I wouldn’t hold your breath… Seems like TT’s are more dead than road racing in the US. But I actually dusted off my TT bike recently and I’m thinking about doing the state championship in May before Unbound. I forgot how fast/fun a TT bike can be, but the position feels like a torture machine compared to my gravel bike. And I’m not sure I can go out in public wearing my old Javelin helmet. Still debating.
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I stopped watching Roadman due to the incredibly misleading captions and cover images. You can get the same content from more honest sources.
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Probably a combo of both. The rough surface means slower speeds, so the benefit of being in the draft is less. So don’t get as much savings as a result vs road.
I saw in Tadej Pogacar’s post race interview after Paris Roubaix, he said it’s the highest power output ever for him for a race of that length.
Same with that course - a combo of rough sectors, and small groups on the road means high sustained power output.
How about an ITT for one lap of the Sea Otter XL course on Thursday and the the gravel race on Sunday. Combined time wins with prize money for fastest MTB time trial.
Even with 1 minute gaps, it would be a huge time window (with wind/temp dramatically different across the field). The only way it could be somewhat fair is to do the TT after the gravel race and do TT start times based on gravel race result. But TT’s are such a logistical nightmare, can’t see it happening with a big event like that.
I agree here. I still listen to bits and pieces but can’t stand his titles and thumbnails. They often have absolutely nothing to do with the content or guest.
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His thumbnails are misleading. I had to do a double take the other day to figure who it was on the thumbnail……and it was Rodman with some enhanced AI clean up 
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Back in the day we used to get 150+ people at 40K TTs. Having a later start was a disadvantage, so you always tried to register early. Pros could start in their LT placing order. Everyone else would be by random draw.
I would certainly pay for a fun 50K-60K+ gravel course TT, even if I got hosed by a crappy start time.
Would really be something for tire debates.
The Fuego XL had over 600 participants this year. A very small field compared to many lifetime events, but still tough to pull off a TT. That would be over 10 hours, you could have some people potentially starting when it’s cool and no wind and some in the hottest part of the day. I guess if it’s just for kicks it would be fine, but some people are competitive and want somewhat of a level playing field. And as much as I personally enjoy a good TT, a lot of people do these races for the group racing aspect. Maybe a separate event rather than trying to link it with the XL.
And aerobars.
Did DJ ever address why he switched away from the Lauf fork? Seemed like it was very successful for him last year.
He said in the Just Ride Bikes video SO was smooth with a lot of tarmac so he didn’t want to run suspension. He will probably run it at Unbound.
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Agree.
Plus, even when drafting is viable, the terrain doesn’t favour being glued in the front wheel like on the road. At least I don’t do this. Especially if I don’t know the guy in front of me, even on the road, I know the ones I can ride 1mm and the ones I should give 1 meter.
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Need to see roadman x peter attia
They would both just interrupt each other over and over to tell stories about the good old days.
Peter is ridiculous but roadman might be even worse because he is far less accomplished than this top doctor.
example fictional conversation goes down like this roadman interviews peter sagan.
“so mr. sagan you won 3x worlds and the podium girls, they were really loving you”
“yeah so I win worlds and the podium girls union reach out to me for a lifetime contract to do all the champagne parties… but there was a clause in there where I had to come to every bikini beach party, so I did and then this one time, it was crazy see… the sunscreen applicator guy was sick so I had to…”
roadman : “Oh that reminds me of being a junior in belgium there were no windows in my house so I never saw the sun”
Peter : “I forgot what I was going to say”
Audience " gosh darn it roadman shhhhhh":
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I watched one about getting lean as a cyclist (i think that’s what it called), where he went on a rant about how a Cheetos-eating couch potato video gamer (his words) could barely be considered the same species as someone like Tadej Pogacar or MvdP, so if we’re talking about eating salmon, is a lazy, farm-raised salmon that doesn’t get any exercise as nutritious as a wild-caught salmon that spent its life active, fleeing predators, and being tough enough to survive? I have to give the nutritionist he was interviewing credit - she just kinda took a second, blinked, and said something like, “Yeah. They’re both good for you.”
Some of his stuff is interesting and worthwhile, but he’s laser-focused on himself, his own training, and his own experience. I’m always a little baffled at how he gets some of the interviews that he does. As far as I can tell, he was never particularly elite as a racer so I just don’t get the connections.
I have two thoughts on DJ’s results.
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Is running MTB tires really the best choice whe the race has 3 minute all out paved climb to start? Seeing Ted Kings video and him getting dropped while going between 600-900W is telling. Should they be optimizing more for these selections? 5-10% of rolling resistance is ALOT you think about these numbers. I get MTB tires are better off road, but the selection was done by the time the tires hit the dirt.
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DJ “seems” (from what i see on socials) to be much more polarized than someone like Alex Wild. Online you’ll hear Alex talk about these 4+ hour threshold sessions holding like 95% of FTP or something insane. He also seems to do more varied race efforts and repeats in his training. Is DJ just missing the snap to repeat 800W efforts for 2 minutes multiple times a race? In which the selections actually happen? Kinda like in Zwift where going from a winning Cat C to a winningcat B rider is all about having a big 2-5 min power and being able to repeat it. 20min matters, but 2-5 is far far more significant.
Saying this all from the perspective of a 9-5er with a very outside viewpoint. But IMO it seems like DJ would be fairly optimal for a TT gravel effort, but with the dynamics of racing he seems to miss the mark. Last thought, a ton of these guys live in Tucson or areas with fast group rides (the shootout for example) where at least once a week Keegan, Alexy and crowd, are absolutelly hammering together and really going tit for tat with each other and other pros. That has to carry some weight with pushing yourself, knowing what your competition is capable of, being comfortable in a high speed dynamic like that, ect.
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This is exactly what I’ve been wondering.
He might be but you can’t just manufacture this kind of fitness otherwise they would all do it. You could say the same thing about the whole pro peloton vs. MVDP and Pogacar. Those two can repeat those monster efforts over and over during a race and then jump back into riding near threshold afterwards. The rest of the peloton can only hold their wheels for so long before they get spat out the back trying to follow one of these efforts.
Any time i’m on the trainer, i’m watching cycling youtube. One thing is extremely obvious in this space - these guys spend their time riding bikes, not producing content. The few shows that actually put some production effort in and have quality video + EQ on audio is far and few, and Roadman does exactly that.
I think he just gathers an audience because the production quality is higher than the rest of what’s out there. That’s not saying much considering a lot of these podcasts are just shitty wifi zoom calls with out of sync audio uploaded in 720p.
Right be we arent talking DJ keeping up with MVDP and Pogi, or DJ even keeping up with Alexy and Keegan. More so not getting dropped on the first climb in the first 3 minutes of an event that you’ve literally been training for full time since October. (not saying I can do it) but if I were in his shoes I’d really be kicking myself over what I am doing wrong if I trained that much, had cycling as a full time gig and then dropped by alead group of 21 or so in the first 3 minutes… its not like it was a 1 man break with keegan.
Maybe he’s just not on that level? Maybe top 5 or 10 is the best he is ever going to do no matter what the training is? There are tons of pros in that position. Or, maybe he’ll just never have great 3 minute power compared to others and that race will never be his strength?
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