No Tour for Astana

Crankyfeet

Some sports that involve experience and mental aspects (like in baseball and cricket) may have guys peaking at 33-34. The physical demands are not as high a component of success as in running, swimming and cycling. Cycling is straight physical, with some tactical elements. In TT's it's straight physical. You may do better in races in the latter part of your career because you become the team leader and get better support. But you don't suddenly TT faster by 4-5 km/hr.

Probably is. Hard to imagine him beating Levi last year and being clean.

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C'dale Girl

Do you happen to have readily available the numbers from the 10 years preceding? It would be interesting to compare.

tambourlain

Don't really know. But it does seem like our parents and grandparents aged faster than we did. As an amateur I ran my best 10K at 37. I didn't have the kick or acceleration that I had in my 20s. But my endurance was actually a little better. Of course it wasn't a controlled test. But still, there seem to be more and more guys competing well later and later. At this point I don't see any problem with Levi's improvement at all. If he is still improving three years from now, that will be another matter.

C'dale Girl

Squid, of equal interest would be the ages of all participants in each of those 20 years of competition and then a calculation of median age. How many 20-somethings competed vs. 30 somethings . . . . .

thunder

problem is he is doping now dude.

go play your tambourine

Crankyfeet

Like Lance. That's a real good example..

Before 2006... before OP... before the constant stream of dope violations, many stood by the fairy tale that only a few (maybe) in the peloton doped. Despite the existence of the omerta.

Now, after the cavalcade of revelations of the last two years (that discerning people could see even before then) it is only the seriously disillusioned who retain the fairy tale that doping is still a minor element of pro cycling. These people retain the belief that the notorious dope-doctor Michelle Ferrari was exclusively contracted by Lance Armstrong because he did really good blood lactate tests.

Take your head out of the sand. Your holding onto your positions against obvious evidence betray your stubbornness and ego-nurturing tendencies. Open your eyes. It might scare you. But the truth is great, and mighty above all things. The pandemic of doping must be rid from cycling. Apologists like you have been in the past, and will continue to be, the enemy of the sport.

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tambourlain

I agree. I think if you did a comparison of - say - the average age of the top 100 meter sprinters for the last 10 years you would come up with an age that was considerably lower. But for endurance sports, the early to mid thirties is not a problem - and it may be an advantage.

C'dale Girl

Have you ever competed professionally (that's not sarcasm)? If not, I don't think you can compare amateur racing as a hobby to professional competition. Why? Because most of us amateurs actually have jobs ON TOP OF the sport. So, life gets in the way of training and such. So, it may not be comparing apples to apples. For instance, at 37 did you have less going on at work so you could focus more on training? Were you possibly in a better financial position to afford more in the way of training, equipment and coaching?

That was my point with the ironman as well. Generally speaking, people are more settled financially and in their careers in their 30s versus their 20s, so are in more of a position to take on a more regimented training program. So, I can totally buy and believe an amateur doing better in their 30s than 20s.

thunder

also Ironman is a pretty small catchment sport. Athletes usualy cross to it from one of the three disciplines. might cross late.

Then they have to develop a circa 9 hour energy system.


No other sport requires a nine hour energy system. no precedent.

So, all that input, may actually mean, the winners are later than what they would, if the Ironman sport was mainstream, starting from juniors. Yes, the schoolkids do triathlons. But triathlon still pales compared to cycling, swimming and running in the jnrs. Only surpasses swimming in adults.

Crankyfeet

Do they do hematocrit tests at the ironman? Blood doping using your own blood is nearly impossible to test for. All these comparisons rely on the assumption that the cited examples of athletic performance are not doped.

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thunder

also triathlon rarely takes the best athletes, if Armstrong was a competent runner, dare say he would have been a champion triathlete, better than Simon Lessing who was probably the best ever Olympic distance triathlete.

Simon Lessing probably could not have cut it in any of the individual disciplines. There was one 1500 metre swimmer, a French guy, who competed in the Olympics in swimming, but no other world class athletes in triathlon from the individual disciplines.

Spencer Smith could not cut it on Linda McCartney. His arse was dropped on every stage.

tambourlain

Have you noticed that you have now resorted to putting arguments in my mouth that I never made. I never said that doping is a minor element of pro cycling. But I will say that you cannot pick out the dopers based purely on criteria of success or failure. And no matter how big an element doping is, it is no excuse for punishing people based upon subjective and frivolous criteria.

Crankyfeet

Yes.

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C'dale Girl

Exactly why I inquired about the ages of all participants . . .