote: I could tell you it took me 260 average watts for 4.5 hours to finish a UCI race in the top 10 last year, but you don't know my weight, it's irrelevant. But if I told my coach it was a 5000+kj day we can replicate those training loads in practice in different ways. I'm never going to replicate that type of "breakaway" power solo in practice. It just doesn't happen. But we can work on burning high kj to prepare for the work load. When it's "intervals" we use strictly watts if that makes you happy to hear.

What do you think of Phinney's take that the overblown technical aspects of cycling is ruining the sport? (In the sense that it make training less enjoyable.)

LOL Big Tex is back

https://www.instagram.com/p/BPTK4TWDCh-/