Levi's Lack of Attacking Power

batman220

This is probably the place to post this. I was wondering what your thoughts are on Levi's lack of ability to lift the pace to attack or respond to an attack on a climb? I have two stages of last year's Tour on my DVR that I watch all the time and I get frustrated that Levi can't stand up for more than about 3 pedal strokes before he sits back down.

I was assuming that over the last year he would have worked very hard on this because it was evident to me that is why he didn't place second or win the Tour last year. Then I saw the climb up Brasstown Bald in the Tour of Georgia and it was the same thing. It looks like he has no snap at all in his legs.

Is this a lack of training in the L7 range to jump away from other riders? I understand some people are more gifted when it comes to lactate tolerance but I would assume an elite cyclist like Levi would be able to manage more than 3-5 pedal strokes standing when he attacks or responds.

Help me understand this so I stop beating my head on the wall when I watch those two stages. Thanks!!

TheDarkLord

Post the thead in the Grand Tours section (http://www.cyclingforums.com/f30), and you will get many interesting responses.

NJK

From a general point of view i don't think he is natural climber. He grinds in a tt and when he climbs, this is the way he rides. Your natural zippy climbers will also be in and out of saddle during tt's as well.

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peterpen

I can assure you that Levi does plenty of training equivalent to Coggan's L7 - some riders are punchier than others and at the elite level (unlike the forum level) there's only so much training one can do. Also, one of the reasons why he is such a solid stage racer is his ability to ride right at his limit but not go over (and implode.) Might not make for exciting television, but I doubt he cares.

Similarly, he prefers to climb in the saddle. I was in an underground race w/him on Saturday and even on pitches >15% when MTB pros and guys like Scott Nydam got out of the saddle, Levi stayed seated while matching the accelerations. From what I heard (I'd been dropped by then ) he did get out of the saddle when finally he rode away on a >20% stretch 3 hours into the race, but he didn't jump away, simply dialed up the effort.

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