Lance Armstrong

[halz]

A truly impressive performance - congratulations to Lance Armstrong (and the Discovery Channel team) on his 7th Tour De France victory.

[EricB]

ABsolutely.... what an athelete that guy...

-e

[240ZX]

What an impressive performance......and seven years in a row! Of course we all know it was a team effort. I'm a diehard mountain biker and have been pretty serious about riding for over 20 years now. What really puts things into perspective is that the slowest and weakest guy in the pellaton is light years ahead in abilities compared to even the fittest local riders I know. I've always said that I wish I was just half as strong as the weakest guy in the Tour De France..........Oh, I'm a dreamer. I tend to believe that the average american has absolutely no clue as to how fit these tour guys are and what is involved to become that good. The Tour De France is one of the greatest sporting events in the world....how come its given so little attention in the USA? I'm sorry but the vast majority of americans are a bunch of lazy fatass couch potatoes worrying about...well, what ever it is they worry about!

Lance and his team are the greatest Tour De France riders to ever come around and will likely not be matched anytime in the near future. Congratulation Team Discovery Channel. We will miss you Lance!

[mperdue]

It doesn't hurt that he has a freakishly large heart among other genetic oddities. Not that his natural advantages are completely unheard of - it's just rare that someone who happens to have the right combination gets into a sport that lets him put them to good use.

What an impressive performance......and seven years in a row! Of course we all know it was a team effort. I'm a diehard mountain biker and have been pretty serious about riding for over 20 years now. What really puts things into perspective is that the slowest and weakest guy in the pellaton is light years ahead in abilities compared to even the fittest local riders I know. I've always said that I wish I was just half as strong as the weakest guy in the Tour De France..........Oh, I'm a dreamer. I tend to believe that the average american has absolutely no clue as to how fit these tour guys are and what is involved to become that good. The Tour De France is one of the greatest sporting events in the world....how come its given so little attention in the USA? I'm sorry but the vast majority of americans are a bunch of lazy fatass couch potatoes worrying about...well, what ever it is they worry about!

Lance and his team are the greatest Tour De France riders to ever come around and will likely not be matched anytime in the near future. Congratulation Team Discovery Channel. We will miss you Lance!

[MikeW]

What really puts things into perspective is that the slowest and weakest guy in the pellaton is light years ahead in abilities compared to even the fittest local riders I know.

Exactly. Back when I was riding a lot I found that it was all I could do to briefly hit 30mph. In reality the wind resistance becomes exponential. While I could ride 18 or 19 mph for hours at a time the increase to 20 or 21 was quite noticeable. These guys in the tour end up averaging in the high 20's for hours at a time with lots of steep climbs and they do it for weeks in a row. They are quite clearly the fittest athletes in any sport. There's just no comparison. Looking at the final results I see that the guy who finished in last place, the 155th rider, was a grand total of 4 hours and 20 minutes behind lance. I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of us would lose that much time in a single day on the first long ride of the tour. Another thing to note: if your resting heartbeat is 60 or less you're considered to be in relatively good shape. Lance and other other riders often are under 30.

[240ZX]

Mike, mine's at 40 :classic:

[halz]

Exactly. Back when I was riding a lot I found that it was all I could do to briefly hit 30mph. In reality the wind resistance becomes exponential. While I could ride 18 or 19 mph for hours at a time the increase to 20 or 21 was quite noticeable. 30.

When you ride in a group (even a small group), you are generally 10-15% faster than on your own. The group creates its own 'windless' riding environment and as long as the leaders are swapped regularly, a higher pace can be maintained than an individual on his own. Thats why you see the breakaway vs. peloton tactics everyday in the TDF...

[Ed]

Pardon my ignorance but, how many miles would they ride each day? And how many day's total is the entire tour? Or the total miles of the tour and how many day's?

[MikeW]

Pardon my ignorance but, how many miles would they ride each day? And how many day's total is the entire tour? Or the total miles of the tour and how many day's?

I copied these numbers from the official site where they are obviously given in kilometers so I converted them to miles for your benefit. Each line here represents a single day. Some of the short days are actually individual and team time trials but as you can see many of the days would require several hours driving in a car (remember that the route is often narrow twisty mountain roads and small towns) which would be enough to wear me out. The tour lasted from the 2nd to the 24th and there were only two off days.

11.81

112.78

132.04

41.94

113.71

123.65

141.98

143.85

106.25

119.61

107.50

116.20

107.81

137.01

127.69

112.16

148.82

117.44

95.38

34.49

89.79

Total: 2242.53 miles