Recent content by Cookster15

Impressive start to 2026 by Del Toro. Good to see Luke Plapp with a strong ride. Hopefully 2026 is the year he can finally begin to live up to his promise.

Its not just cycling, also in other endurance sports like marathon running and ironman triathlon it is generally accepted the peak age is late 20s to early 30s. Certainly not 19 or 20.

The time gaps at the end were beyond belief. Landa was 4th on the stage at nearly 4 minutes. I will never forget Pog sitting up to take a drink while on Vingo's wheel, was in no stress. I think in hindsight that was the moment when everyone should have realised the Tour was over - not at 5k to...

Motos? But its good we are talking about this stage in February even if its only the possible time rather than who might win. Fast times are most likely when attacked from the bottom. Often at AdH we see cat and mouse between the GC contenders in the first half of the climb before someone...

Yes. Remco was also faster than Pantani's record on PdB - partly courtesy of Jorgensen's huge pull from the bottom until 10km to go when Jonas attacked. But to ride solo that last 10km and still be inside Pantani's 1998 time was super impressive thinking about it. I just hope Remco can...

Title of this story seems provocative. Are there people who genuinely believe Remco can "take down" Pogi at the Tour this year? :eek: But its good that the move to Red Bull seems a positive one so far...

Thank you. Heart attack averted. :laughing:

Just to put this into context and in case you were not joking, a 30 minute AdH at 8.5W/Kg for Pogi works out to 564 watts using the calculator I linked (27km/h). Pantani only averaged 22km/h. As a benchmark, I think 79kg Indurain was said to be doing circa 500 watts when he did his legendary...

Maybe that's because its only early February ? Who knows what training block he is in he middle of? He did enough to win the GC comfortably ahead of Almeida and his seated attack on Saturday was impressive. Seeing more reasons for his fans to be positive now knowing the big objectives ahead...

Which races specifically? Nothing crazy at Volta Comunitat Valenciana ? BTW, as for the 2nd statement, obviously exaggeration but out of interest sake I punched some numbers using an online calculator - linked below. Not sure what is Pogacar's true weight but using 66Kg (7kg bike), a 30 minute...

Of course not. But pottering around on cycleways at 20km/h isn't going to do much for your lifespan and health either. Regular competition can provide the motivation to train consistently which leads to good health. Not 'actually negative' - only for a small minority. For the overwhelming...

Yes stage 7 looks crazy difficult. A perfect rehearsal for the Tour. Even with the stage 3 TTT and whatever gaps that might create stage 7 will be very interesting. In fact since the TTT is only 28km, gaps might be small enough to encourage attacks by the climbers. I have no idea which teams...

No doubt this is true of a small minority. But most keep racing because they enjoy it and it’s good for your health as you age (assuming you don’t crash). At least that’s why I did - not because I had an oversized ego? But point taken with a large enough sample size no doubt you would get some...

Thanks for this. Then for masters racing it comes back to targeted testing for rEPO and maybe clubs making that clear to members that such testing can occur.

Not doubting what you saw and I realise you are not advocating. But still seems crazy to stick a needle in your arm and take the associated risks without medical supervision to win amateur masters races? And it’s a bit more than a diabetic injection. What ages are we talking masters 1 to 3 or...