If you watch the documentary, he rode like 3 days a week and kept his CrossFit workouts throughout. Seems like he trained maybe 4-5 months for it. It’s impressive to see a guy that’s 190 ripped do a big event like that.
To others, just because you have elite genetics for power lifting doesn’t mean you have elite endurance (vo2max, etc). Being able to clean and jerk 20 reps isn’t quite the same as holding a high wattage for 20mins. He is obv a super human in general tho. Im a fan of him from the CrossFit documentaries he put out years ago
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We know that.
The issue is Crossfit’s labeling themselves as “the fittest people on earth”.
I know, right?!
Well most endurance athletes can’t pick up the weight for 90% of the events.
Shaq had a TV show (“Shaq vs”) some time back where he played other sports. While the show was pretty goofy, Shaq can move for a big guy.
Hah, I hope you saw him actually play.
The dude wasnt exactly guard fast. But he was a freight train with real agility. 300+lbs and mobile as hell.
Oh yeah, he was a beast on the court. I was just impressed to see him jump in and swim/throw/whatever against legends in their own sports. Sure, he didn’t win many of the head-to-heads, but he didn’t make an arse of himself either.
Original CrossFit was a better ‘fittest on earth’ title if you ask me. If you watch the documentary and of the first CrossFit games, it’s more functional fitness oriented and less heavy weight. Today, you have to be a really powerful lifter plus do the functional stuff. It makes it so a different body build thrives (a much bigger person).
Who cares what the title is lol. Isn’t American baseball the ‘world series’? Does that bother you too? lol jk
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Yes. Yes it does. 
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Yea. You gotta believe when someone is 150 lbs heavier than the average guy, AND faster and more agile, there is just a comical amount of innate athleticism.
At elite level in many sports, no amount of training will get you there if you don’t have the right genetics. Now that can be a bit circular, in that response to training is also genetically determined. But point remains, you need to have the right genetics for your chosen sport.
We all know this. No amount of training will allow me to ride like Tadej, or sprint like Usain.
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100% agree with this. Even those that are genetically gifted, most of the time, still aren’t elite. Look at D1 college athletes. Clearly they’re genetically gifted, but a very large majority never go pro. Then you talk about the pro ranks, very few get to actually play or stay in whatever professional league they participate in. Elite is the 1% of the 1%.
Yea. Winning the genetic lottery is just the ticket for entry for initial try outs. You’ve still got to beat out the other 99% through training, learning, and consistency to have a real shot.
Or vice versa. Whatever, you’ve got to be 99th percentile in genetics, talent, AND effort to make it to pro ranks.
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Rich is almost tailor made for crit racing…
The Sausage King of Chicago.
Young Shaq (sub 300 lbs; LSU and Orlando) was entertaining to watch. Moved so quickly for a big man and some really athletic plays. Then he put on 50+ pounds and dominated in a different way with that drop step. Still sad Penny got injured and Shaq left. They could have had quite the run together
In one of those ‘pretend’ matchups it would have been wild to watch his two versions play against each other
I still need to watch, but hopefully they have his power profile. I would be curious to what watt/kg he averaged. Great accomplishment by him.
Amazing accomplishment for his size, but I feel like it takes a away from elite cyclists to say he could be there based on this one ride.
I just searched him on strava and this is the ride - https://www.strava.com/activities/9636112689/
He was either lighter than 190 or his power meter was off. His NP on the day of only 192. As a comparison, my NP on the day was 182 and I was about 167lbs on race day and I finished 8 minutes slower than Rich (with less stop time). I look a look at a couple of the climbing segments and he was climbing as fast as me on similar watts. He was actually 4 minutes faster than me up powerline on the exact same watts, but that one can look funny due to zeros while pushing (still surprised, there isn’t that much pushing). He sure looked 190+ on the video, but he’s only 5’9", so maybe closer to 175ish.
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I enjoyed watching the video,
What I Kept thinking while watching it, I wonder how he would do if he was self-supported?
For us average humans, we don’t have a team of five people waiting at every aid station to refill our packs and nutrition.
I’d have to bring all the nutrition I need for 100 miles unless the aid stations had stuff my stomach can handle. That’s the only major difference I see between him and us average folks is having a team. My team usually is me myself and I.
Not hating but congratulating his effort, I’m sure it wasn’t easy.
I’d say this is unusual for MTB 100s. I’ve raced many MTB 100s and in my experience most do not carry ALL their nutrition for the entire race. Particularly because MTB 100 have +/- 10,000 ft of climbing and that’s a lot of extra weight.
So you either have a pit crew, drop bags, or supplement with aid stations. YMMV.
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I would have to know exactly what the aid stations offer. I’m always over prepared and try to avoid stops at aid stations. I’ve never done Leadville and can’t speak from experience.
Are you saying you can dump your hydration pack at an aid station without anyone to pick it up? Do you go back later ? I’ve never done that because I wouldn’t want someone to steal or throw away my pack.