Pretty good listen on a variety of the usual topics (wider tires for gravel, training, etc.).
As part of the durability discussion, Dylan talks about a recent 20’ power test after 6 hours of riding and hitting a “tired” PR of 401w this year (compared to 414w at the start of the ride, also a PR for him). I’ve been doing these “tired 20” interval tests for a couple years and I find them to be a great metric for where my fitness stands. With Dylan probably weighing ~150lbs, being able to push 20’ at 5.7w/kg after 6 hours is getting into pretty rare air. I know the lifetime field is getting faster and deeper every year, should be interesting how Dylan does this year.
For all the goofing Dylan inflicts on himself with the 15th (or whatever) place, the guy has turned himself into a pretty legit bike racer over the past several years. Not that he wasn’t decent before, but almost cracking the top 10 overall last year as the series has gotten more competitive is pretty impressive (in my opinion). For a guy that many said only made the series because of his youtube presence, that’s not too bad. And it’s hard to deny that he’s been the driving force on multiple equipment trends. The addition of Little Sugar and elimination of a couple climbing/altitude events should work in his favor this year, so we’ll see.
I raced in the Hot Springs Gravel Gauntlet this past weekend. This is in Western NC. Dylan was there and lead the shake out ride and then won the race the next day. His finish time was 3:11:42 on a 75 Mile course with 7000ft of climbing. At the finish he showed absolutely no fatigue.
I think he’s quite good as a host. He prepares well, and the interview feels more like a conversation than a scripted series of questions. He does have a brutal Dublin accent however
3 hours for this guy is a cake walk. What did he say he did recently? A 20’ power test, endurance for another few hours, then retested at just 4% lower? I’m not surprised; this dude is in the best shape of his life from what I can tell. Looking forward to seeing how he does this year. Hopefully he has a breakout year.
I saw him commenting on that on the roadman podcast (it is around the 23’ minute mark if you want to watch it)
the first 20 minute test was 414W, the highest 20 minute power he’d ever seen and the second 20 minute test was 401W, which equalled the highest he’d ever seen in a fresh state up to that point.
He commented on his IG regarding that. He said he had, in terms of power, his best race ever, but everyone else was just faster. He averaged 317w np for 4.5hrs…that was good enough for 38th place.
