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The "talented" myth

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Feb 10, 2013
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I'm not an expert so I have no idea, but I'd have thought that there is only one possible physical constant that would remain roughly the same from a junior through to a senior and that would be the genetic aptitude - VO2 max etc.

The physical development of a rider has so many other variables and to assume that all humans develop at the same age and rate is absurd. Even what month you are born in the year is going to affect your relative performance to others in your age group.

Throw in fitness levels, motivation and even technique and you have so many variables at that age that it's hard to draw any definitive conclusions, and that's without even considering doping.
 
Mar 10, 2009
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Talent and doping are connected. If you don't have talent no one is going to waste their money buying dope for untalented anyone. You still have to start with a person who can keep up. Start with kids that can TT near 50 kph not kids that win local races but find 45 fast.
 
Libertine Seguros said:
The stage of L'Avenir was not until he was 23. The other two were when he was 21, so U23 rather than Juniors.

Even so, his results do not predict his future level. The track focus comes into that, but he wasn't even winning prologues, the one thing on the road he was specifically targeting, all that often. His CQ progress chart looks like a Javier Guillén stage profile.

Well done Libertine, I saw that and I was going to correct.

By the time of those rides time Brad had already gone to Guadeloupe with Shane and those older GB team pursuit boys who made such huge strides in their performance at the end of their careers. Just when the link up with the supplements company CNP and its founder Mr Borresen was being secured, only they weren't called cnp at that time.
 
hrotha said:
Actually, doping in the amateur ranks is widespread and has been for ages, and that includes u23, masters and everything in between.
It certainly is. However, I do remember Pinotti insinuating that he didn't see any doping until later on in the U23 ranks.

If this is true, then maybe it's possible team managers wanted to know who was truly talented and who had margin for chemical improvement before they started throwing everything out of whack with EPO etc?
 
42x16ss said:
It certainly is. However, I do remember Pinotti insinuating that he didn't see any doping until later on in the U23 ranks.

If this is true, then maybe it's possible team managers wanted to know who was truly talented and who had margin for chemical improvement before they started throwing everything out of whack with EPO etc?
Certainly. That's the main reason why many pro teams set up feeder teams back in the day, and why riders from some u23 teams would have trouble getting a pro contract even though they had good results.
 
Mar 13, 2009
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i am thinking about "talent" and Zeno's paradox(es).

i think the definition is malleable, and until there is consensus on the definition, there can be no ranking.

the ranking has changed with doping evolution through each of the epochs.
 
blackcat said:
i am thinking about "talent" and Zeno's paradox(es).

i think the definition is malleable, and until there is consensus on the definition, there can be no ranking.


the ranking has changed with doping evolution through each of the epochs.

Your maximal natural physical potential. Or something like that.
 
Mar 13, 2009
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what are you allowed to take? strictly WADA? what about "if it does not show up (in the urine) it is not doping? What about the norms of the peleton? Why do riders line up next to Armstrong, Wiggins, Froome, Evans, at the startline?
 

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