131313 said:
You mean like famous fast-twitch guys like Boardman and Obree? Um....OK....
The issue is more complicated than simply considering the chances of "a pursuiter" being good at GTs, as crudely speaking, there are two types of pursuiter.
Many team pursuiters are nowadays very good sprinters, or at least are clearly endowed with a lot of fast twitch fibres. In the GB squad, Clancy and Burke are both at the short 62s level for the kilo, and Clancy doesn't lose much in the Omnium speed events to Viviani, who is a decent sprinter on the road. Of the GB guys who didn't make the cut, Queally's record as a track sprinter and Swift's record as a road sprinter need no further elaboration.
Lots of Aussie world-class team pursuiters eg Renshaw, Goss, Lancaster etc. have transferred these skills to a similar level of performance on the road, though primarily as lead-out men rather than sprinters.
Indeed, the speed requirements of the TP are such that I understand that Camerom Meyer didn't make the cut for the Aussie Olympic squad due to not being able to get up to the required cruising speed quickly enough, despite being dominant in the points race.
The Boardman / Obree type of pursuiter is much rarer. If Boardman had been French, Italian or Spanish, I doubt he's ever have become a pursuiter. As a youngster, he'd have taken up road racing as that is the normal route for such an athlete to take.
In the UK, continental tyle road racing doesn't really happen, so such athletes go down the TT and track route, so the "large engined, slow-twitch" pursuiter does turn up relatively more in the UK than in Europe. However, given the close links between the track and road scenes in the UK and Australia, there might be a few more pursuiter/GT types emerging.
Geraint Thomas and Pete Kennaugh are obvious candidates in the UK, though given the demise of the IP and the speed (and muscle type) requirements of the TP, there won't be many.
As an aside, what is the forum view as to how Boardman would have performed in the Tour in 1996 in a clean peloton? Assuming he was clean himself, then 39th, @88 minutes against Riis, Ullrich and other EPO enhanced machines was pretty darned impressive in my view.
As another aside, I'd agree that any top quality TT merchant in GTs would be good - though not necessarily Boardman type good - in the IP if they trained properly for it. Even seasoned pursuiters such as Geraint Thomas struggle with the leg-speed requirements of the pursuit after a spell of road racing, so a traditional roadie couldn't just turn up and expect to do well in an IP.