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We need to talk about Annemiek

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Setting aside the doping aspect of Annemiek's performance, one particular detail that has always caught my attention is her rigorous training ((( with male colleagues ))) which exceeds what her female peers do among themselves as far as training IOW Annemiek has published on SM many of her crazy training camps with male teammates & from other teams -some are quite brutal compared to what women do, but she's known for being able to keep up with the male riders for a good portion of the training sessions , which leads me to believe she has an advantage over her competitors by training with stronger teammates, so an adaptation has been created. Now, because training with stronger mates requires far more energy & fitness, that's where the "program" comes in .... and being familiar & friendly with male colleagues, male trainers, male training programs, etc may have led her to acquire more knowledge on how a well thought out "program" works & the know how, the when, where & how often , and the logistics behind it..
 
Having enough in the tank after winning all 3 GTs (plus her other wins) in the one season is perfectly normal...
There were barely any race days more in all 3 put together than there were in Remco's Vuelta win, and he won the world's much more authoritatively too. Not saying there's anything about Annemiek's late career surge that can't be questioned but think pointing to the GT grand slam + Worlds on amount of race days alone is a stretch considering you have examples like Evans in 09 doing full spring, two GTs ostensibly for GC (I know his Tour bid failed) and then winning the World's.
 
There were barely any race days more in all 3 put together than there were in Remco's Vuelta win, and he won the world's much more authoritatively too. Not saying there's anything about Annemiek's late career surge that can't be questioned but think pointing to the GT grand slam + Worlds on amount of race days alone is a stretch considering you have examples like Evans in 09 doing full spring, two GTs ostensibly for GC (I know his Tour bid failed) and then winning the World's.
At that age, in that relatively short time frame, in that fashion?

Apart from the first few days of the TDF there were basically no signs of fatigue until Worlds, but in hindsight we don't know how much of the TT was down to Jet lag and/or the hotel, and how badly the road race performance was affected by the elbow.

Don't forget she also won Omloop and Liege, and podiumed Flanders, Fleche and Strade Bianche to boot.
 
At that age, in that relatively short time frame, in that fashion?

Apart from the first few days of the TDF there were basically no signs of fatigue until Worlds, but in hindsight we don't know how much of the TT was down to Jet lag and/or the hotel, and how badly the road race performance was affected by the elbow.

Don't forget she also won Omloop and Liege, and podiumed Flanders, Fleche and Strade Bianche to boot.
What, three stage races in a two month period? A men's Grand Tour has almost as many race days as all three women's ones put together. Hell, back a few years ago Evelyn Stevens did the Giro Rosa and Thüringen Rundfahrt back to back for 17 straight race days, and won the latter. Sure the Giro and Tour were close together but it's her reinvention in the last six years that should be the launchpad for questions, not the recovery when the Giro is half the length of the men's race and is still the longest race on the calendar. The Tour is selling itself as a GT because of the top level presentation but it's a standard one week race like the Dauphine or something, not as long as the Giro, and the Ceratizit Challenge is being presented as though it's a women's Vuelta for the purpose of bigging up Annemiek's achievement by the team but it is in reality just a short stage race, with 5-6 stages.
 
There were barely any race days more in all 3 put together than there were in Remco's Vuelta win, and he won the world's much more authoritatively too. Not saying there's anything about Annemiek's late career surge that can't be questioned but think pointing to the GT grand slam + Worlds on amount of race days alone is a stretch considering you have examples like Evans in 09 doing full spring, two GTs ostensibly for GC (I know his Tour bid failed) and then winning the World's.
Agree. The women's GTs are not comparable to the men's in that they really are not 3 week tours at all.
 

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