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What are you smoking? The fact that G lets himself go in the offseason is so well known it’s basically pro cycling lore.CN today: „Geraint Thomas: In the off-season you let yourself go“.
Can it be that riding or having ridden for Sky/Ineos makes people feeling the need to frequently talk… em… „weird stuff“?
Firstly Froome talks about setup differences of centimeters, recently (called „BS“ by Rasmussen), now Thomas claims to let himself go in the offseason.
Never ever does Thomas let himself go in the offseason. There isn’t even something like an offseason for Thomas. And if he had/has an offseason, he never ever lets himself go.
He‘s a great character, and we all want to hear what he has to say, because he‘s smart and experienced and has a nice humour, but claiming letting himself go is rather… boring, and misguiding, and certainly wrong.
Did you think the years of G clearly having gained a significant amount of weight and often visually still being well overweight (for a GC rider) deep into the spring were all deep fakes or something?
How does binge drinking - which is what he describes himself doing - add to longevity?
His claim that Gen Next don't drink - the monk myth cycling fanbois love - is open to question. Remember the response when Plugge took a shot at Madiot for the FDJ riders daring to drink in moderation during the Tour?
But, of course, a binge drinker easily confuses moderation with sobriety.
But, of course, a binge drinker easily confuses moderation with sobriety.
Besides the drinking, it [:to have an actual break and slowly built up form towards your season goal] probably adds to your longevity as a rider.
I agree, your career longevity must partly come from having fun with friends and socializing and probably escaping a bit getting drunk if that's what you/they like to do together. One thing Thomas does seem always able to do is get in shape for the races he wants to be in shape for and always seems disciplined. 7s off Roglic is a career still right up there and probably longer than many GT winners achieve.
A lot of riders freely admit to going on a bender on occasion, but there's a very big difference between having the occasional party in the off season and enjoying the holidays and never being competitive before Trentino/Dauphine.
Roglic is also definitely not one of those guys known for being a teetotaller
Roglic is also definitely not one of those guys known for being a teetotaller
I think your society might collectively have a massive alcohol problem if an elite athlete binge drinking to such an extent doesn't even sound weird or at least like something they should probably keep under wraps
You gotta take what Thomas says at face value. Cmon.
I doubt he drinks for three months straight or is an alcoholic.
In reality... he probably has 4-5 weeks off like any normal person. Have a few beers every now and then during those weeks, like you do on vacation. Maybe doesnt think too much about what he eats. Then it is back to work, just like for a normal person.
GTs is where he can compete these days. Why would he train super-hard during the off-season to be in great shape for an early race like Algarve? Those races are a young mans game anyway and he has more than proved himself already.
He is better off going all in for a Giro or the Tour. Maximize his chances at a great result.
This stuff is just click-bait.
I doubt he drinks for three months straight or is an alcoholic.
In reality... he probably has 4-5 weeks off like any normal person. Have a few beers every now and then during those weeks, like you do on vacation. Maybe doesnt think too much about what he eats. Then it is back to work, just like for a normal person.
GTs is where he can compete these days. Why would he train super-hard during the off-season to be in great shape for an early race like Algarve? Those races are a young mans game anyway and he has more than proved himself already.
He is better off going all in for a Giro or the Tour. Maximize his chances at a great result.
This stuff is just click-bait.
I like to party and there is nothing wrong with enjoying yourself in off season, it should be encouraged, but for 12 out of 14 days drunk it's probably indicative of a problem. And I'm not talking anything relating to cycling, just on a personal level.
Then again anybody who been to a rugby match in Millenium Stadium Cardiff knows how much Welsh like to drink, they go to the bar every 5 minutes and miss the whole game. Very sad.
Then again anybody who been to a rugby match in Millenium Stadium Cardiff knows how much Welsh like to drink, they go to the bar every 5 minutes and miss the whole game. Very sad.
It's completely normalised, even glorified in Britain unfortunately, major problems with alcohol and an unwillingness to confront the issue. You can hear it with Geriant here, not trying to moralise or judge him but he says '12 nights out of 14' like it's a point of pride.
Cocaine also on the rise amongst the working class too as it's cheaper than booze and the cost of living is high, behind the majority of violence on the football, done openly on the terraces, none of the pundits will go within a mile of the subject.
The positive is that as with cycling, the kids aren't really into it, none of the young lads I speak to seem interested at all.
I mean, it was probably a tall tale either way, but it's still quite telling that the tale was told
One of the problems I have with this debate is that it is largely based on a mythologised past where riders lived in monk-like seclusion from the Spring Classics to the Autumn Classics, hung up their wheels for a couple of months and then started training on Christmas Day, with the early-season races just pre-Classics leg looseners.
Missing from this is that, post-Tour, riders worked their butts off, using bennies to keep from burning out as they travelled the critérium circuit. Some lost all form come the Worlds, most peaked again in time for the late-season Classics. Then the best earners hit the Six Day circuit - many again using bennies to stave off burn out - while the lower classed riders went back to the farm or the family business and worked their winter away. Yes, the Six Day circuit, like the critériums, was a circus, but you still had to put in the hours and the miles, it wasn't a holiday.
Also missing is that not all riders were Men for All Seasons, that even then there were peaks and troughs in an individual rider's season. And those peaks and troughs are more important than when you hit the snooze button on your season.
We've been told for a decade and more now and the last generation / this generation / the next generation were all riding and training too hard and would burn out early. And yet instead of willingly retiring in their early 30s, à la Hinault, we're seeing more and more riders approaching 40 before they hang up their wheels, or approaching 40 before they switch to gravel.
Personally, I would argue that a more steady state, where the troughs are less deep for you too have to climb out of, actually allows a rider to appear to be working harder than the riders of the critérium circuit / Six Day circuit era. It's that climb to peak that burns people out, in all walks of life, managing that is more important than going on a bender come the end of October. Thomas can just about motivate himself to make that climb a couple of times a year, but other riders don't find it as hard as he publicly says he does, they're not hitting the lows he hits.
Yeah, but cycling hit the peak of its coked-out era with Boonen.
That 12 out of 14 nights bit I think is the really worrying part of what he said. The guy's a father, the guy has a family, 12 out of 14 nights drunk is taking the mickey.
Jesus, what a bunch of Puritans. He lives like a monk for half the year, let him cut loose in his 6 weeks off
Good Lord. What a scary thought. I'd actually have to root for Sepp.
There you go, I knew you had it in you! Go Sepp!Quite, and if he doesn't drink the rest of the year a couple of sherbets and he'd be well on the way already
I'm assuming you're not talking about the frozen desert. Unless you* have a habit of putting interesting stuff in those in the UK...
*I'm right that you're in the UK, right?
Cockney rhyming slang - Sherbet dip (an old type of sweet) = Sip - which has morphed into Sherbets being slang for a few alcoholic drinks.
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