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Bike or Body?

I belong to a bike list where the members regularly discuss the pro’s and con’s of which new piece of fad super bike junk would be best to use in order to improve their performance in racing but never discuss training methods. In absolute frustration in listening to such drivel, I finally sent the following email:

“And once again, youngsters, we re-learn that the most important thing about bike racing of any kind is still "get thy butt in better shape" because the bike is really only about 5% of the race and the human is the rest. Train right, think right, and race right.

I can be riding the best bike in the world and a pro can still beat me on junk because I am out of shape. End of story.”

Amazingly, to this, some one suggested that one of the scientists or engineers on the site should calculate the difference two difference bikes would make and that was followed by some one sending a link to a site where you can actually calculate the difference a piece of equipment would make. Oh, wow, I got so excited!! Not!!!

Let’s use our brains and a little common sense. In the US, the average racing speed of a cat 4 racer on any bike will be about 18 to 20 mph. On the exact same bike, the average cat 3 rider will race at about 24 to 28 mph and the average US pro will race at about 30 to 35 mph with the average Euro pro racing at from 30 to over 35 mph.

Understanding that EVERY pro was at one time a cat 4 who raced at from 18 to 20 mph and would now race at 35 mph on the same bike, that is an increase in speed of at least 75% from fitness and development alone. I dare any one on this planet to increase the speed of ANY cat 4 by 75% by giving him a better piece of fad bike junk!!!

It should only be common sense that the human is more important than the bike and improving the human will do more good than improving the bike. Yet it absolutely amazes me that there are so many people who can’t see the obvious and will spend THOUSANDS of US dollars to gain a tiny fraction on performance but won’t spend $30 to purchase a book that will improve the performance of their body by much more.

Some times I question whether there is any common sense left on the planet but remind myself that all this is caused by the bike magazines over stressing the importance of racing equipment and under stressing the importance of proper training in order to sell magazines. I have come to the realization that most cyclists have been so brain washed into believing that the best and even only way to improve their performance is by purchasing better or at least more expensive fad bike junk.

I have never seen a champion made in a bike shop; they are always made on the road, one pedal stroke at a time.

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