Jeannie Longo Ciprelli: Phenomenal

[Tyler'sTwin]

Why even bring it up? and then bring it up and embellish it more? and do it some more.

I did not bring it up. I responded to a poster who used it as a means to put down women's cycling.

What is your problem?

 

[Guttercat]

Yup, they are actually.

Your average hobbyist (men) goes as fast as most of these 'pro' women. Says enough the U23 and often even junior men already ride faster

To quote another forum... your a idiot.





Why has a thread about a great athlete so quickly devolved into a "male/female" comparison? They're different animals. Of course pro men are faster than pro women. Duh.

 

[Tuarts]

From a "keyboard warrior" perspective, I choose to view the accomplishment as a 51 year old being able to mix it up with the top "elite" women. No debate too it. Probably wont ever hapen in Men's sport because of several factors but thats not to take away this result.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Hey I'm not the only one who thinks this way about woman cycling you know.

You should hear Mart Smeets & Maarten Ducrot (latter one is ex-pro) on TV this morning. They said exactly the same as me.

 

[redtreviso]

Hey I'm not the only one who thinks this way about woman cycling you know.

You should hear Mart Smeets & Maarten Ducrot (latter one is ex-pro) on TV this morning. They said exactly the same as me.

That's just wonderful..maybe their sponsors will all pull out.

 

[Tuarts]

Oh I know, you're not the only one who thinks that was about womens sport.

 

[pedaling squares]

Yup, they are actually.

Your average hobbyist (men) goes as fast as most of these 'pro' women.
Says enough the U23 and often even junior men already ride faster

Not really fair to compare a 21 yr old 6'2" 155lb man to a 28 yr old 5'4" 108lb woman. The power output is just far superior no matter how far from his peak the lad may be.

52 years young and still representing. Love it. Google says she is big into healthy eating and organic foods. Maybe its just a coincidence.

it must be, cause that old bird has had more beef in her than most of her competitors combined.

 

[redtreviso]

Not really fair to compare a 21 yr old 6'2" 155lb man to a 28 yr old 5'4" 108lb woman. The power output is just far superior no matter how far from his peak the lad may be.


it must be, cause that old bird has had more beef in her than most of her competitors combined.

Wonder how that 6'2 21 old yr did against that old bird on Mt Evans.

 

[forty four]

To quote another forum... your a idiot.





Why has a thread about a great athlete so quickly devolved into a "male/female" comparison? They're different animals. Of course pro men are faster than pro women. Duh.

ridden and trained with kristen armstrong when i lived in boise she is faster than many cat-1 men and would race in the male field always getting top ten. she is the only female rider who i have ridden with who is really fast. other pro women i have ridden with are not as strong as most cat-3 men.

 

[jens_attacks]

true,madame jeannie longo is just awesome!

 

[Guttercat]

ridden and trained with kristen armstrong when i lived in boise she is faster than many cat-1 men and would race in the male field always getting top ten. she is the only female rider who i have ridden with who is really fast. other pro women i have ridden with are not as strong as most cat-3 men.

That there is a much more reasonable assertion than "your average hobbyist".

 

[Le breton]

The top in women cycling obviously isn't as wide as in men cycling. Besides that.. eh nevermind I'm not going there, but at the age of 52 these performances?

To know what to expect at age 52 you can go to WMA tables or look at the results obtained by Helge Schroeter-Janssen.
Average athletes lose about 9% of their potential by age 52 compared to their peak years, ie at 29 to 40 years of age(9% limits).

For a flat time trial, a 9% loss in power means a 3.3% loss in average speed (taking into account air and road resistance at 44 km/h).

In other words, between the ages of 29 and 41, if she aged the same as your average athlete, Jeannie Longo would have been faster than today by approximately 66 sec. She would have beaten Pooley by about 21 sec.

You could argue that the course is not flat, and I grant you that the difference would therefore have been slightly bigger. A younger Longo would have won by maybe 30 sec.

I am appalled at the incredible number of stupid comments that are made by people who pretend to know about cycling, and this probably(?) just because they despise women cyclists I guess. Or maybe the stupidty of their comments is just a reflection of their stupidity.
Luckily Longo is smarter than that and knows better than not to try.

 

[Guttercat]

To know what to expect at age 52 you can go to WMA tables or look at the results obtained by Helge Schroeter-Janssen.
Average athletes lose about 9% of their potential by age 52 compared to their peak years, ie at 29 to 40 years of age(9% limits).

For a flat time trial, a 9% loss in power means a 3.3% loss in average speed (taking into account air and road resistance at 44 km/h).

In other words, between the ages of 29 and 41, if she aged the same as your average athlete, Jeannie Longo would have been faster than today by approximately 66 sec. She would have beaten Pooley by about 21 sec.

You could argue that the course is not flat, and I grant you that the difference would therefore have been slightly bigger. A younger Longo would have won by maybe 30 sec.

I am appalled at the incredible number of stupid comments that are made by people who pretend to know about cycling, and this probably(?) just because they despise women cyclists I guess. Or maybe the stupidty of their comments is just a reflection of their stupidity.
Luckily Longo is smarter than that and knows better than not to try.

Thank you for posting the info.

I will say though, I don't think most male cyclists "despise" women cyclists. I've found the contrary to be true. However, there is an element of "this is the boy's treehouse" that runs quietly, but deep.

I think what we're seeing here is the tendency on this forum (at least from what I've seen in my limited time here) to bash and question pros in general. If Jeannie were a 52 year old male with this result at World's, the bashing would probably be even worse.

There have been some nice things said about her in this thread, and the other as well.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

@Le Breton: I don't hate female cyclists nor female sports (cycling included). I just think there are very few actual top cyclists there. The top is extremely narrow and the level difference between the absolute top and the rest is huge. Which is why the sport doesn't get taken as serious as it probably should.
I let myself out a bit harsch. But that's just my style, sorry. Live with it. You should take my comments with a pinch of salt.

 

[Guttercat]

@Le Breton: I let myself out a bit harsch. But that's just my style, sorry. Live with it.

Ha ha. I'm looking at your avatar while reading those words.

 

[hiero2]

@Le Breton: I don't hate female cyclists nor female sports (cycling included). I just think there are very few actual top cyclists there. The top is extremely narrow and the level difference between the absolute top and the rest is huge. Which is why the sport doesn't get taken as serious as it probably should.
I let myself out a bit harsch. But that's just my style, sorry. Live with it. You should take my comments with a pinch of salt.

Yup - pinch of salt and dollop of ignoring. You've pegged yourself pretty well. Not worries from me, I've been called a loud-mouth, too, or at least when I was younger. I tend to work at the diplomacy more these days.

However the comparison to men's racing was gratuitous, and does take away from the awesomeness of Ms. Longo's achievements.

There could very well be another factor at work here that I don't believe has been mentioned. And I could be wrong, as I am pulling this out of old memory, but I believe I recall that it has been noted in scientific studies that women can maintain physical performance levels into later years than men do. To put it another way, women lose less performance per year from their peak as they age than do men.

The women's field may seem thin today, it is nothing like as thin as it was when Rebecca Twigg was riding. The women's field is much richer today.

Ms. Longo has certainly earned kudos aplenty. I had the privilege of watching her race in the Longsjo Classic last year.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Hell no.

But I don't have cycling as my day job either.

Neither do a lot of the women. There isn't much money in women's cycling; most of them are either also trackies (eg Bronzini), 'crossers (eg Koedooder) or both (eg Vos), or spend the winter studying (eg Pooley). Sometimes we lose the women to academia as a direct result of the lack of money in women's cycling - Christiane Söder, for example, rode for Cervélo last year, but this year has been riding an extremely reduced domestic Austrian calendar because she took an academic post that required her to spend more time near home.

However, I view the fact that an increasing number of men's teams intend to run a women's team as very promising - HTC inherited T-Mobile's and are one of the top teams; Lotto have a team; Cervélo had a women's team before the men's, and Garmin have now inherited it; I still fear that we may lose the likes of Pooley in some major events because of the need to do the US domestic calendar, but HTC have juggled these needs admirably. Geox have taken over the existing (and awesome) Safi-Pasta Zara team and signed Mara Abbott to lead them; Pegasus have announced an intention to run a domestic women's team, the Fundación Euskadi is linked to either Debabarrena or Bizkaia-Durango (the latter I think, not sure), Nutrixxion have a women's team and Rabobank and TopSport Vlaanderen have developmental teams.

So on the teams front it's not too bad news considering we lost Nürnberger and Bigla last offseason, and nearly lost Nederland Bloeit too.

Hopefully that can counteract the terrible loss of races. Most of which are just disappointing, but some of them really rankle - the sacrificing of the women's events in Canada for the ProTour men's races in particular - why not just run both?

 

[forty four]

That there is a much more reasonable assertion than "your average hobbyist".

yeah i think so im in socal lots of good riders male and female a good pro female is equivalent to a solid cat-3 male. as for kristin or longo or voss they are like very solid cat-1's. a good female pro will make a male hobbyist look real stupid women are often all legs and no upper body therefore low watts but good power to weight imo. there is a big difference in mental state between racers male or female at any level and hobbyists. racers are fast period it comes with the territory.

 

[Curls_21]

I have only recently started to follow Womens Road Racing, however my interest was peaked by the performance of the British women in the last olympics. However I find it depressing that Womens Cycling appears to be struggling so much with lack of sponsorship and events dissapearing off the calender which then makes it difficult for them to get the exposure required to get the sponorship. However this is the case for many sports not just cycling, however hopefully more Mens Teams will start Womens teams which would help.

 

[forty four]

Thank you for posting the info.

I will say though, I don't think most male cyclists "despise" women cyclists. I've found the contrary to be true. However, there is an element of "this is the boy's treehouse" that runs quietly, but deep.

I think what we're seeing here is the tendency on this forum (at least from what I've seen in my limited time here) to bash and question pros in general. If Jeannie were a 52 year old male with this result at World's, the bashing would probably be even worse.

There have been some nice things said about her in this thread, and the other as well.

longo rocks she has won more than anyone even eddy.m if i recall that said the best women will always be far behind the best male in sport for reasons of muscle mass testosterone dna and hematocrit there is no way around this period it will not change. but to make my point clear the best female will easily drop your average man seen it happen many times you can see the ego crack lol.