turning professional and mileage..

Columbia

heh, i dunno about my power data but my VO2 was 81 the time i had it measured (when i was 17)...i dunno what this says about my personality

Roadie_scum

That's pretty good man. You have to take the measurements with a grain of salt sometimes - different labs have different protocols and levels of accuracy. The other thing is, when you are young (but not too young) you can sometimes pull higher numbers due to lower mass - your body hasn't filled out yet. A VO2 of 85 is worth more when you are older. But if you keep training... good luck... you never know. Functional threshold and the metabolic adaptions that flow therefrom are the major determinants of cycling performance. With a high VO2, that should give you extra motivation and confidence that if you do good, structured work, it might pay off. It doesn't guarantee success, but it makes it more likely.

Seriously, who organised the VO2 test for you? How were the results used to restructure your training? Maybe you should be speaking to either the people who organised it or the people who did the test about training.

I would be wary of 'ex-pro' coaches. Some of them are very good, others less so. A good knowledge of exercise physiology and plenty of experience are good indicators. One interesting thing: I don't know too many ex-pro's who coach pro's. Many pro's coaches are professionally qualified exercise physiologists or medical doctors - or at the very least have been full time coaches for a long time and have a good knowledge of 'training science' as it were.

At 19, I wouldn't impute anything about your personality from the fact you haven't been offered a contract... what are your race results like, where have you been racing, how long have you been in the sport, have you been knocking on doors?

(If you are getting good results and feel like doing some racing/riding in Australia and NZ, maybe we could work something out... we get quite a few northerners coming down to stay fit in our summer/your winter).

Alex Simmons

+1
I would say "major physiological determinants".

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BullGod

I agree to a certain extent, but there are more guys than you think capable of putting out those kind of numbers. Here in NL there are plenty of guys who know they're good enough to "go pro" but won't get the chance because there are quite a few guys just as good as they are, and only a couple of squads recruiting Dutch amateurs. Also big sponsors want big names, and they'd much rather spend the money on a reputation than an unknown.