"PRO" Cycling Discussion

[nathanong87]

not impressed KVT

[Rob81]

>seat replicates TT positions
>full pedal stroke with ankle rotation
>doesn't really care what others think
>uses exercise equipment that may not be accepted by others to his own degree of success

some of these points can be applied observing Hesjedal position, especially ankle rotation and adding a more prolonged "active" position of leg over pedal (ala midfoot cleat principle, kind of), extreme bar to saddle drop, etc etc

[djconnel]

not impressed KVT

He's just overwhelmed with national pride, honored to have contributed to a great victory by the team.

[djconnel]

It's a national habit of mine to check which bikes won the team time trial @ Qatar. It looks like aero frames won this year:



On Farrar: two second after two stages so far @ Mallorca. He's not a total dud. He's still a contender to pull something off. And that's he's American on a US team has marketing value. Team rosters are based on more than just race ability.

[tymon_tm]

Re: Adam Hanson's bike tech & fit -

Has anyone else found themselves smiling at all of the discussion surrounding Zakeen's "radical" fit and choice of equipment?
He is a WW member, by the way. A forum which is known to encourage pushing beyond the base-level of accepted practices and experiment with both fit and equipment setups. You guys have heard of this "Weight Weenies" forum, right?

>runs slimmer bars
>seat replicates TT positions
>full pedal stroke with ankle rotation
>doesn't really care what others think
>uses exercise equipment that may not be accepted by others to his own degree of success

Excellent Adam. Do continue.

haha, that just reminds me of old cycling coaches/retired pro's who would notoriously seek any flaws regarding my fit (or any other young cyclist for that matter). some people just have to find one's saddle to high or drop to big

isn't bike fitting mainly about patterns and algorithms? apart from the big guns who have their position adjusted by noble prize winners at NASA facilities, most pros probably just fall into some bracket with sizes and dimensions and/or try things on their own. as for narrow bars, wasn't it the tendency back in the mid-90's?

[KWalker]

Farrar is not marketable in the least. His second today is sadly one of his best performances of the past year, which just proves my point. We can revisit this in 3 months when he still hasn't done anything that justifies his contract.

[djconnel]

CyclingRanking.com ranks him 114th for 2012, 8th on Garmin.... Haussler was 80th, 4th on Garmin. So hardly star material, it's true.

[tymon_tm]

Farrar is not marketable in the least. His second today is sadly one of his best performances of the past year, which just proves my point. We can revisit this in 3 months when he still hasn't done anything that justifies his contract.

i beg to differ. i can't recall any race i'd seen him in, but i know he wears Transitions . same way i know Biebers' haircut but never ever heard his song (and i hope it stays this way)

[hna]

Farrar is a lot like Alan Davis was. Good at getting on the right wheel, but never seems to be able to get around it.

[thebadger]

I agree completely with Kwalker on Farar. He is pretty useless for the most part. He won a few sprint stages last year in Utah or PCC, but fizzled hard at the TdF. He crashes so much that he must go through dozens of bikes a year.


He must have a sweatheart contract or is good friends with some upper management, because he should have left the team a while ago.

I have also thought this for some time now. The fact he has what appear to be very questionable bike handling skills might leave his team mates a little low on confidence, who knows. I would certainly avoid riding anywhere near him in a bunch when things got hot (not to say that I could hang with him at all). A shame really, as I hear he is a pretty good guy all round. Maybe he's still struggling with the loss of Weylandt?

[KWalker]

I think the tipping point for me was the combination of doing his Sram ad in Flemish (here's a hint no one thinks you're cool because you live in Belgium as a cyclist) and his constant whining/excuses. He would seem to belong more on UHC or another domestic team IMO.

Garmin has a lot of young talent that hopefully they can do something with and hopefully Hesjedal continues to do well and Dan Martin comes of age a bit.

[Tinea Pedis]

It's a national habit of mine to check which bikes won the team time trial @ Qatar. It looks like aero frames won this year:

What about helmets?

Air Attacks. Mmm...do want!

Garmin has a lot of young talent that hopefully they can do something with and hopefully Hesjedal continues to do well and Dan Martin comes of age a bit.

Those guys are not sprinters.

As poor as I agree Tyler has been, he's still the incumbent. It's up to other Garmin sprinters (like Von Hoff) to step up and push him from the #1 position.

[asv]

I think the tipping point for me was the combination of doing his Sram ad in Flemish (here's a hint no one thinks you're cool because you live in Belgium as a cyclist) and his constant whining/excuses. He would seem to belong more on UHC or another domestic team IMO.

Farrar has six grand tour stage wins. He had a bad year in 2012, but he is still an elite sprinter. I don't think he is a whiner, he just gets asked by the TV media why he came in second or third to Cav and Griepel after every sprint stage.

[KWalker]

Yup he has had 6 Grand Tour wins but he's definitely not on the level of Cav, Kittel, Degenkolb, Greipel, Goss (he's still won a monument), Sagan and the list goes on. Second rate at best, but even in 2011 he managed to get stomped on quite often by third rate riders.

I guess my point is that he doesn't have any kind of calling card trait that justifies being at the level he is. He doesn't earn points, has shit bike handling, can't make it over a climb or hill, isn't very snappy, and lacks the raw power of the German sprinters. He's kind of a 'hope everyone else is on an off day' rider, but so is Roberto Ferrari.

[asv]

6 GT wins that's a lot of bad days and more GT wins than Kittel and Dkolb. I think your being way overly harsh on the guy. He might not be in the top5 anymore but he is certainly worthy of being on a protour team.