Can Lance win without his team?

[Dirty_Zulu]

Just wondering how Lance will do without a team.

Is he individually great or needs a team to win?

[Freemason]

Don't know. Don't care. If it's not racing with 4 wheels and 700+ hp engines, then it's boring

[{KOW}Spazed]

Don't know. Don't care. If it's not racing with 4 wheels and 700+ hp engines, then it's boring
So this isn't interesting? (http://www.allpar.com/cars/concepts/tomahawk.html)

[Dirty_Zulu]

Don't know. Don't care. If it's not racing with 4 wheels and 700+ hp engines, then it's boring

Why even post that crap in this tread?

[MatMan]

No one can win the Tour de France without a team. But also understand that you couldn't simply plunk some random cyclist into Lance's spot and still win. It's about 60% team, 40% team leader.

[DemBonez]

Don't know. Don't care. If it's not racing with 4 wheels and 700+ hp engines, then it's boring

Congrats, you managed to think of one of the few things worse than bicycle racing. Taking 2,000 left turns isn't exactly fun to watch ... at all.

[mattksa]

Congrats, you managed to think of one of the few things worse than bicycle racing. Taking 2,000 left turns isn't exactly fun to watch ... at all.
I only tune in every once in a while to see if any crashes will happen. I've heard they're really fun to actually attend though.

[acceleration turkey]

Just wondering how Lance will do without a team.

Is he individually great or needs a team to win?


i think armstrong has a neat story, being the dominant distance cyclist of our day and also beating cancer. however his story isnt as much about grit as it is about raw ability. i dont intend to demean his gumption, but the man is a physical specimen in his own right, even if he never got on a bicycle.

apparently lance has a resting heart rate of something like 30 beats a minute, compared to the normal 70 or so. also, at full blast, a human heart pumps, i believe, something like 5 gallons a minute of blood, whereas lance's pumps 9 gallons. i forget if its gallons or liters or what, but the ratio is about 2:1 lace to normal person. the result is that his body is extremely effective at full tilt, not only at fueling muscles but also transporting lactic acid away (endurance issue). i guess the bottom line is that even if you trained all your life its quite possible you would never end up with that kind of circulatory goodness. lance has a lot of natural gift to work with.

so no, he does not need his team. he is a tremendous athlete.

[Soulstones]

Don't know. Don't care. If it's not racing with 4 wheels and 700+ hp engines, then it's boring


Wow are u kidding, race car driving is the most insanely boring, moronic, mind-numbing sport out there, the drivers arent even athletes, they are DRIVERS IN A CAR.

Lance on the other hand is one of the greatest athletes ever ..

[acceleration turkey]

Wow are u kidding, race car driving is the most insanely boring, moronic, mind-numbing sport out there, the drivers arent even athletes, they are DRIVERS IN A CAR.

Lance on the other hand is one of the greatest athletes ever ..


autocross is about the coolest thing ever, as is motocross and rally racing. f1 is also sweet. nascar isnt the only automotive racing there is (nascar admittedly gets boring).

[bigD72]

I don't know much about cycling as a sport or about the 'doping' rumors floating aroud. But, for those of you that have seen Dodgeball his speech in there was, yes semi-funny, but it was one of the most inspiring speeches I have ever heard.

[DurfBarian]

so no, he does not need his team. he is a tremendous athlete.
He does not need his team to be a tremendous athlete . . . but he does need the team to win the TdF. MatMan nailed this one.

There is no single cyclist who is a strong enough sprinter to beat specialists on the flats, a strong enough climber to beat the specialists in the Alps, and a strong enough overall rider to win stages the whole way through all by himself. You need a team to slipstream and save your energy on the long stages, and you need teammates out there blocking attacks from the other cyclists who will try to psyche you out by blasting past you. US Postal has some of the most feared "enforcers" on any team--if you zip by Lance and crew to get him thinking about how far behind you he is, they will hunt you down and blast right past you to do just the same to you in return.

It's definitely a team sport, and there's a lot of strategy involved. Last month's Outside magazine had a bunch of articles on the Tour and on Armstrong and his team. You can read a bunch of them online here:
http://outside.away.com/index.html

And please keep this car racing debate crap out of this thread. Seriously.

[maccool]

Fools! Lance can win without his team. I mean, he managed to snag Sheryl Crow without 6 spandex-clad dudes around him...I hope he did, at least.

Wow, I didn't know all that gear, Durf. I thought they only had enforcers in hockey. Are these 'enforcers' allowed to carry sticks for spoke-pokin' action? Seriously, I was confuzzled about the role of the cycling team. Cool beans though. I still don't care about cycling, but it's way interesting.

[BenDover]

Seems it's time for a revival here :)

As others have said, I doubt Lance could win the Tour de France without his team, but I still think he would be along the top 10 finalists. He's just incredibly good this year, and there hasn't really been any moment, where anyone has threatened his final no. 1 position.

Plus this year is this one I've seen, where he was least dependent of his team.

[AeroJonesy]

Well Durf wrapped it up pretty darn well. And yay for Lance winning today. I think Lance's work ethic is the real story. He has worked so incredibly hard to build up his strength, his heart rate, etc.

[piff]

How exactly do teams work in racing? Could someone give me an explaination on this?

[Kaysaar]

Lance has proven that he can win without a strong team. His team in 1999 was much much weaker then his team today and he had to carry much more of the load.

Also, if you look at how he does in the time trials and mountain stages when his team cannot keep up, he stills out preforms any other rider.

Lance is a tremendous athlete, but teams are a huge part of cycling, and I doubt that he could win with out them

[theBlackKnight]

*goes out and rides his bike knowing he will never be that gosu at riding a bike*

*comes back with a broken arm*

Damn, I dont remember how to ride a bike. . .
How much is his bike worth now :evil:

[SirKnightmare]

Don't know. Don't care. If it's not racing with 4 wheels and 700+ hp engines, then it's boring

NASCAR!!!!

[BenDover]

Well Durf wrapped it up pretty darn well. And yay for Lance winning today. I think Lance's work ethic is the real story. He has worked so incredibly hard to build up his strength, his heart rate, etc.

Indeed, but I'm still pretty sure that he, like most of the other riders, are taking performance increasing drugs. I've just kind of accepted it, since it seems to be part of the game, and probably has been for longer than I would like to know.



How exactly do teams work in racing? Could someone give me an explaination on this?

I think Durf's post gave a quite good picture of this.

[DurfBarian]

Here's a look at some of the rules of the race and some of the tactics needed to win:

http://outside.away.com/outside/features/200407/tour_de_france_rules.html

[Kaysaar]

Here's a quick rundown of what happens with team tactics in professional cycling.

Every team has a team leader, who is the best rider on the team and the one that they're all trying to get to win. Lance Armstrong, Jan Ulrich, Tyler Hamilton and Ivan Basso are a few examples of team leaders.

Then there are the domestiques They are the riders who defend their leader from attacks, and draft for him. For those who don't know, drafting is the art of riding directly in front of another rider so they don't have to work as hard. All the Domestiques rotate drafting in different stages to fit their riding style. They try to preserve their leaders legs for when he really needs them. The other roll of the domestiques is to make runs to the team cars for water, food, jackets etc.

Most team leaders appoint a lieutenant who rides similar to their style to help them when the other domestiques no longer can. Last year Lance had Roberto Heras. This year, he had Jose Azevedo.

Hope this helps

[Dirty_Zulu]

As posted in a link above, Lance's warmup routine before the ride seems like an intense ride for most of us. My body isn't even functioning at 5am.


How much would one of Lance's bike cost?

[DurfBarian]

It's yours for the low low price of $7,000!

http://www.trekbikes.com/bikes/2004/road/lance_madone59.jsp