I have no affiliation with this young man at all, but feel he has great potential. His power numbers are some of the best I’ve ever seen. Period. He’s absolutely capable of winning classics etc. Yes, I’m very aware power numbers don’t win races, but he’s already succeeding.
He’s a sprinter with a very strong aerobic engine, his 1min power is truly next level. In fact it matches or beats MVDP’s best numbers. His short sprint is about level with Caleb Ewan.
To give you an idea…
10 minute Power 446 watts (5.93w/kg) - 2020
3 minute Power 614 watts (8.19w/kg) - 2020
1 minute Power 952 watts (12.69w/kg) - 2020
10 second Power 1560 watts (20.21w/kg) - 2021
5 second Power 1619 watts (21.59w/kg) - 2020
With a little help he’ll reach the world tour soon. The derailed U23 2020 covid season has really made it hard for young athletes.
He also makes some great YouTube videos.
Anyway, @Nate_Pearson check him out, I think a TrainerRoad sponsorship of this young man would be mutually beneficial for both parties.
When he wins Paris Roubaix in the coming years, you can come back and thumbs up my post
New one for me! Stopped paying attention to Zwifter videos because… well boring compared to the ton of other content out there vying for my attention every day but this I watched a lot of!
He’s watchable and got big numbers. What’s his history with Zwift Academy? Surely he’s entered before…
I don’t think he’s really that interested in Zwift etc, he’s just using it to get noticed.
He missed out on a year of race results as most of the international U23 events were cancelled last year, especially in the UK. He’s come to the sport late so needed those results for a World Tour team to grab him.
It would be a shame for such a talent to miss out on his chance because of Covid. On paper and in the world of power metrics, he’s got incredible potential.
Last summer he smashed the KoM for one the most hotly contested popular local power climbs - taking a significant chunk of time off the previous best. The top 10 on that KoM is a who’s who of local talent, some seriously big hitters. Average power of 608w for nearly 3 minutes. Insane W/Kg.
That’s not pitiful my man, not at all. Pitiful is not getting off the sofa.
I’m starting to think World Tour teams are pretty bad at talent scouting. I get that race results matter etc, but when athletes are making near world record power metrics…
It seems they’re very much stuck in the conventional progression pattern. I think in future this will have to change to some degree.
It took me all of 1min to notice that this young man is beyond legit.
Re the WorldTour teams and their talent scouting, I’m not sure they’re missing a trick. There’s a whole bunch of different teams out there and a whole bunch of different routes to get to the WorldTour. There’s WorldTour riders who have come up through national academies, through MTB or cyclocross backgrounds, through track programmes, or simply through racing their way up via the Conti and Pro Conti scene. Or in the case of Chris Froome coming from a country (Kenya) with practically no cycling structure, impersonating his national federation’s president in order to go to the U23 World Champs and then getting noticed from there! I don’t think there’s a conventional progression pattern at all. And there’s a lot more to being able to make it as a WorldTour rider than power PRs. Handling, positioning, tactics (can all be learnt to some extent), the mental resilience to handle all the travel and racing, and the physiological attributes needed to produce those power numbers when they’re actually needed at the end of a race and to race week in, week out. Lots of hugely talented riders who haven’t made it over the years. Right up to guys like Chris Boardman who clearly had world class 4 to 60 minute power but lacked the recovery ability to make it count in road racing (didn’t help that half the peloton were using artificially enhanced recovery at the time…). Or Peter Kennaugh who looked like following the Wiggins/Thomas model of going from Olympic track champion to successful road racer but struggled with depression.
I guess only time will tell whether Red can make it. It’s maybe not a great sign that he’s already done the hard bit of getting noticed and making it onto a Conti team but then doesn’t seem to have shown enough potential to convince Vitus to give him some decent racing opportunities or to extend his contract . Flip side is he’s still young, hasn’t been cycling that long, and there’s a host of potential explanations for why he struggled that year whether from personal difficulties, injury/illness/overtraining, not having the right support, etc. Hopefully he’ll prosper at CC Plancoet.
