- Mar 18, 2009
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Apologies if this has already been discussed elsewhere, but this statement in the front page article re. Evans' contact w/ Ferrari caught my eye:
"I had him repeat the same test after 4 additional hours of riding, climbing the Albula and Julier Pass, with the purpose of checking his performance over distance: the result was a VAM = 1820 m/h, even better than the first test, probably because of the slight weight loss from the ride."
A much more logical explanation is that Evans' muscle glycogen stores were sufficiently reduced by 4 h of exercise that he simply produced less lactate...this would lead to an overestimation of his power (and/or corresponding VAM) at a fixed blood lactate concentration of 4 mmol/L (i.e., OBLA, which is what Ferrari uses/used).
On the one hand, I find it hard to fathom that in-depth understanding of exercise physiology is so poor at the pro level that someone like Ferrari can be "viewed" as any sort of a guru (outside of any doping expertise) when he makes elementary mistakes such as above. OTOH, having seen a bit what passes for true expertise in this area it doesn't surprise me in the least.
Anyway, rant over...carry on!
"I had him repeat the same test after 4 additional hours of riding, climbing the Albula and Julier Pass, with the purpose of checking his performance over distance: the result was a VAM = 1820 m/h, even better than the first test, probably because of the slight weight loss from the ride."
A much more logical explanation is that Evans' muscle glycogen stores were sufficiently reduced by 4 h of exercise that he simply produced less lactate...this would lead to an overestimation of his power (and/or corresponding VAM) at a fixed blood lactate concentration of 4 mmol/L (i.e., OBLA, which is what Ferrari uses/used).
On the one hand, I find it hard to fathom that in-depth understanding of exercise physiology is so poor at the pro level that someone like Ferrari can be "viewed" as any sort of a guru (outside of any doping expertise) when he makes elementary mistakes such as above. OTOH, having seen a bit what passes for true expertise in this area it doesn't surprise me in the least.
Anyway, rant over...carry on!