• The Cycling News forum is looking to add some volunteer moderators with Red Rick's recent retirement. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to @SHaines here on the forum, or use the Contact Us form to message the Community Team.

    In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.

    Thanks!

Brownlees vs Yates and other virtual challenges

GCN have shown a few interesting, if rather gimmicky challenges recently. I was particularly susrprised by how competitive the Brownlees were against the pros. They hung with the Yates up the zwift mountain and Ali Brownlee was only just pipped on the line by Daryl Impey in this road vs mountain bike vs triathletes challenge. When you consider that the Brownlees can hold their own with most 10k road runners there's little wonder they have been so dominant in the Triathlon.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnt0Xnulx_Y
 
If there is one thing I learnt from the virtual races it's that I have been underestimating the impact of (tactics and) technique on road racing. Technique, mostly. Sometimes it looks like you don't need much more than the physiology to be a great cyclist - with everyone talking about watts per kilogram and lung volume. Roglic just jumps from jumping to riding, Evenepoel gives up competetive football and whoosh, competes with the best cyclists - it's not like other sports where you have to start training seriously before you are 10 years old, otherwise you don't stand a chance to ever be the best. But then top ski-jumpers and football players have really, really good coordination, reaction times and balance (often underestimated in football players). Those are things you don't need much in the virtual races/ challenges (I am not looking at the differences in the length and way of effort now). It's something you often only talk about like it's a surplus in cycling (oh, and he's also got great style...). But obviously it's decisive, too.
I have also been surprised by the Australian and South-African riders in the virtual races and have been thinking that all this talk how European riders have an advantage because they are more used to riding on narrow roads in the pack must be true.

Okay, maybe that was not even your topic. It's just something I wanted to say. And god, it's tough, my English is so stiff.
 
If there is one thing I learnt from the virtual races it's that I have been underestimating the impact of (tactics and) technique on road racing. Technique, mostly. Sometimes it looks like you don't need much more than the physiology to be a great cyclist - with everyone talking about watts per kilogram and lung volume. Roglic just jumps from jumping to riding, Evenepoel gives up competetive football and whoosh, competes with the best cyclists - it's not like other sports where you have to start training seriously before you are 10 years old, otherwise you don't stand a chance to ever be the best. But then top ski-jumpers and football players have really, really good coordination, reaction times and balance (often underestimated in football players). Those are things you don't need much in the virtual races/ challenges (I am not looking at the differences in the length and way of effort now). It's something you often only talk about like it's a surplus in cycling (oh, and he's also got great style...). But obviously it's decisive, too.
I have also been surprised by the Australian and South-African riders in the virtual races and have been thinking that all this talk how European riders have an advantage because they are more used to riding on narrow roads in the pack must be true.

Okay, maybe that was not even your topic. It's just something I wanted to say. And god, it's tough, my English is so stiff.
I think they are all very valid observations. Also virtual racing cant adequately take into account weather conditions and riders confidence in bike handling etc.
 

TRENDING THREADS