Andrichuk said:
Look at Lars Boom, in Cyclo-cross you are always attacking and sprinting hard out of corners and up short steep climbs, yet he is U23 world TT champion.
A good point, and one could reference others in Cx as well (e.g. Hanka Kupfernagel). However, the interesting thing about cross is that accelerations are intermixed with coasting. If one looks at the HR of a TT or Cx race, it tends to be similar - right at threshold or just above. However, the power readings are almost the opposite - TT tends to be steady state (varying a bit if the course is undulating or has lots of corners), Cx can have high spikes and then coasts where there is no power, almost like intervals for masochists!
Of course, not all Cx racers are great TT riders (or at least have not demonstrated that capacity). As a result, you see some racers put in more steady power efforts (Boom - goes hard from the gun and is very smooth), while others do accelerations and then back off (often Nys with attack, chill for a bit, attack, chill for a bit).
With contra and his climbing, his accelerations are not that of a Cx racer out of a corner, they are like that of someone who has some serious fast twitch fibers going on ... keep in mind I am comparing him to other light climbers, so the weight is not such an issue. So he can climb and sprint ... so the ability to sustain high steady power while doing the TT is one of the things that make me roll my eyes.
BTW - for all of those folks who keep on pointing to Annecy and noting there was a hill in the race, take a look at the results of the stage. Pretty much everyone who was up there was a TT expert, Contra smoked them all. The hill did not tilt the course that much in his favour. You know, with al this talk of Pharmstrong fanboys, I think there might need to be some about Contra fanboys (although there is much less nastiness to talk about, as he does not seem to be an a**hole
)
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