I thought that having muscle would give more endurance. That's what I like about Peter Sagan, he's looks like a healthy athlete, strong, not a skeleton riding a bike on a supermodel diet.
it's also a shift in the doping strategy from Armstrong's day of boosting power with EPO and blood to the modern era of cutting weight with β-agonist receptors (clenbuterol, salbutamol, fenoterol, albuterol, etc). End result is the same of raising power to weight ratio; just two different approaches
Love hearing stories like this. I love old school training and racing. I sure seem to enjoy the rides more knowing a snickers and a coke are waiting for me in the truck when I’m done. 😂😂
I’ve been thinking the same thing this year..... I’ve been following the tour and bike racing since 1977 and every day I watch the tour this year I think about how sickly and unfit most of the riders look... I remember seeing my first tour rider in person in the early 80’s and he looked like a picture in an encyclopedia of the muscle system with no body fat, an unbelievable specimen. The riders now look like nursing home patients that are ready to be put on hospice.... Something really bad is going on behind the scenes here, Greg Lemond didn’t look like that and these guys aren’t riding his times now... Sagan is one of the few that looks healthy along with the Colombian climber but the majority don’t look like they’re going to live very long lives... What’s up with this Bob, do you think there’s more to this story, the peloton looks like a group of heroin addicts...
Interesting, but would have been interesting to get a breakdown of the specific kinds of foods you ate then and the kind they eat now (pre race, during the race and after the race). How about an update, Bobke?
Video Request: I am curious about Old School vs New School racers. You said you couldn't have been a pro these days because they get so thin; so I guess that means racers weren't as fast in the 80s as racers are today because their STW is worse? I would like to hear your thoughts on what would happen in the Tour de France if you plucked certain vintage racers from the various decades out of their primes and put them all on the same modern bikes. Include the 90s and 00s when there was doping. Is it the same for the women, or have they improved more than the men? Make the comparisons for all the modern age and sex divisions with the Pros from the various decades if you want to elaborate. It seems Jacque Anquetil wouldn't have been so good against modern racers if he smoked cigarettes, and Bernard Hinault looked muscular for a modern climber. The times up L'alpe Duez was slower then: 48 minutes for Hinault and Lemond in '86. When Pantani was on EPO in '96 he did it in 36:40. Fausto Coppi '42 42:30. Lance Armstrong TT 37:36 in '01. Emma Pooley's Strava is 50:02. What do you think your time was? How would Marriane Vos do against the inaugural 1903 Tour de France racers if they were to race it today on modern bikes? How would Eddie Merckx do against todays racers?
An interesting stat would be the ratio between the number of fracture injuries and crashes. Modern cycling with larger teams and fitter athletes might be causing more crashes
Based on your comparison. I would think leaning more towards durability instead of supreme lite weight would make more since considering today's pay scale
I ride a pretty intense Pace most every day except for Monday in the mornings I either eat oatmeal with fruit or bacon eggs sausage and lots of potatoes, my lunch is usually a heavy fat salad with blue cheese tons of croutons my dinner usually is a microwave meal with one can of peas in between then I eat sugar-free popsicles and a couple cranberry energy bars which are 130 calories each
I went from the total Bobke diet to a completely different way of living. I was bacon, sausage, ground elk, bison tritips, cheese. Oh man it was tasty. And being slightly older it finally caught up with me. Fatigue, stiffness, all kinds of issues. I scrambled over a period of many years trying to find the solution, making big mistakes along the way (ie, Paleo). I've discovered the true homo sapiens diet. We're tropical primates, and it's no surprise we eat fruit. I'm all fruit, and all of my illnesses, including knee tendonitis vanished almost as soon as I changed. People don't like hearing this, I've found.
I slowly switched to almost completely vegan diet. I eat as much as I want, almost non stop at times and have lost 10 pounds...and I was already skinny.
It's weird to think of how the new generation of cyclists eat. I guess when your a clean rider (as I assume most riders are now a days) it takes severe caloric restriction to win or I guess even stay a pro. Sad really. You have a gift and a great channel, keep it up.
possible why a lot of the riders both pro and am are turning Vegan or at least cutting a lot of animal products out.. I have cycled a ton the last few years all over the world and I am always amazed at how much food the Vegan guys and girls eat yet stay stick thin whilst maintaining quality conditioning. Lots of Rice, potato pasta Vegan Pizza etc etc. I think in a generation you will see even more who have converted over for the very fact they do not have to starve themselves to maintain weight..
I always wondered what was going on, comparing the racers today, to racers past; now it makes sense. In a way it's too bad, almost a professionally endorsed form of anorexia!
Rixter well, everyone is different.. some of the riders are naturally very svelte and diminutive human beings, and they're physique after training the way the pros do gets even leaner and they look really world class. A lot of the sprinters are bigger guys who have more athletic, but clearly larger frames and they don't look as insanely thin...so I mean there's guys that look like Marcel Kittel and Andre Greipel and then there's guys that look like Roman Bardet, Lochlan Norris and Joe Dombrowski. Essentially some of them are likely eating next to nothing and others are getting 6,000 cals a day... everyone's metabolism is a lil different...
Thanks for the truth about the cyclists' diet. I find it so disgusting that I'm no longer a fan of the Tour. I'm signing off. I know I late to this knowledge and I have to live with that. If an athlete can't be a model to young kids then there's something wrong with the sport's rules. Somehow the Tour needs to figure out how to determine a minimum healthy weight no matter the size and shape of someone. For me I can only see now a race of bikers who look like holocaust survivors. I can't cheer for anyone racing like that.
I am old school and love hearing about your pro rider days. We love watching you during the tour. Great job.
I thought that having muscle would give more endurance. That's what I like about Peter Sagan, he's looks like a healthy athlete, strong, not a skeleton riding a bike on a supermodel diet.
Your picture on the cobblestones got me bike riding. For that I thank you.
it's also a shift in the doping strategy from Armstrong's day of boosting power with EPO and blood to the modern era of cutting weight with β-agonist receptors (clenbuterol, salbutamol, fenoterol, albuterol, etc). End result is the same of raising power to weight ratio; just two different approaches
Love hearing stories like this. I love old school training and racing. I sure seem to enjoy the rides more knowing a snickers and a coke are waiting for me in the truck when I’m done. 😂😂
Great contest Bobke! You just earned another subscriber.
Nothing better than that 7 Eleven Big 'Un, snickers and cherry slurpee in those musettes...Oh thank heaven, for 7 Eleven!!!
🌭🍕🍔
Big props for using the proper term ‘judo players’. I wouldn’t expect him to know that.
Great and funny vid. Can totally relate to your attitude to enjoy a giod meal after a hard bike ride
Bobke your the man can’t wait to see your TDF coverage with Phil let’s hope it’s not delayed again. I’m calling 2 stage wins for Thomas Degent
I’ve been thinking the same thing this year..... I’ve been following the tour and bike racing since 1977 and every day I watch the tour this year I think about how sickly and unfit most of the riders look... I remember seeing my first tour rider in person in the early 80’s and he looked like a picture in an encyclopedia of the muscle system with no body fat, an unbelievable specimen. The riders now look like nursing home patients that are ready to be put on hospice.... Something really bad is going on behind the scenes here, Greg Lemond didn’t look like that and these guys aren’t riding his times now... Sagan is one of the few that looks healthy along with the Colombian climber but the majority don’t look like they’re going to live very long lives... What’s up with this Bob, do you think there’s more to this story, the peloton looks like a group of heroin addicts...
Not wrong about this
Drugs abuse
Great insights, Bobke.
Interesting, but would have been interesting to get a breakdown of the specific kinds of foods you ate then and the kind they eat now (pre race, during the race and after the race). How about an update, Bobke?
Video Request: I am curious about Old School vs New School racers. You said you couldn't have been a pro these days because they get so thin; so I guess that means racers weren't as fast in the 80s as racers are today because their STW is worse? I would like to hear your thoughts on what would happen in the Tour de France if you plucked certain vintage racers from the various decades out of their primes and put them all on the same modern bikes. Include the 90s and 00s when there was doping. Is it the same for the women, or have they improved more than the men? Make the comparisons for all the modern age and sex divisions with the Pros from the various decades if you want to elaborate. It seems Jacque Anquetil wouldn't have been so good against modern racers if he smoked cigarettes, and Bernard Hinault looked muscular for a modern climber. The times up L'alpe Duez was slower then: 48 minutes for Hinault and Lemond in '86. When Pantani was on EPO in '96 he did it in 36:40. Fausto Coppi '42 42:30. Lance Armstrong TT 37:36 in '01. Emma Pooley's Strava is 50:02. What do you think your time was? How would Marriane Vos do against the inaugural 1903 Tour de France racers if they were to race it today on modern bikes? How would Eddie Merckx do against todays racers?
An interesting stat would be the ratio between the number of fracture injuries and crashes. Modern cycling with larger teams and fitter athletes might be causing more crashes
Love your channel, short posts are great. =)
Good stuff!! Still on the see food diet myself!!
Great point about diet and broken bones. Wanted your take on supplements like Boost to get more protein and nutrients.
awesome stuff
Good video. Could you do a future old school vs today on tech like the use of power meters especially during a race?
I'll be old school for ever! Thank you Bob for shered real cyclists!
No wonder Wiggo was so grumpy!
Yesterday's climbers look like today's sprinters and yesterday's sprinters almost look like body builders compared to today's sprinters.
Greyhounds on bikes.
Very interesting!
Same here, love My meals!
Bobke, what do you like to eat on the bike during long rides? Thanks!
+fattire84 that is coming soon, thanks for watching
fattire84 bananas and PB&J all the way.
Ham sandwiches if Lemond's book was accurate
Based on your comparison. I would think leaning more towards durability instead of supreme lite weight would make more since considering today's pay scale
I ride a pretty intense Pace most every day except for Monday in the mornings I either eat oatmeal with fruit or bacon eggs sausage and lots of potatoes, my lunch is usually a heavy fat salad with blue cheese tons of croutons my dinner usually is a microwave meal with one can of peas in between then I eat sugar-free popsicles and a couple cranberry energy bars which are 130 calories each
...and?
Brian Cartoscelli my favourite colour is red.
Wow. Good to know dude👍
I went from the total Bobke diet to a completely different way of living. I was bacon, sausage, ground elk, bison tritips, cheese. Oh man it was tasty. And being slightly older it finally caught up with me. Fatigue, stiffness, all kinds of issues. I scrambled over a period of many years trying to find the solution, making big mistakes along the way (ie, Paleo). I've discovered the true homo sapiens diet. We're tropical primates, and it's no surprise we eat fruit. I'm all fruit, and all of my illnesses, including knee tendonitis vanished almost as soon as I changed. People don't like hearing this, I've found.
How will today's diet affect these riders latter ini life?
Craig Spencer”What diet, burp”
The Tour riders used to take diet pills as well back in the 90s
I hear that brother! Old school is the best. Science ruins everything!
interesting about the difference in broken bones.
I just had it down to the speed had increased
I slowly switched to almost completely vegan diet. I eat as much as I want, almost non stop at times and have lost 10 pounds...and I was already skinny.
Plant based diet is the way to go for me.
Train like a dog, eat like a bird. I'm out.
"Medium Rick" Birds consume upwards of 5 times their body weight every day.... I'm in.
It's weird to think of how the new generation of cyclists eat. I guess when your a clean rider (as I assume most riders are now a days) it takes severe caloric restriction to win or I guess even stay a pro. Sad really. You have a gift and a great channel, keep it up.
possible why a lot of the riders both pro and am are turning Vegan or at least cutting a lot of animal products out.. I have cycled a ton the last few years all over the world and I am always amazed at how much food the Vegan guys and girls eat yet stay stick thin whilst maintaining quality conditioning. Lots of Rice, potato pasta Vegan Pizza etc etc. I think in a generation you will see even more who have converted over for the very fact they do not have to starve themselves to maintain weight..
Good luck WeNeedIt or maybe vegans eat so much is because 15 minutes after eating a vegan meal you're hungry again.
Interesting theory any source for that???, if anything a High carb Vegan diet means you are never starved, esp if you are a athlete.
bobbi , please change the intro bro, that t.v. crashing always startles me man !!
I reckon you would have been alright with todays pack.
ice cream wont do any harm
Thanks BoB
I ride to eat. Paradoxically, the more I ride, the more my body rther than my taste buds dictate what I put in.
0:57 tell that guy to ride with his shirt off. Good heavens man!!! Looks like a cancer patient.
I always wondered what was going on, comparing the racers today, to racers past; now it makes sense. In a way it's too bad, almost a professionally endorsed form of anorexia!
Man , those pictures of the modern riders look like they ride for ‘Team Concentration Camp’.
Yikes , scary!
Seems as though the modern diet also sucks charisma from the riders.
Very interesting. I thought the pro riders are so skinny simply due to logging massive miles
Rixter well, everyone is different.. some of the riders are naturally very svelte and diminutive human beings, and they're physique after training the way the pros do gets even leaner and they look really world class. A lot of the sprinters are bigger guys who have more athletic, but clearly larger frames and they don't look as insanely thin...so I mean there's guys that look like Marcel Kittel and Andre Greipel and then there's guys that look like Roman Bardet, Lochlan Norris and Joe Dombrowski. Essentially some of them are likely eating next to nothing and others are getting 6,000 cals a day... everyone's metabolism is a lil different...
The guys, today, look like hell.
Thanks for the truth about the cyclists' diet. I find it so disgusting that I'm no longer a fan of the Tour. I'm signing off. I know I late to this knowledge and I have to live with that. If an athlete can't be a model to young kids then there's something wrong with the sport's rules. Somehow the Tour needs to figure out how to determine a minimum healthy weight no matter the size and shape of someone. For me I can only see now a race of bikers who look like holocaust survivors. I can't cheer for anyone racing like that.
Malnourished riders?
copy #zsozeatya