So I just read this article and started wondering how it possible to develop such a big engine so early:
415W for 65kg for 1h. Sure, in the realm of possible for w/kg, but still, doesn’t it take years to develop? I mean, he is still in his early twenties…
EDIT: So, according to this recent article Tadej opted out of using a power meter for stage 21. Note, my original post was not really about questioning the legitimacy of his victory, merely I wanted to understand how early stage development impacted his results, assuming he still had an off the couch sky high VO2 max.
I don’t want to start a huge debate but I am really struggling with my cynicism. The thing that has me feeling uneasy is his apparent lack of bad days. That to me was a clear differentiation when the Pro Tour was supposedly cleaned up a few years ago.
Can he develop an aerobic engine that big that young? Maybe. It’s unusual, but the very best athletes are unusual I guess.
I’m not saying anybody is or isn’t clean…but one of the true evils of performance enhancing drug use in sports is that the one in 10 million athlete who can do truly extraordinary things w/o PED can never, ever get tested enough to convince people he’s clean.
Someone in the TdF thread posted Tom did 430 on the climb. Tom is 3 kg heavier on Pro Stats website and whatever the bike weight difference is, maybe 1-2 kg. 6.38 (Tadej) vs 6.14ish (Tom) W/kg with body weight and (guessed 1 kg) bike weight difference.
Good point. But my skepticism is growing unfortunately. That’s why we need all pros to release power and HR data. Firstly, how many times do we think someone is doping because he destroys his rival, but the rivals power might be low. But we can’t see it. So blame the winner. Secondly, eventually we would have a big enough dataset to have a good idea what a 1 in a million athlete is capable of.
In this case tom dom is the perfect comparison that doesn’t bode well for pog.
Sure tom is slightly heavier, but pog did the climb a minute faster. To me that sounds like he’d have to do at least 430w. Tom also didn’t go through the bike switch motions, which is probably 15sec savings (of course not factoring in the climb).
I found it interesting that Roglic’s teammates have said he had a really good performance. Watching in real time he looked terrible and pale, but if that’s true that doesn’t help ease the suspicion.
To be fair he probably started at a very young age, I’m from the same part of the world and I started rowing at 8 years old, by 16 I had some decent aerobic adaptations.
Who would have access to the data? The UCI only? I could imagine how publicly releasing the data for a rider might give other team some competitive edge.